From Birth To Stardom

Chyler Leigh Potts wasnot even born when Duran Duran released Rio, but that's not going to stop this youngster, who's stared in Not Another Teen Movie and the hit Fox series That '80s Show, from conquering the decade that spawned Pac-Man, Pop Rocks and Cindy Lauper.

Chyler was born on April 10, 1982 in Charlotte, North Carolina. At age 2 her family moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia She attended Trantwood Elementary and Great Neck Middle School. Ten years later her parents divorced and her mother moved Chyler and her brother Christopher to Miami, Florida, while her father chose to stay in Virginia.

In her new found home, Miami, Chyler attended Nautilus Middle School and an unknown High School before dropping out to persue her acting career. She joined up with a private acting coach Sharon Lane and was soon represented by Lane Management. Very soon, due to her great looks and dedication, she picked up numerous modeling jobs and commericals. The most memorable being for the world reknown beverage corporation Coca-Cola and then the hamburger restaurant Wendy's.

1996 lead to her first big break in the offering of a co-hosting spot on a syndicated talk show called "Hall Pass" which lasted for two years and finally closed in 1996.

During the start of 1999, Chyler auditioned and won a role on the WB series called "Safe Harbor". Little did she know but her brother, Christopher Lee, additioned and won the role for her opposite co-star. this may seem like a dream come true but the unwittingly producers cast the siblings in the roles of teenage love birds! This was easy enogh to do as both Chyler and Christopher refrain from using there last name professionally and they were both at the time living in seperate citys. Once the the network executives found out: "They were like, 'Oh shit, now we have to rewrite everything,'" Leigh says laughing. "My brother had been living in Los Angeles, and I was in Miami, when we auditioned for the show. It was weird." This dashed any hopes of getting the two characters together and their parts and hour long show only aired from September 1999 - November 1999.

Following the imiment flop of "Safe Harbor", Chyler became more popular and landed two lead roles in the pilot episode series of "Saving Graces" and "Wilder Days". Living up to her past success both series were rejected and not picked up by a network and both series were over. Somewhere along the way after this she moved to Los Angeles and also switched management to The Gersh Agency.

chyler managed to advance her career further by being cast with guest spots on the short lived M.Y.O.B, and the WB's top rated series "7th Heaven". "7th Heaven" was the movie where Chyler first met her finace, actor Nathan West, as they costarred as troubled teen parents Frankie & Johnny. In this show the pair had to overcome various obstacles like being alienated from their own parents for having a child so young, drugs, alcohol, and spousal abuse. The story ended withthe unusual twist when Frankie (Chyler) leaved her child with Johnny (Nathan) and took off to Vegas with her drug dealer.

Chyler finaly got here biggest break yet in the the lead role, The Pretty Ugly Girl - Janey Briggs, in the highly rated takeoff movie "Not Another Teen Movie". Chyler originally auditioned for the small role as "Amanda Becker - The Perfect Girl" but secretly wanted the more indepth character that she finally was casted at. However, she says "My manager told me, 'Don't get your hopes up, they're probably going to want someone with a bigger name than you.' So I went in and the director looked at me and goes, 'You know what? I want to give you Janey.'"

She followed the previous movies success and was casted in the lead role of Tuesday (rebel punk rock chick), on the the Fox spinoff series "That 80's Show". Once again she auditioned for a different role ("Sophia") but when executive producer Terry Turner met Leigh, he had an inspiration - "We had her read for the part of Tuesday. After the audition, we said, 'Wow!' She's perfect.' "

The only surprise for Chyler was that she was going to be sporting a mohawk for the series. "It's a pretty painful process. They color it -- make it darker -- and then they basically tease it at the bottom and put about 9 pounds of hair spray on it. I have to keep the hair short enough so it doesn't fall over when they spike it up." And did the new 'do stay? "She'll be spiked in every show," said Turner. The end finally came for the series when Fox pulled the plug after the original 13 episodes aired.

Chyler wsigned on to star in the new David E. Kelley series "Girls Club" the same day her other series was cancelled and won the part of Sarah Mickle (one of the three main characters). Fox let Mr. Kelley loot the cast of "That 80's Show" as both Chyler and Eddie Shin stared in the new show.

Girls club is a series about lawyers. However, this one is nothing like Ally McBeal. The other characters included Gretchen Mol and Kathleen Robertson who work well as Chylers young lawyer counterparts. The meat of the show lies in the relationships between the characters: love/hate relationships, "real" people, and the idea that neat and tidy endings are rarely possible. Much like "Boston Public".

After two airings however, Fox has returned its verdict on its legal drama "Girls Club," and the news was not good as thhe network canceled the heavily promoted show after it posted a significant decline from its already weak premiere episode.

That first showing finished fifth in its time slot, according to Nielsen Media Research, and was 82nd for the week out of 131 total rated programs.

The second episode was down 16 percent in total viewers from the first show and down 16 percent in the ratings among audiences aged 18 to 49, a key demographic for advertisers.

The show was dogged by negative reviews and largely failed to draw young women, its target audience.

With no new roles being shown it may look gloomy for a while but with her great looks, dedication and acting ability it's obvious that we will be hearing lots more out of Chyler Leigh over the next few years!