Jessica Cauffiel

Naturally blonde, innocent-looking Jessica Cauffiel has drawn comparisons to Heather Graham in appearance, only with curlier ringlets. Her fresh-faced look has earned her a succession of supporting roles, often playing the sweet ditz. This character type runs contrary to her real-world intelligence -- among her other accomplishments, Cauffiel became fluent in the local language after a two-month stay in Indonesia.

The daughter of a domestic violence police investigator and true crime novelist Lowell Cauffiel, the actress was born in Detroit, MI. Cauffiel attended the University of Michigan, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theater before working briefly as an entertainment director on a cruise ship. An accomplished jazz singer, Cauffiel first gained television recognition on Guiding Light, then with two 1999 guest appearances on Frasier, where she played a vacant wild girl who gets stuffy Niles to wear leather jackets and party till dawn.

Her first notable film role came as the wrong Tiffany in Road Trip (2000), in which she angrily batters her boyfriend's sports car after being mistakenly told he is cheating on her. Cauffiel then worked in a duo of obligatory teen slasher movies, Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000) (in which she plays the femme fatale) and Valentine (2001), before appearing as one of Reese Witherspoon's cheery sorority sisters in the 2001 summer hit Legally Blonde. She followed that with You Stupid Man (2001), the directorial debut of Edward Burns' brother Brian.

Plays a redhead for the first time as Tori, a publicist from Long Island who befriends the Wayans Bros. in the movie White Chicks.

Agreed to play the role of Ninotchka, the Russian assassin in the action-comedy D.E.B.S. (2004), as long as they hired her friend Ines Wurth, a Croatian who had also lived in Russia, as the dialect coach - because she didn't want to "fake" a Russian accent.

Is a certified Kundalini Yoga Instructor.

Sings (credited) on World Music Grammy Finalist album, "Shanti," by Snatam Kaur Khalsa.

Real-life best friend and writing partner is Alanna Ubach, who plays best friend "Serena" in Legally Blonde (2001). Jessica had already been cast as "Margot" and was to read with several actresses vying for the part of Serena. When Alanna walked into the audition, she pulled Jessica aside and said dryly, "Kid, help me out here. I've gotta make rent." Jessica laughed and said, "Okay. I'll stand up and do the scene with you. Just mirror all of my movements." She did: and Margot and Serena were born.

Travels often to India, and speaks Hindi. She is active in several non-profit, NGOs that serve to bring inter-faith harmony amongst the many cultures and spiritual orientations of the world.

She and reknowned Bollywood percussionist and composer Sivamani performed live in Dharamsala, India for His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and approximately 20,000 other monks and visitors from around the world, on occasion of the March 10th, 2004 anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising Day. This was the first time in the 45 year history of this event, that any musicians or entertainers had performed.

She is a trained singer, who has studied for over 14 years in Western cal, Musical Theatre, Jazz, Pop, Blues, and Eastern Devotional vocal mediums.

She is currently writing an album with world-reknowned Indian percussionist and composer, "The Wizard," Sivamani. Sivamani has played with thousands of diverse artists, ranging from Miles Davis, Michael Jackson, rapper Jay-Z and jazz great John McLaughlin - to revered Indian Maestros Zakir Hussein, tabla, mandolin Maestro U. Srinivasan, and Shankar, the world's sole master of the double violin, ofen seen and heard on Peter Gabriel's tours and recordings. Sivamani is best known as the right hand man of internationally acclaimed Bollywood virtuoso composer A.R. Rahman, and has composed and played on hundreds of pop and hit filmi soundtracks, as well as Rahman and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Broadway smash, Bombay Dreams. Sivamani and A.R. Rahman have been friends since their early youth, both born and raised in Tamil Nadu, South India.