Calista Flockhart is an award-winning American television actress born on November 11, in Freeport, Illinois. The daughter of a Kraft Foods business executive and an English teacher, due to the busy nature of her father's work, her family often moved around as she was growing up. She has lived in Minnesota, upstate New York, and New Jersey. After studying at Shawnee High School and Rutgers University, she went on to pursue a career in acting, appearing in shows such The
Guiding Light and Brothers and Sisters. She has also acted in several films, among them Naked in New York and Quiz Show.
Ally McBeal is the titular protagonist played by Calista Flockhart in the Emmy Award-winning television series Ally McBeal. She is a lawyer who is based in Boston, and who is constantly on the look out for her soul mate, being a romantic who believes in true love. She also often seems to suffer from hallucinations and hears songs playing in her head, usually in relation to something currently happening to her. One of her most common visions is of a dancing baby, which stems from her belief that her biological clock is running out of time. She meets and goes through a string of relationships with numerous men throughout the series.
(Photo courtesy of Matthew Ralston)