Tiffani Amber Thiessen (born January 23, 1974) is an American actress, best known for her roles as Kelly Kapowski in Saved by the Bell and as Valerie Malone in Beverly Hills, 90210. She is also known for starring in Fastlane as Wilhelmina ‘Billie’ Chambers, as well as for her current role of Elizabeth Burke in the USA Network television series White Collar. After many years of going by her full name, she dropped her middle name and is now credited as simply Tiffani Thiessen.
Thiessen was born in Long Beach, California, the daughter of Robyn (née Ernest), a homemaker, and Frank Thiessen, a park designer and landscape architect. She has two siblings; an older brother named Todd, an actor and avid cyclist, and a younger brother named Schuyler. Her father is of German descent and her mother is a mix of Greek, Turkish and Welsh descent. She credits her brother, Todd, as one of her most important sources of inspiration, and her mother and grandmother as role models. She attended Cubberley Elementary and Marshall Junior High School in Long Beach. In 1992, Thiessen graduated as valedictorian at Valley Professional High School in Studio City, Los Angeles. Her uncle, Roger Ernest, was the first person to suggest that Thiessen enter show business; he attended college with Steven Spielberg, co-writing and starring in one of his student films called Slipstream, and later appeared in Spielberg’s The Sugarland Express and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
In early 1993, Thiessen started dating Brian Austin Green, introduced by mutual friend David Faustino in 1988; they moved in together in July 1994, but they broke up in the fall of the next year. In 1999, she went through a difficult period in her personal life, when David Strickland, whom she had recently begun dating, committed suicide. From 2001 to the spring of 2003, she was engaged to actor Richard Ruccolo, whom she had met during the Two Guys and a Girl run. She married actor Brady Smith on July 9, 2005, and gave birth to their daughter, Harper Renn Smith, on June 15, 2010.
Thiessen served as maid of honor at 90210 co-star and best friend Jennie Garth’s wedding to actor Peter Facinelli, with whom she co-starred on Fastlane, but their friendship has come to an end. Thiessen’s friendship with fellow 90210 star Tori Spelling also broke up, after Spelling’s split from her first husband.
In 2013, Thiessen participated in the One Bag party for April for Earth Month, in which Glad promoted “clean, green living”.
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