Rachel Nichols Biography
Rachel Nichols is an American actress, best known for her portrayal of CIA agent Rachel Gibson on ABC's television series, Alias. Born January 8, 1980 in Augusta, Maine, her first auditioned role was for the part of a restaurant hostess on Sex and the City.
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Biography
Rachel Nichols was born and raised in Maine's capital city of Augusta. She always
enjoyed outdoor sports (her favorites are still windsurfing and sailing), and
ran track in high school. In fact, she still holds several track & field records
for Augusta's Cony High. As a sophomore at Cony, she studied abroad in France,
an experience that would, in hindsight, prepare her well for her future career.
Astonishingly enough, given her current career, Nichols admits that she "wasn't
the hot chick" in high school: "I was a dork," she would later confess, "I was
this shy, skinny, flat-chested girl with long arms." Referring to herself as a
"late bloomer," she was known more for athletics and academics than good looks
growing up, and upon graduation she headed to Columbia
University, intent on studying psychology.
It was at Columbia where the events fell into place that determined Nichols'
current career path. According to Nichols, she stumbled into modeling
"completely by accident," though it seems more like a foregone conclusion now.
Needless to say, she had "bloomed" by then, and was soon posing for companies
like Guess? and Abercrombie & Fitch. Along the way, Nichols threw in some drama
classes at Columbia, never knowing when she might need them. She maintained a
difficult schedule throughout college, balancing her studies in New York City
with photo shoots in Europe. On top of all that, Nichols decided in 2002 to
really pursue acting in earnest.
While Rachel Nichols had appeared in various television shows in bit parts (one memorable
role featured her as an orgy-loving restaurant hostess in Sex and the City), she
auditioned that year for the second-lead role of Jessica (the dogged
school-newspaper reporter) in Dumb and Dumberer, a role which she eventually
won. She left Columbia midway through her last semester to shoot the picture,
still managing to graduate in 8 semesters despite the demanding modeling
schedule. She wrote two term papers and took the final exam of her undergraduate
career just days before shipping all of her things to Atlanta, where Dumberer
was being filmed.
Dumberer was a theater flop, but Rachel Nichols turned heads with both her beauty (a
known commodity at that point) and her acting skills, which were a surprise to
all involved. If the Jessica role seemed natural to Nichols, it was because she
herself had been an editor with the school newspaper back in Augusta. And while
few people actually paid to see the film, those who did were in for a treat in
Nichols' performance; audiences particularly noticed her undeniable screen
presence, a rarity for such an inexperienced actress. Apparently Hollywood
noticed Nichols, too, because she has since earned roles in the television
series Line of Fire, plus the 2005 horror movies The Amityville Horror and The
Woods. Even after all that, though, the best was yet to come for Rachel Nichols.
Rachel Nichols on AliasIn 2004, FOX planned to develop a show vaguely reminiscent of
their first hit drama, 21 Jump Street. They enlisted Todd & Glenn Kessler (of
Robbery Homicide Division) to create the show, tentatively named The Inside. The
Kesslers cast Nichols as a 22-year-old federal agent who impersonates a
high-school girl in an undercover operation. They also cast Fastlane's Peter
Facinelli and model Willa Holland, and shot a pilot. The pilot underwhelmed
studio execs, though, and FOX brought in Angel writer Tim Minear to re-tool the
concept; Minear ended up purging the entire cast, save for Nichols. While some
sources say that Nichols was kept on because FOX pressured Minear to do so,
Minear stands by a different story: "Even if [Nichols] wasn't already living in
this show when I got there I'd have cast her. [She's] a star in the making, I
feel. And an unspoiled delight..." he told Variety.
The new concept was more Silence of the Lambs than Jump Street, and Nichols'
character had dramatically changed as well: now she was rookie Special Agent
Rebecca Locke, assigned to Los Angeles' FBI Violent Crimes Unit. Oh, and the
character practically shares Elizabeth Smart's backstory: kidnapping, abuse,
etc. One may be tempted to think that Nichols, who says she still "tests mostly
for high school parts," might have been in over her head here, especially
alongside character-actor luminary Peter Coyote, but she handled herself
expertly on the series. And while The Inside was cancelled just seven episodes
in, Nichols was sure to be back as a full-fledged star, and soon.
After the failed FOX series, it didn't take long for new employers to seek
Nichols' services. Nichols joined the cast of the ABC series Alias in the fall
of 2005, playing Rachel Gibson, a computer expert who is duped into thinkning
that she works for the CIA when in fact she's really working for a terrorist
organization. Later, she joins the real CIA and becomes Sydney Bristow's protege.
It is the second series in a row in which Nichols portrays a government agent.
Other Notes
Film List
This Rachel Nichols Biography Page is Copyright The Planets © 2004 - 2006 Chuck Ayoub
