Keri Russell

Keri Lynn Russell was born on March 23, 1976, in Fountain Valley, California, to Stephanie Stephens, a homemaker, and David Russell, an executive at Nissan Motors. She has an older brother and a younger sister. Because of her father's career, the family relocated frequently, living at various points in Coppell, Texas; Mesa, Arizona; and Highlands Ranch, Colorado. Russell trained as a dancer during her middle and high school years, a background that contributed directly to her being cast on Disney Channel's The All New Mickey Mouse Club, which she joined at age 15 and appeared on from 1991 to 1994, covering the show's fourth through sixth seasons. Her first film credit came in 1992 with Honey, I Blew Up the Kid. The following year she had a minor role on Boy Meets World as Mr. Feeny's niece, and in 1995 she appeared in an episode of Married... with Children. Additional early credits included the 1996 television film The Babysitter's Seduction and a role on the short-lived soap opera Malibu Shores that same year. In 1994, she appeared in Bon Jovi's music video for "Always," and in 1997 she had roles in two episodes of Roar.

Russell's rise to prominence came with the WB Network drama series Felicity, in which she played the title character from 1998 to 2002. The role earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series in 1999. During the run of Felicity, she appeared in the limited-release films Eight Days a Week, The Curve, and Mad About Mambo. Her next major film role was in We Were Soldiers (2002), in which she played the wife of a United States serviceman during the Vietnam War.

After Felicity concluded, Russell relocated to New York City and made her off-Broadway stage debut in Neil LaBute's Fat Pig in 2004, continuing in the production into 2005. She returned to screen work in 2005 with the Hallmark Hall of Fame television film The Magic of Ordinary Days, the theatrical film The Upside of Anger, and the miniseries Into the West. That year, director J. J. Abrams cast her in Mission: Impossible III. In 2007, she starred in Waitress, and also completed roles in Grimm Love, The Girl in the Park, and August Rush. She voiced Wonder Woman in a direct-to-video animated feature released in March 2009. In 2010, she starred in Extraordinary Measures for CBS Films, playing Aileen Crowley, a mother managing her family while her husband and a scientist search for a cure for her children's illness. From 2010 to 2011, she starred in the Fox series Running Wilde.

From 2013 to 2018, Russell starred in the FX drama series The Americans as Elizabeth Jennings, a deep-undercover Russian KGB spy living as an American during the 1980s Cold War era. She appeared opposite Matthew Rhys, who played her character's husband and spy partner; the two became partners in real life during the production. The series ran for six seasons. For her work on the show, Russell received three consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and two Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actress in a Television Drama Series. Her film credits during this period include Dark Skies (2013), Austenland (2013), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), Free State of Jones (2016), and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), the last of which reunited her with J. J. Abrams. In 2017, Russell received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to television.

Russell made her Broadway debut in March 2019 in the first Broadway revival of Lanford Wilson's Burn This at the Hudson Theatre. Beginning in 2023, she starred in The Diplomat, a Netflix political drama created by writer and producer Debora Cahn. For her performance in the show's third season, she received the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series in 2026. Across her television career, Russell has accumulated a record eight nominations for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series and a total of six Primetime Emmy Award nominations and five Golden Globe Award nominations.

In her personal life, Russell married Shane Deary on February 14, 2007; they have a son born in 2007 and a daughter born in 2011, and separated in early 2013 before divorcing in mid-2014. Since 2014, she has been in a relationship with Matthew Rhys, with whom she has a son born in 2016.