This seldom-seen actress looked unrecognizable when she was pictured out in this week in photos obtained by the Daily Mail.
Showbiz
Guess This Unrecognizable 90s TV Star!
This seldom-seen actress looked unrecognizable when she was pictured out in Los Angeles this week in photos obtained by the Daily Mail.Though she has a diverse ...
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Though she has a diverse set of credits, she's best known for her connection to two other popular stars.
This actress's biggest role was in a cult-classic teen drama in the 1990s that starred a young , 47, and , 54.
The show was a hit with critics and even won high-profile awards, but it was canceled after just a single season.
In addition to that enduringly popular series – which had a amid the pandemic – this actress has also starred in multiple films.
Can you guess who this '90s TV star is?
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This seldom-seen actress looked unrecognizable when she was pictured out in Los Angeles this week in photos obtained by the Daily Mail
This actress's biggest role was in a cult-classic teen drama in the 1990s that starred a young Claire Danes, 47, and Jared Leto, 54. Can you guess who she is?
She's Devon Odessa, one of the stars of the beloved series My So-Called Life.
The 52-year-old actress was pictured running errands in Los Angeles earlier this week.
Jared Leto (top left) was the other big breakout star of My So-Called Life.
The show was nominated for Emmys for Danes' acting, as well as for outstanding direction, writing and main title theme music at the 1995 Emmys, and Danes won the award for best actress in a television series drama at the Golden Globes.
The show was also honored for its depiction of gay characters at the GLAAD Media Awards, where it won outstanding drama series, and it earned three honors at the 1994 Young Artist Awards.
In Elle's oral history, Odessa revealed that she originally wanted to audition for the role of Angela's edgier new friend, who struggles with an addiction to alcohol.
'I always played the naughty girl. So I went in for Rayanne… and then they handed me the sides for Sharon,' Odessa said.
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She also noted that the teen cast looked radically different at the beginning of the one-season series compared to the end of it because there were long breaks between the pilot and the next six episodes, as well as a sizable pause before filming the remainder of the season while the cast and crew waited for ABC to order the final episodes.
In a 2022 oral history of My So-Called Life published in Elle , Odessa revealed that a storyline about her body-image issues was inspired by her own insecurities as a teen about the size of her breasts
'I was 19 when I booked the show, and we wrapped when I was 21. That's why we all look so different [by the end],' she explained, adding that she had time to shoot an entire season of another show in 1993 while waiting for shooting to finish on My So-Called Life, which premiered in the summer of 1994.
Looking back on the series, Odessa joked that My So-Called Life managed to worm its way into the consciousness of its viewers.
'Everyone I meet thinks they went to high school with me. It's really funny,' she said.
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Odessa – who was born in West Virginia and later lived in New Orleans before settling in LA – had already had a varied career before My So-Called Life, including guest appearances on Highway To Heaven, The Facts Of Life and Small Wonder in the '80s, as well as a role in the cult 1988 horror film Pumpkinhead.
She later had guest parts on Full House and The Wonder Years.
After My So-Called Life was canceled, she appeared in Gregg Araki's acclaimed teen satire Nowhere (1997) and had numerous guest roles on TV and parts in low-budget films.
Odessa's work on film and television slowed down in recent years.
After appearing on a 2011 episode of Private Practice, she wasn't credited again until appearing in a 2018 short film, and her next — and most recent — role was in the 2024 film Shark Girl.
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