Anne Dudek

Anne Louise Dudek (born March 22, 1975) is an American actress. She is best known for portraying Tiffany Wilson in the 2004 film White Chicks, Dr. Amber Volakis on the Fox series House, Lura Grant on Big Love, and Francine Hanson on the AMC series Mad Men. She has also starred in the British television series The Book Group.

Early life

Dudek was born in Boston, Massachusetts and grew up in Newton, Massachusetts. Her father was an architect. She attended Northwestern University. She is of Polish descent.

Career

From the mid-1990s (while at Northwestern University) through 2001, Dudek appeared in various theater productions and on Broadway. She made her Broadway debut in Wrong Mountain in 2000, and won the Connecticut Critics Circle Award for outstanding performance in The Glass Menagerie.

After success on Broadway, she made the jump to television. Her first starring role on television came when she was cast as the lead in the British comedy drama The Book Group. The show aired on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom to rave reviews. In her native United States, Dudek has since guest starred on other TV shows, including Desperate Housewives (as Karl Mayer's girlfriend in Season 1), How I Met Your Mother (as Ted's Krav Maga-trained ex-girlfriend), Friends (as 'Precious', Mike Hannigan's girlfriend), ER (as a mother who accidentally shot her son), Charmed, Bones (as Seeley Booth's lawyer girlfriend), Numb3rs and Six Feet Under. She also played Lucinda Barry in the pilot episode of Psych, and a teacher who has a sexual relationship with one of her students (based on the case of Debra Lafave) on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. In both "Friends" and "How I Met Your Mother", her character was dumped on her birthday.