Celebrities | Movies | Pop Culture | TV | 90s
She Was Everywhere In The 90s, But Is Rachel Leigh Cook Still All That?
Some actors hit their big break and keep it going for decades, managing to stay active in movies until we're practically sick of them (but not really). Other stars seem to burn brightest during a particular decade, only to either burn out or just step away from things to focus on smaller projects.
One actress that definitely falls into the latter category is Rachel Leigh Cook. For the second half of the 90s and the early 2000s, you pretty much couldn't go to a movie theater without seeing her in some kind of teen comedy or drama, and we absolutely loved her.
Whether it was as a member of The Baby-Sitter's Club, the "ugly duckling" in She's All That, or Josie McCoy, frontwoman for Josie and the Pussycats, Cook was always funny, likeable, and memorable in her movie roles, and we were all pretty sure she'd be in movies forever.
However, once the 2000s were in full swing, she wasn't showing up in theaters as much anymore, much like a lot of other 90s teen stars. Plenty of us thought that she'd stopped acting, but it turns out that's not the case at all.
Turns out she's actually still been pretty busy since then...
Cook was already involved in plenty of other bits of acting outside of movies when her career took off. For starters, we all remember this anti-drug PSA.
And lots of us probably saw her in the video for New Found Glory's "Dressed To Kill."
So it's maybe unsurprising that after a string of movies, Cook took a step back from Hollywood and decided to pursue plenty of indie film, TV and voice-acting roles, which she continues to work in actively today. She also opted to spend a few years reconnecting with friends and family.
Since then, she's had several leading roles in movies like Sateside and All Hat, as well as ones on long-running TV shows like Psych and Perception.
Not only that but she's done plenty of voice-acting. She was in 12 episodes of the massively successful Robot Chicken, and fans of the Final Fantasy video game series might recognize her as the voice of Tifa Lockheart, who first appeared in Final Fantasy VII.
Biggest of all, Cook owns her own production company, Ben's Sister Productions (named after her filmmaker brother, Ben Cook), which she continues to work with to this day. She's even received some pretty big commendations for her work in the arts community; in 2011, the Obama administration chose her as a " Champion of Change for Arts Education."
Of course, she's also been making more and more time for her ever-growing family. She married actor Daniel Gillies in 2004, and not only are the two still married, but they also have two children; their daughter Charlotte was born in 2013, and their son Theodore in 2015.