HER breakout role saw her play Michael Douglas’s drug-addicted teen daughter in 2000 crime flick, Traffic.
Since then she’s starred opposite some of Hollywood‘s biggest names from Kevin Costner to Susan Sarandon.
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And 25 years on from that career-defining role, the successful actress, 42, is embracing her natural self.
She was spotted out and about in LA in a vest top and ripped jeans freely showing off her armpit hair as she reached up to adjust her locks.
Going makeup-free, Parenthood star Erika Christensen looked at ease and radiant as she strolled in the sunshine.
Mom-of-two Erika currently stars in ABC crime drama Will Trent as the titular dyslexic detective’s on/off girlfriend Angie Polaski.
She hasn’t stopped working for the past three decades with dozens of film, TV and music video credits to her name.
Some of her best known work includes the films Swimfan, The Upside of Anger and Flightplan, while on the small screen she’s been in The Geena Davis Show and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Her first major role was back in 1995 when she appeared in Michael Jackson’s Childhood video, though she never got to actually meet the King of Pop.
She once told Blackfilm.com, “I wish I could have met him, I didn’t. We were green screened together. In the video he’s sitting in a forest and all the kids are in boats above him. He sent me an autographed photo and that was nice.”
The interview came out ahead of the release of her 2005 rom-com The Upside of Anger where she played the daughter of Joan Allen’s character Terry Wolfmeyer.
The family drama sees Terry fall for heavy drinking neighbor Denny Davies [Costner] after husband Grey upped and left the family for a life in Sweden with his secretary – though this doesn’t end up being the case.
Erika said at the time, “Kevin Costner and Joan Allen, who does not love Joan Allen? She’s fantastic, so cool as a person.
“She’s our mother, it’s about a family, there are four daughters, Alicia Witt, Kerri Russell, Evan Rachel Wood, and myself. It’s a great cast and it’s written and directed by Mike Binder. He stars in it too.
“It’s a bunch of us over a period of three years. It’s very dramatic and funny. It’s really character driven. I’m looking forward to see it so much.”
Erika was raised a Scientologist in Seattle and has defended the controversial religion in recent years.
She opened up about it to her Parenthood co-star Dax Shepard on an episode of his Armchair Expert podcast, explaining her beliefs.
She said: “I can justify things in all kinds of different ways, but basically, like, as a Scientologist, and I definitely cannot speak for every Scientologist about anything because everybody has their own beliefs and comes at it from even other religions and all kinds of stuff.
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“However, I don’t believe this is the first time I have lived on this planet and I basically think I’ve probably done absolutely everything before.”
The foundation of Scientology is the belief each person is an immortal spiritual being with unlimited potential.
Erika poured scorn on Leah Remini’s stirring docuseries Scientology and the Aftermath as well as follow up Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief.
She said, “It honestly doesn’t have anything to do with anything that I’ve ever learned about the group or organization.
“To be specific about [Going Clear], if somebody has read a book, read Dianetics or some Scientology book and wants to philosophically tell me what they disagree with it, cool.
“That is a totally different thing. But, specifically with that documentary, the documentary was based on a book. The book was not even published in some English-speaking countries because the libel laws are stricter than they are here.”
Erika Christensen’s career timeline
Erika Christensen’s journey in Hollywood kicked off pretty early, even featuring in Michael Jackson’s “Childhood” music video back in 1995 when she was just twelve. She never actually got to meet the King of Pop on set though, as they were green-screened together for the video.
Her big moment arrived in 2000 with her captivating portrayal of Caroline Wakefield, a teenage drug addict, in Steven Soderbergh’s acclaimed film Traffic.
The role really put her on the map, earning her an MTV Movie Award for Breakthrough Female Performance and a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the ensemble cast. People magazine even named her one of their “Breakthrough Stars of 2001”.
After Traffic, Erika kept busy with a mix of film roles, diving into everything from teen thrillers like Swimfan (2002) to comedies such as The Banger Sisters (2002) and The Perfect Score (2004).
She also explored dramatic and thriller territory in films like Flightplan (2005), How to Rob a Bank (2007), The Tortured (2010), and more recently, The Case for Christ (2017), KIMI (2022), and Cheaper by the Dozen (2022).
Erika’s television career has been equally varied. She had early guest spots on popular shows like Frasier, The Practice, 3rd Rock from the Sun, and That ’70s Show.
A significant chapter of her TV career was playing Julia Braverman-Graham in the beloved NBC family drama Parenthood from 2010 to 2015, a role for which she won a Gracie Award in 2014.
She also appeared in shows like Six Degrees (2006-2007), Wicked City (2015), and Ten Days in the Valley (2017).
Currently, you can catch her starring as Angie Polaski in the ABC series Will Trent, which premiered in 2023.
