Film & TV / Theatre & dance
Kristen Bell
born 1980 · actress, singer
Star of Veronica Mars, The Good Place and Disney's Frozen, born in Huntington Woods and raised in Detroit's northern suburbs.
- Born
Huntington Woods, Michigan
age 46- Birth name
- Kristen Anne Bell
- Detroit years
- 1980–1998
- Field
- Film & TV, Theatre & dance
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Kristen Bell was born in Huntington Woods and grew up in the Oakland County suburbs just north of Detroit. She attended Shrine Catholic High School in Royal Oak, where she was active in the drama and music clubs. Her very first audition, in 1992, won her a double role as a banana and a tree in a suburban Detroit theater's production of Raggedy Ann and Andy. Before she turned 13 her mother had found her an agent, and she appeared in newspaper ads for Detroit retailers and in local TV commercials. She also fostered animals from the Michigan Humane Society in those years. After high school she left for New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, which led to Broadway, the title role in Veronica Mars and later The Good Place. Her husband, actor Dax Shepard, is also from metro Detroit.
Highlights
- Title role in Veronica Mars (2004–2007, film 2014, revival 2019)
- Voice of Princess Anna in Disney's Frozen (2013) and Frozen II (2019)
- Golden Globe nominations for The Good Place and Nobody Wants This
- Broadway debut as Becky Thatcher in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (2001)
- Named to the Time 100 list in 2025
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1990s
Shrine Catholic High School
Catholic high school next to the National Shrine of the Little Flower, where Bell took part in the drama and music clubs.