Shannyn Sossamon
Gender: Female
DOB: 3 October 1978
Nationality: American
Ethnicity: Native Hawaiian-Filipino-German-English-Dutch-French-Irish
Shannon Marie Kahololani Sossamon, popularly known as Shannyn Sossamon, is an American actress and musician. After graduating from high school, she moved to Los Angeles to study dance; instead, she started working as a model mainly for television commercials. Her first major film role was in A Knight’s Tale, a box office success that brought Sossamon much more recognition. It was followed by appearances in comedies such as 40 Days and 40 Nights and The Rules of Attraction. She did further film work in the features The Order, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and The Holiday.
Sossamon was cast in the indie comedy Wristcutters: A Love Story, where her performance was critically acclaimed, and later had the starring part on the CBS supernatural drama, Moonlight, that ran for one season from 2007 to 2008. She played the lead role of troubled Beth Raymond in the horror film One Missed Call, another box office success that earned her a Teen Choice Award nomination. She has focused on smaller scale projects as well, appearing in a number of independent films, including Life Is Hot in Cracktown, Road to Nowhere, The Day and The End of Love. She has also done more television work, as in the first seasons of HBO’s comedy How to Make It in America and ABC’s drama Mistresses. Sossamon signed on to appear as a series regular in M. Night Shyamalan’s limited show for FOX, Wayward Pines, which premiered on May 14, 2015.
As a musician, she provided vocals and drums to Warpaint from 2004 to 2008, when she left the group to focus more on acting. Sossamon’s sole recording with the band is the 2009 EP, Exquisite Corpse. Sossamon has directed and produced short and musical videos, released through Maudegone Theater, an online-video project she created on her own in 2010.