About Kelli Giddish

BIOGRAPHY

• Birth Place: Not Available
• DATE of Birth / Zodiac Sign: 04/13/1980, Aries
• Profession: Actor

Kelli Giddish Fast Facts:

• Began acting in community theater productions at age 6.
• Played on her high-school softball team.
• Appeared in the short-lived Broadway-bound play Bobbi Boland opposite Farrah Fawcett after arriving in New York in 2002.
• Costarred in the Web sitcom The Burg.
• Made television debut on the ABC soap opera All My Children in 2005.  
• Filmed Past Life in Atlanta, Georgia, located about 45 minutes from her hometown of Cumming.
• Spent a week with real U.S. Marshals to prepare for her starring role in NBC's Chase.

• Kelli Giddish Relationships:
• Eli Giddish - Brother
• Ralph Giddish - Grandfather
• Nita Giddish - Mother
• Charles Giddish - Father
• Dosia Hildebrand - Grandmother
• College:
• University of Evansville, Evansville, IN
  
  Courtesy of Tv Guide

                                                           EXTENDED BIOGRAPHY

Kelli Giddish (born April 13, 1980) is an American television, stage, and film actress. She is best known for her role as Detective Amanda Rollins  in the NBC television legal crime drama series, Law & Order Special Victims Unit(2011–present). Giddish has also starred on such television shows as the ABC soap opera, All My Children (2005–2007); the short-lived FOX crime drama series, Past Life(2010); and the NBC crime drama series,  CHASE(2010–2011).

Early life


Giddish was born in Cumming, Georgia. She is the daughter of Charles Giddish and wife Nita, and has a brother named Eli Giddish. Her paternal grandfather Ralph L. Giddish (Georgia, ca. 1923) enlisted in the United States Army on March 18, 1943 and was a World War II veteran and nudged her interest in acting along by taking her to the fox Theater  in Atlanta  and her maternal grandmother Dosia Hildebrand was very supportive of her interests. Giddish graduated from Forsyth Central Highschool in 1998, WINNING Region Best Actress in the 1997 One Act competition, and was also 1998 State Literary Champion for Girls Dramatic Interpretation. Giddish graduated with honors from the Univercity of Evansville in Indiana where she majored in Theatre Performance. After graduating, she decided to move to New York City to pursue her acting career.

Career
Early careerGiddish joined the cast of All My Children in March 2005, creating the role of Di Henry. In July 2007, it was confirmed by Soap Opera Weekly magazine that Giddish and All My Children parted ways in a mutual decision and that she would make her final appearance as Di on September 19, 2007.

Giddish appeared in the film Death in Love, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and created the role of Courtney in the web series The Burg. The same people responsible for The Burg also created All's Faire in which Giddish played the role of Cindy.

Giddish, Nicholas Bishop, and Ravi Patel were cast in Fox's reincarnation drama pilot, Past Life. The WBTV-produced reincarnation project revolved around past-life investigators. Giddish played a Ph.D. in psychology and cognitive research who believes in reincarnation. It was announced on May 18, 2009 that Fox had officially placed Past Life on their midseason 2010 schedule to air at 9:00 PM EST on Tuesdays. It premiered on February 9, 2010, and was canceled on February 18.

Giddish starred as the central character, U.S. Marshal Annie Frost, in the police procedural drama Chase, which premiered on NBC in fall 2010. Giddish received rave reviews for her ability to play the lead character in the series, but it was pulled in early February 2011. On April 6, 2011, NBC decided to air five new episodes of Chase on Saturday nights with the first beginning on April 23, 2011.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit 

In January 2007, Kelli guest starred on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in the 8th season episode, "Outsider," as Kara Bawson.

It was announced on June 27, 2011 that Giddish would join the cast of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for its thirteenth season along with Cold Case's Danny Pino coinciding with the departing Christopher Meloni.  Giddish told TV Guide during Summer filming; "Everybody on the  set is really excited and energized. They've lost a family member with Chris Meloni leaving, but they've been very accepting of us. Amanda is thrilled to be here working with these people, and so am I."

In an interview with TV Guide prior to the 13th season premiere/Giddish's debut episode as Detective Amanda Rollins, "Scorched Earth", Giddish says about her character, "My character is in complete awe of Olivia, Amanda's really eager to get in there because she knows her stuff and really eager to learn. She has come from Atlanta and there was a ceiling there, so she's come up to New York." Giddish felt great about joining the series in its 13th season, "I couldn't feel better about it. ... There's no intimidation, what attracted me was the prospect of re-invigorating a franchise that's been so well-known and so well-liked, and then to be the shaker and mover." Giddish is confident that viewers will warm up to Rollins and Amaro (Pino) with time. "They're going to love us because it's not being forced in their faces," she says. "The more you know about us and the more you see us in your living room, the more you're hopefully going to love us."

At the end of season 13 of Law & Order: SVU, she and co-star Danny Pino weighed-in on their first season and both Giddish and Pino say they received not only a "very warm welcome" from SVU's cast and crew, but saw their respective characters explored more than they could hope for in their first season. "They’ve given me a lot to work with — and I hope they give me more next season," says Giddish. "Were still playing 'musical chairs' in terms of partners, and that’s a great way to go about exploring the different characters." Pino added, "That’s what you hope for when you’re putting it down on paper and discussing what you want to play. I had [pre-season] conversations with [showrunner] Warren Leight, and you hope that starts materializing — and it did. And that bodes well going into Season 14."

Giddish's partner on the show primarily is Ice-T, who has portrayed Detective Odafin "Fin" Tutuola since the 2nd season. Ice-T praised both Giddish and Pino in the wake of Chris Meloni's departure, "We had to regroup, like a football team," said Ice-T. "The quarterback changed, but we still had to move the ball down the field. And we did well." He continued with, "Danny came in, strong. Kelli came in, strong. And we shut down the doubters."

Source : wikipedia