Born on December 19, 1969, Kristen Noel Swanson is an American actress hailing from Mission Viejo, California. Her first acting job was at age nine, when she appeared in a commercial for a dollhouse. When she was 13, she gave up regular schooling to focus on an acting career.
Kristy Swanson went on to make several TV appearances in series such as Cagney and Lacey and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. She was also in 1986’s Pretty in Pink and in TV movies Miracle of the Heart: A Boys Town Story and Mr. Boogedy. She also appeared in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off that year, with Charlie Sheen. Swanson’s first starring role was in Wes Craven’s Deadly Friend as Samantha Pringle. In 1987, she appeared in the adaptation of V.C. Andrews’ best-selling novel Flowers in the Attic. She continued to be cast in several TV shows, some of them being Knots Landing, B.L. Stryker and Nightingales.
During the 1990s, she was given the role of Sue Halloran in the romantic comedy Dream Trap and as Terry Hopkins in Diving In. In 1991 she had a role in Mannequin: The Movie and the next year, in Highway to Hell. She is best known for playing the title role of Buffy in Joss Whedon’s 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She continued her movie appearances in 1993’s The Chili Con Carne Club and The Program. In 1996, she played Diana Palmer in The Phantom, and had the lead role in the 1997 crime-comedy 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag.
Kristy Swanson had several appearances in the 1998-1999 season of Early Edition, playing the main character’s love interest, Erica Paget. In 1991, she co-starred with Adam Sandler in Big Daddy. She has also been in episodes of Grapevine and was Christie Boner in the 2000 comedy Dude, Where’s My Car?
In November 2002, Swanson posed nude in Playboy magazine. She has also appeared and won the FOX television program Skating With Celebrities, with Lloyd Eisler as her partner. Swanson was also in NBC’s Law and Order: Criminal Intent, and in 2008, she guest-starred in the lesbian series 3Way.