Isla Fisher

Biography:

Isla Lang Fisher (born 3 February 1976) is an Australian actress and author of Scottish descent. She began acting on Australian Television, playing Shannon Reed on the Australian soap opera Home and Away, and has since become known for her roles in the 2005 comedy Wedding Crashers, opposite Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, 2007's Hot Rod and 2009's Confessions of a Shopaholic.

Early life

Fisher was born in Muscat, Oman to Scottish parents from Bathgate and Stranraer. They resided in Muscat because of her father's job as a banker for the United Nations. Her name, after the Scottish island of Islay, is pronounced eye-la; she has four brothers. Fisher spent her early years in Bathgate before moving with her family to Perth, Western Australia, when she was six years old. Fisher has said that she had a "great" upbringing in Perth with a "very outdoorsy life". She began appearing in commercials on Australian television at the age of nine, before going on to win roles in popular children's television shows Bay City and Paradise Beach. She attended Methodist Ladies' College and appeared in lead roles in school productions.

Career

Early career

At the age of 18, with the help of her mother, she wrote two teen novels, Bewitched and Seduced by Fame, that became bestsellers. From 1994 to 1997 she played the role of Shannon Reed on the hit Australian soap opera Home and Away. After leaving the popular soap, Fisher enrolled at a prestigious theatre and arts training school in Paris, and went on to appear in Pantomime in the United Kingdom. She also toured with Darren Day in the Summer Holiday musical, and appeared in a London theatre production called Così.

Breakthrough

In 2002 she had a part in the film version of Scooby-Doo as Mary-Jane, Shaggy's love interest, and subsequently was taken on by an American agent. A larger role in Wedding Crashers, alongside Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, in 2005 won her the Breakthrough Performance Award at the MTV Movie Awards. While promoting Wedding Crashers, she was officially crowned the 1000th guest on Australian talk show Rove on 2 August 2005. She entered the set ahead of Owen Wilson, winning the title by two meters. In 2006, Fisher starred as Becca, a Manhattan party host, in the relationship drama London co-starring Jessica Biel, Chris Evans and Jason Statham.

Mainstream success

In 2007, she appeared in The Lookout, a thriller co-starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Matthew Goode, and Hot Rod, opposite Andy Samberg. She was scheduled to appear in The Simpsons Movie, although her appearance was cut from the final version. In 2008, she starred in Wedding Daze with Jason Biggs, Definitely, Maybe, with Ryan Reynolds, Elizabeth Banks, and Abigail Breslin, and had a voice role in Horton Hears a Who! Fisher has also co-written a script entitled Groupies with Amy Poehler, as well as another project entitled The Cookie Queen. She starred in the movie adaption of the book Confessions of a Shopaholic, which opened on February 13, 2009. In the film, Fisher played a college graduate who works as a financial journalist in New York City to support her shopping addiction.

Fisher has spoken out against the lack of opportunities for comediennes in Hollywood.

Personal life

Fisher lives with her fiancé, English comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, in London and Los Angeles. She met Baron Cohen at a party in Sydney, Australia. Fisher converted to Judaism after three years of study, completing her conversion in early 2007 and taking on the Hebrew name Ayala (איילה), the Hebrew word for Doe; she has described herself as "quite observant". As of June 2009, the couple have not set a date for their wedding. On October 19, 2007, Fisher gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Olive, in Los Angeles.

Fisher has said that her "sensibility is Australian" and that she has a "laid-back attitude to life" that she feels "very Australian." Her mother and siblings live and work in Athens, Greece, while her father lives in Frankfurt, Germany.