Piper Perabo

Piper Lisa Perabo (ⁱ/ˈpɛrəˈboʊ/; born October 31, 1976) is an American stage, film, and television actress. Since her breakthrough role in Coyote Ugly (2000), she has appeared in films such as Lost and Delirious (2001), Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005), The Prestige (2006), Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008), and Looper (2012). Between 2010 and 2014 she played Annie Walker on the USA Network series Covert Affairs, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress.

Early life

Perabo was born in Dallas, Texas, the daughter of Mary Charlotte (née Ulland), a physical therapist, and George William Perabo, a professor of poetry at Ocean County College. She is of English, German, Irish (father) and Norwegian (mother) descent; while her surname is sometimes mistakenly described as Portuguese, it originates in Germany, where her paternal grandfather's family came from. She grew up in Toms River, New Jersey.

Perabo's parents named her after actress Piper Laurie, but "Piper" was Laurie's stage name. She is the eldest of three children with two brothers, Noah (born 1979) and Adam (born 1981). She graduated from Toms River High School North in 1994, and earned a bachelor's degree in theater from Honors Tutorial College at Ohio University in 1998. She also studied Latin, physics, and poetry in her final year.