Christina Applegate

Having spent nearly her entire life in front of the camera, it was hard to narrow down Christina Applegate's career to a single defining role. Born in Los Angeles, California to an actor mother and a music producer father, Applegate made her first acting appearance on an episode of "Days of Our Lives" (NBC, 1965-) when she was only three months old. She made her film debut at age nine in "Jaws of Satan" (1981), and was soon making regular guest appearances on TV staples like "Charles in Charge" (CBS/syndication, 1984-1990) and "Silver Spoons" (NBC, 1982-87). Undoubtedly however, Applegate's first big break came when she was cast as the teenage Kelly Bundy on the sitcom "Married...with Children" (Fox, 1987-1997), a show considered revolutionary for its decidedly non-idealized portrait of suburban family life. Applegate capitalized on her new fame with a starring role in the cult favorite "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead" (1991), but mainly kept focus on one major project at a time. After "Married...with Children" wrapped in 1997, Applegate became the star of her own series, the sitcom "Jesse" (NBC, 1998-2000), and later starred alongside Will Ferrell in the hugely beloved comedy "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" (2004). A trained dancer since childhood, Applegate made her Broadway debut around this same time, starring in a 2005 revival of "Sweet Charity." She starred as an amnesiac on the series "Samantha Who?" (ABC, 2007-09) and as a working mom on the show "Up All Night" (NBC, 2011-2012), before re-teaming with Will Ferrell for "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues" (2013). Applegate's next wildly popular franchise would prove to be the ensemble comedy "Bad Moms" (2016), when she followed the film with the equally popular "A Bad Moms Christmas" (2017) just a year later. In 2019, Applegate began starring on a new series, this time playing a newly widowed mother on the dark comedy "Dead to Me" (Netflix, 2019-).