Childhood & Early Life
Krysten Ritter was born on December 16, 1981, at Bloomsburg in Pennsylvania to Kathi Taylor and Gary Ritter. Krysten grew up on a beef farm near Shickshinny.
After her parents separated, her father moved to Benton and she lived with her mother, stepfather, sister and a pet dog named Mikey.
Since childhood she was an animal lover. Thus, the years she spent in the farm as a child were filled with joy. Her stepfather didn’t rear horses as he considered them hay burners; instead he reared plenty of cows.
In fact, she even kept a baby calf as a pet and named it Jake. She used to take naps and snuggle it, eventually it grew too big to keep indoors and was moved to the pasture. Nevertheless, she used to visit it every day and ride it.
She attended ‘Northwest Area High School’. Around the final years of her education, she began working as a model. Krysten completed high school in 2000, and eventually decided to concentrate only on her career.
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Early Career As A Model
At the age of fifteen, she was spotted at the Wyoming Valley Mall by a modelling agent. She was then tall and skinny, the agent offered her a consignment and she accepted it.
She continued with high school back home, and took up modelling often during holidays and weekends at Philadelphia, New York City.
In the initial years of her modelling career she worked with the ‘Elite Model Management’ agency, later gaining access into ‘Wilhelmina Models’.
After the completion of her education, she moved to New York City. She was eighteen by then and managed to carve an international modelling career on television and in print advertisements.
She slowly became a mega model and posed for magazines and catalogues. She travelled around the world to Paris, Milan and Tokyo to walk the ramp for big brands and famous designers.
From Modelling To Acting
The Wilhelmina Model’s agency assigned her to an audition for a ‘Dr. Pepper’ television commercial. At the audition she was peppy and could naturally project her skills in acting. Thus, she was signed for the advertisement.
She played many credited and non-credited roles in films and television until she landed a role as a history student in the 2003 film ‘Mona Lisa Smile’. The following year she landed a role on the TV series ‘One Life to Live’ where she played a recurring character ‘Kay’ over four episodes.
She took to theatre in 2006, and acted in Rajiv Joseph’s play ‘All This intimacy’ at the Second Stage Theatre. This helped perk her acting skills and soon she guest starred as Lucy in the comedy-drama ‘Gilmore Girls’.
In 2008 she landed herself a meatier role in Anne Fletcher’s comedy film ’27 Dresses’ as Gina, the Goth. She also guest starred in ‘What happens in Vegas’ and ‘The Last International Playboy’ the same year.
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In 2009, she played the main cast and best friend of the lead character in the rom-com ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’. She guest starred in the TV series ‘Gossip Girl’ in the episode ‘Valley Girls’.
She also secured the recurring role as Jane Margolis in AMC’s highly rated crime drama ‘Breaking Bad’. She acted in the film ‘How to Make Love to a Woman’ the same year.
Alongside her television career, in 2009, she was also cast in the web horror-comedy drama ‘Woke up Dead’ as Cassie. In the 22 episodes she co-stars with Jon Heder who plays the lead role of Drex Greene.
In 2010, she sealed a spot as the main character in the American comedy series ‘Gravity’, in which she plays the role of Lily, a lonely and eccentric twenty-seven year old department store worker.
In 2011, she was cast in three Hollywood films. She played Gloria in the British-Irish comedy ‘Killing Bono’; later that year she took the lead role in the film ‘Life Happens’. The third movie was ‘Margaret’ in which she played the shop-girl.
One of her most successful ventures in the television field was her lead role as Chloe in the ABC sitcom ‘Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment in 2012. In which she plays an amoral party girl who scams her roommates, but finds new bonds of friendship with her new roommate, June Colburn.
While the ABC sitcom aired until 2013, she made guest appearances on ‘Robot Chicken’, ‘The Cleveland Show’ and ‘The Eric Andre Show’. She limited herself to TV that year.
In 2014, she signed many roles in movies and hardly took up many projects on television. She acted as Melanie in Alex Ross Perry’s comedy drama ‘Listen Up Philip’, Ruby in Jake Hoffman’s film ‘Asthma’, Christy in Scot Armstrong’s directorial debut film ‘Search Party’, and DeeAnn in the biographical film ‘Big Eyes’.
Though she featured in the pilot of ‘Mission Control’ as Mary Kendricks, an aerospace engineer, which was slated to launch in 2015, the pilot wasn’t raved about so NBC decided to scrap the show.
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However, she landed the title role of ‘Jessica Jones’ in Marvel’s Television Series on Netflix. Her audition was a cake walk as she depicted the two essential characteristics of the role – a dauntless yet vulnerable former superhero turned investigator with ease.
The show ran for thirteen episodes; her character of Jessica Jones will be added to the upcoming Marvel Comic television show ‘The Defenders’. In which she will once again play a private investigator suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
In 2016, she appeared on an episode in IFC’s ‘Comedy Bang! Bang!’ as herself in the episode ‘Krysten Ritter Wears a Turtleneck and Black Boots’. She will also feature in a main role in the 2017 film ‘The Hero’.
Major Works
‘Life Happens’ is one of Krysten’s biggest projects. She wrote the script for the movie and also co-produced the film. She plays the main role ‘Kim’ in the movie who gets pregnant after a one night stand. It received excellent reviews with ‘Chicago Sun-Times’ claiming it to be a mild and grounded comedy with a contrived script. The ‘New York Daily News’ rated the film 3 stars.
In her TV series ‘Apartment 23’ her performance was considered outstanding by critics. ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ rated the show 91% and her dialogue delivery in the show was considered top notch.
Her recent portrayal of a superhero in the show ‘Jessica Jones’ received much acclaim. Her performance was considered exceptional and the show received 8.1 on 10 out of 54 reviews. Critics suggested that her delivery of the character was so natural that it made the show the strongest Marvel TV franchise.
Awards & Achievements
Krysten was first nominated in 2012 at the ‘Teen Choice Awards’ for ‘Choice TV: Villain’ in the TV series ‘Apartment 23’. In 2015, she won the ‘TV Line’s performer of the Week’ for the episode ‘Jessica Jones: AKA You’re a Winner’.
In 2016, she was nominated at several award functions for her role in the Marvel drama ‘Jessica Jones’. She was nominated for ‘Best Actress on Television’ at the ‘42nd Saturn Awards’ and at the ‘Dorian Awards’ she was nominated for ‘TV Performance of the Year – Actress’.
Adding to her accolades, she was also nominated at the ‘6th Critic’s Choice Television Awards’ as ‘Best Actress in a Drama Series’ for ‘Jessica Jones’. That year, she took home the ‘Special Achievement: Best Actress Award’ at the ‘Webby Awards’.
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