We miss her: Anna Chlumsky!
Anna Chlumsky (born December 3, 1980) is an American film, stage and television actress who rose to prominence for her role as Vada Sultenfuss in My Girl (1991), as well as in its 1994 sequel. Chlumsky abandoned her acting career in 1999 to study at the University of Chicago, and pursued other work before returning to acting in her late twenties, starring in independent films such as Blood Car (2007) and In the Loop (2009). As of 2012, Chlumsky has a starring role in the HBO series Veep, for which she was nominated in 2013 for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
Children of the ’70s and ’80s knew Anna Chlumsky best as the unfortunately named Vada Sultenfuss, the young girl who mourned the loss of Macaulay Culkin in My Girl. While Macaulay Culkin is still mourning the loss of his fan base, Anna Chlumsky is now a grown-up beauty and she’s back on the acting block with a plum role in In the Loop. Welcome back, Anna Chlumsky. We missed you, and you’re still our girl.She might have played a hypochondriac in My Girl, but there is nothing sickly about the off-screen Anna Chlumsky. Her big beautiful eyes are hard to miss, and they stand out as her most prominent feature. Personality-wise, Anna Chlumsky is intelligent, well-versed and well-traveled. A frequent traveler during her break from Hollywood, she is something of an expert when it comes to international subjects, a considering that she holds a degree in international relations. Not only that, she’s also a full-blown foodie. Based on these facts, we’re convinced that a date with Anna Chlumsky would include a friendly debate on hot-button world issues and a gourmet four-course meal comprised of many international flavors.
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Unfortunately, we won’t get the chance to romantically dine with Anna Chlumsky and quiz her international knowledge. Since 2008, she has been married to Shaun So, a member of the U.S. Army Reserve. Due to her excursion to London for the filming of In the Loop, Anna Chlumsky now shares with Shaun her new addiction to tea. In true British fashion, she spends some of her downtime watching soccer while enjoying tea with her husband. We’d be cool with that too, as long as it’s soccer we’re watching and not Coronation Street. In true Hollywood-child-star tradition, Anna Chlumsky arrived with a flash, and disappeared faster than you can spell “Macaulay Culkin.” Her performance as the grief-stricken Vada Sultenfuss in My Girl resonated with audiences, and gave Anna Chlumsky popularity that exceeded her initial 15 minutes of fame in Hollywood. Don’t believe us? Just ask her about her daily New York subway commutes as an adult and the regular “Are you Vada?” questions that were continually posed.Chlumsky entered show business at an early age, modeling with her mother in an advertising campaign, though her roles in My Girl (1991) and My Girl 2 (1994) brought her fame.
She also starred in Trading Mom (1994) alongside Sissy Spacek, as well as in Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain with Christina Ricci. In the mid to late 1990s, Chlumsky starred in several television film and series.As a child Chlumsky considered working with horses or in paleontology. Once she reached adulthood, roles became scarce and she began to consider other careers. She attended the University of Chicago, graduating in 2002 with a BA in International Studies.After graduation she worked as a fact-checker for the Zagat Survey and served as an editorial assistant for a HarperCollins science fiction-fantasy imprint. She found this work unsatisfying and decided to return to acting. She went to the Atlantic Acting School in Manhattan to receive formal training.Chlumsky appeared on the March 8, 2007, episode of 30 Rock, called “The Fighting Irish,” as Liz Lemler; as Mary Calvin in a season 17 episode of Law & Order, first airing on January 12, 2007; and as Lisa Klein in a season 20 episode, first airing March 15, 2010. She was in four episodes of the ABC dramedy Cupid.Chlumsky starred in the Off Broadway production of Unconditional by Brett C. Leonard at The Public Theater, which opened on February 2008; it was produced by the LAByrinth Theater Company, She also starred in Lanford Wilson’s Balm in Gilead in November 2005 at the American Theatre of Actors in New York City. In June 2012 she starred in the world premiere of David Adjmi’s 3C at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in New York.She appeared in Armando Iannucci’s BBC Films political satire In The Loop, costarring with Peter Capaldi, Tom Hollander, Chris Addison, James Gandolfini, and Mimi Kennedy, a quasi-spinoff of Iannucci’s BBC TV series The Thick of It. She plays Liza, a State Department assistant in the movie. Chlumsky currently plays the chief of staff to vice-president Julia Louis-Dreyfus in HBO’s Veep, also produced by Iannucci. Dan Aykroyd, who played her father in the two My Girl films, has said that a script for a third film has been in development since 2003. In April 2012 Chlumsky “put to rest” any rumors that such a film was in development.In addition to her role on Veep, Chlumsky has appeared in multiple television series between 2011 and 2013, including White Collar, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and NBC’s adaptation of Hannibal.
Out of Hollywood, but still missing acting, Anna Chlumsky had a series of strange occurrences that signaled to her that she should return to performing. These included a random psychic telling her to go back to the business and an inspirational meeting with singing legend Roberta Flack who preached the same gospel. Anna Chlumsky took the advice and after some new acting classes, she returned to the stage in 2004 for a New York production of Measure for Measure. In 2007, she entered prime-time television with guest-starring roles on Law & Order and 30 Rock. Anna Chlumsky was also close to having her own series with the CW comedy Eight Days a Week, but the show wasn’t picked up.In 2009, Anna Chlumsky made big screen noise again with a series of memorable supporting roles. First, she starred as an employee in the State Department who gets embroiled in an American and British war debate in In the Loop, top-lined by Tony Soprano himself, James Gandolfini. The film played at the Tribeca Film Festival, which was also the home to The Good Guy, a Wall Street romantic comedy that Anna Chlumsky was also acting in alongside Alexis Bledel. With rumblings of a third My Girl movie potentially in her future, Anna Chlumsky is enjoying her comeback and hopes to cap it off with a role in the new politically minded TV series House Rules.
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