Christina Ricci Photos

Christina Ricci

Christina Ricci was born February 12, 1980, in Santa Monica, California, to parents Ralph and Sarah Ricci. After her parents decided to relocate to Montclair, New Jersey, Christina — otherwise known as the family clown — was raised in the East Coast.

The only sign of acting that Christina showed at a young age was her ability to entertain her siblings (Rafael and Dante). But once she was cast in an elementary school pageant, a movie critic who was in the audience encouraged her parents to get her an agent.

mermaid makes a splash

In 1990, Christina was cast in Mermaids, as Cher’s daughter and Winona Ryder’s sister — quite an accomplishment for her acting debut. Her maturity led her to become friends with Cher and Johnny Depp (Winona’s guy at the time), who has since shared the screen with Christina several times.

After a role in 1991’s The Hard Way, Christina was cast in what would become her most defining role to date — as morbid and dark Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family. Ironically, not long after Addams Family Values was released in 1993, Christina’s parents, a former primal scream therapist and lawyer, and a nursery-school teacher and real estate agent, filed for divorce.

At this point, bored with regular school and looking for more interesting things to keep her busy, Christina appeared in The Cemetery Club and Now and Then, and starred in Casper. She continued her education by studying with a tutor and going to the Professional Children’s School with Macaulay Culkin.

While Macaulay headed towards a life of tabloids, Christina was destined for more. In 1997, she appeared in The Last of the High Kings and starred in That Darn Cat, but it was her role in The Ice Storm, alongside Katie Holmes, that transformed her from kid actress to sexual species.

opposite of innocence

Then, with roles in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (again with Johnny Depp) and the twisted comedy The Opposite of Sex, her core audience and fans were sure to change drastically (especially in the latter, where she played a deviant adolescent who tries to seduce her uncle’s boyfriend).

Treading along the Indie circuit, Christina joined a star-studded cast of Courtney Love, Kate Hudson and Ben Affleck, for 200 Cigarettes, and finally teamed up with Johnny Depp to star in the impressive Sleepy Hollow. She co-starred with Kim Basinger for the summer 2000 dud, Bless The Child, and starred in the smaller (but again, star-filled) The Man Who Cried, and Prozac Nation, in which she appears nude.

She may have lost out to fellow child actor Kirsten Dunst for parts in Little Women and Interview With The Vampire, and Dominique Swain for Lolita, but Christina has quite an impressive award roster to her name such as: 2 YoungStar Awards for Young Actress in a Comedy Film (for Casper and The Opposite of Sex), the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress (Buffalo 66, The Opposite of Sex and Pecker), and a Golden Satellite Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy (The Opposite of Sex).

all grown up

Shunning Hollywood life and preferring to live in New York, Christina (proud owner of a Porsche Boxster) is a child actress with the maturity to make her live to classic actress status.

Keeping busy in front of the camera, Christina also has her own production company, responsible for Prozac Nation, and the upcoming Pumpkin and Adrenalin.