Maggie Grace
Maggie Grace is an American film and television actor, recognized for her prominent roles in the "Taken" trilogy and the acclaimed series "Lost." Born Margaret Grace Denig on September 21, 1983, in Worthington, Ohio, she developed an interest in acting during her school years, participating in local theater productions. After moving to Los Angeles with her mother following her parents' divorce, Grace pursued a career in acting, landing her first significant role in the television movie "Murder in Greenwich" at age 18.
Her breakthrough role came in 2004 as Shannon Rutherford on "Lost," a series that became a cultural phenomenon. Grace earned accolades for her performance, contributing to the show's success. In addition to her television work, she starred in various films, including the action hit "Taken" (2008) and its sequels, and appeared in other notable projects such as "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn" series. On stage, she made her Broadway debut in the play "Picnic." Grace's versatility as an actress has allowed her to navigate different genres, from horror to drama. In her personal life, she married Brent Bushnell in 2017 and has a son, born in 2020.
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Subject Terms
Maggie Grace
Actor
- Born: September 21, 1983
- Place of Birth: Worthington, Ohio
Contribution: Maggie Grace is a film and television actor best known for her roles in the Taken trilogy (2008–14) and the television series Lost (2004–10), Californication (2013), and Fear the Walking Dead (2018–2021 ).
Background
Margaret Grace Denig was born on September 21, 1983, in Worthington, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus. Her parents, Valinn Everett and Rick Denig, owned a jewelry shop. She is the second of three children. From kindergarten through the ninth grade, she attended Worthington Christian Schools. She then moved on to Thomas Worthington High School, where she got involved in the school theater program as well as community theater productions. In 2000, she starred in The Crucible at a local Jewish Community Center.
When Grace was sixteen years old her parents divorced, and she moved with her mother to Los Angeles, California. Due to limited means, they moved around a lot at first and lived on meager rations. As they struggled, Grace began pursuing an acting career and hired an agent.
Career
Following a starring role in the web-based series Rachel's Room (2001) and an appearance in a television pilot that never made it to air, Grace got her big break when she was eighteen years old with a role in the television movie Murder in Greenwich (2002). Several television guest appearances followed, including CSI: Miami in 2003 and Cold Case and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2004. Her second big break came in 2004, when her agent sent her the script for the pilot episode of the drama Lost and advised her to try out for the show.
Grace's subsequent role as spoiled girl Shannon Rutherford propelled her to stardom. Lost, a show about a group of strangers who crash on a mysterious island, was one of the most popular series of the decade. During the show's first season, Grace was nominated for a Teen Choice Award for female television breakout performance. She was a regular on the show for two seasons and made occasional appearances in later seasons as well. In 2006, the cast of Lost won a Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series.
In between the first two seasons of Lost, Grace starred in the horror film The Fog (2005). A remake of the 1980 film of the same name, The Fog focuses on a small coastal town haunted by an enigmatic fog and the ghosts it carries. Grace stated that although she is not a fan of the horror genre, she admired the strength her character possessed.
In 2007 Grace appeared in the films Suburban Girl and The Jane Austen Book Club. Then she took on the action genre with Taken (2008), which became an unexpected box-office success. In the film, Grace plays the daughter of a former CIA operative, played by Liam Neeson, who is kidnapped in Paris, France. The film received mixed reviews but was a hit with audiences. Grace also starred in the sequels Taken 2 (2012) and Taken 3 (2014), which did not fare as well with fans.
Grace continued to appear in action films, including Knight and Day (2010) and Faster (2010). She then scored a role in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 (2011), part of the massively popular Twilight series of films. Grace plays Irina Denali, a vampire who abstains from drinking human blood. She reprised the role for the 2012 sequel, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2.
Grace appeared in the science-fiction action thriller Lockout (2012) and the drama Decoding Annie Parker (2013) before returning to television in 2013, first as a guest star in the pilot of Kevin Williamson's serial-killer drama The Following and then in a recurring role on the sixth season of the comedy Californication. The latter series reunited her with Lost costar Jorge Garcia.
In December 2012 Grace made her Broadway debut in the play Picnic, which earned playwright William Inge the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1953. Following Californication, she starred in the web series Susanna (2013) as the titular character, an investment banker who has to take care of her older sister's baby. The series received mixed reviews from critics, although some applauded Grace's performance.
Over the next several years Grace continued to appear in a variety of film and television roles. In 2016 she had a supporting role in the romance The Choice, an adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel. However, it received mostly negative reviews. Many of her other film projects also failed to catch on with critics, including Aftermath (2017), in which she costarred alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, and The Hurricane Heist (2018). She had more success on television, particularly as she joined the horror spin-off series Fear the Walking Dead during its fourth season in 2018. In the show she portrayed Althea, a journalist who joined the other protagonists as they seek to survive a post-apocalyptic zombie outbreak. She remained on the show until it ended in 2021.
After the end of Fear the Walking Dead, Grace had roles in two films, The Secret Art of Human Flight (2023) and Blackwater Lane (2024).
Impact
Grace strived throughout her career to gain recognition for her talent as an actor. With Lost she was a part of one of the most popular and culturally significant televisions shows of the 2000s, and she showed herself capable of holding notable film roles as well. Her Broadway debut in Picnic further proved her to be an accomplished and versatile performer.
Personal Life
Grace briefly dated her Lost costar Ian Somerhalder in 2006. From 2008 to 2009, she dated Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes and a contestant on season 2 of the reality show The Amazing Race. In 2017 Grace married Brent Bushnell, the founder of an entertainment company. The couple had a son in 2020.
Bibliography
Grace, Maggie. "Exclusive: Maggie Grace Dishes on Being Taken." Interview by Brian Gallagher. MovieWeb, 8 May 2009, movieweb.com/exclusive-maggie-grace-dishes-on-being-taken/. Accessed 23 Sept. 2024.
Graham, Caroline. "Maggie Grace Is Lost in Paradise." Mail Online, 7 Aug. 2006, www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-399437/Maggie-Grace-Lost-paradise.html. Accessed 23 Sept. 2024.
King, Susan. "The Island Life Seems to Suit Her Just Fine." Los Angeles Times, 11 Sept. 2005, www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-sep-11-ca-grace11-story.html. Accessed 23 Sept. 2024.
"Maggie Grace." IMDb, 2024, www.imdb.com/name/nm1192254/. Accessed 23 Sept. 2024.