Alia Shawkat
☼ Born on 18 December 1989, in Riverside, California, USA
Biography
Alia Shawkat was born in Riverside, California, to Dina Burke and actor Tony Shawkat. Her maternal grandfather, Paul Burke, was also an actor. Her father is from Baghdad, Iraq, and her mother has Irish, Italian, and Norwegian ancestry. Success arrived early for Alia. Her career began at the young age of 11 when she landed a role on the ABC Family series State of Grace (2001). She later starred as "Maeby Funke" on Fox's Emmy-award winning Arrested Development (2003) where she portrayed a rebellious and mischievous member of a dysfunctional Orange County family trying to adjust to their loss of wealth.
Alia was introduced to show business by appearing in a Calvin Klein catalog, which immediately attracted the attention of commercial and theatrical agents in Hollywood. She soon landed a role opposite George Clooney in Three Kings (1999). This was followed by a supporting lead in the Ron Perlman' movie The Trial of Old Drum (2000).
But it was State of Grace (2001) that catapulted her into the forefront of young actresses. She has also had guest-starring roles on JAG (1995), Without a Trace (2002), Boomtown (2002) and Presidio Med (2002) and she recently starred opposite Martin Lawrence in Rebound (2005).
At 16 years old, when she was not filming, Alia attended a private school near her home in Rancho Mirage where she was able to continue her studies in English, Physics, Math, Geography and Drama. Her ambition is eventually to attend Yale University studying International Relat
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ions.
In her free time, Alia enjoys horseback riding, ice-skating and dancing. She is an accomplished pianist and speaks several languages. She splits her time between her home and Rancho Mirage and Los Angeles where she resides with her parents and her two brothers.
In the role of actor
Being the Ricardos (07/01/2022)
Drama develops on the set of the sitcom I Love Lucy in Being the Ricardos. Starring the real-life married couple of Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) and Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem), the sitcom I Love Lucy became a huge hit when it began airing in the early 1950s. However, while in the middle of taping the […]
First Cow (12/07/2020)
A cook and a Chinese immigrant begin a successful business with the help of a wealthy landowner’s milking cow in First Cow. Cookie Figowitz (John Magaro) is a loner who has traveled west and joined a group of fur trappers in Oregon Territory. It is there that is becomes acquainted with King-Lu (Orion Lee), a […]
Green Room (11/05/2016)
A punk band finds themselves trapped in a club run by neo-Nazis in Green Room. Pat (Anton Yelchin), Sam (Alia Shawkat), Reece (Joe Cole), and Tiger (Callum Turner) are members of punk band, who find themselves strapped for cash after a not-so-great gig. To make up for the bad booking, local radio host Tad sets up […]
The Final Girls (13/10/2015)
A group of friends find themselves trapped in a 1980s slasher film in The Final Girls. Max Cartwright (Taissa Farmiga) is a teenager still mourning the tragic death of her actress mother Amanda Cartwright (Malin Akerman). Max goes with her friends Chris (Alexander Ludwig), Gertie (Alia Shawkat), Vickie (Nina Dobrev), and Duncan (Thomas Middleditch) to a late […]
The To Do List (26/07/2013)
Ever since films like Porky’s topped the box office charts more than 30 years ago, teen sex comedies have been spreading the message that there must be something inherently wrong with a person, who is not sexually active by the time they finish high school. Of course, a belief like this wrong, and perhaps a […]