Famous for her double portrayal of Niki Sanders and Tracy Strauss in NBC’s sci-fi thriller drama, Heroes, Alison Elizabeth "Ali" Larter is a TV and film actress and a former Ford model. She made her on-screen debut with the coming-of-age sports comedy film Varsity Blue and then went on to appear in movies like House on Haunted Hill (1999),
Legally Blonde (2001),
Marigold (2007), and The Diabolical (2015). She has also been a part of the Final Destination and Resident Evil franchises. Juggling well between her movie and television career, some of Ali Carter’s small screen credits include The League, aired on FXX and Pitch, aired on Fox.
Early Life
Born in New Jersey, India, to Danforth Larter, a trucking executive and Margaret, a real estate agent, Ali Larter left her schooling midway to pursue a career in modeling, after she was spotted and signed by the Ford modeling agency. Only 13 years old back then, Carter started traveling to countries like Australia, Italy, and Japan for her assignments. She eventually shifted to Los Angeles to study acting.
Personal Life
Ali Carter tied the knot with her longtime boyfriend
Hayes MacArthur, in a private ceremony in August 2009. A stand-up comedian, and actor, MacArthur met Carter on the set of the comedy film Homo Erectus, in which they both starred along with Giuseppe Andrews,
Gary Busey,
David Carradine, and Ron Jeremy. Carter was ready to marry McArthur, just three weeks after she began dating him, but the couple had to wait 19 months for the marriage to happen. The couple has two children- a boy, Theodore Hayes MacArthur, born in 2010 and a girl, Vivienne Margaret MacArthur, born in 2015
Movie Career
Larter broke into the Hollywood industry with Brian Robbins’ Varsity Blues. In spite of having a small role in the movie, she garnered a lot of public attention, owing to her bikini scene. Later, she appeared in horror films like House on Haunted Hill (1999) and
Final Destination (2000), which further cemented her movie career. She next featured as Brooke Taylor Windham in the comedy film Legally Blonde (2001), which starred
Reese Witherspoon in the lead. In the same year, in 2001, Larter starred along with Colin Farrell in the comedy film American Outlaws, which was a box-office disaster.
Two years later, she reprised her role as Clear Rivers in the second installment of the Final Destination film series. Even though the movie failed to generate favorable reviews critically, it was a huge commercial success, opening at number 2 with $16 million, in 2003. She further appeared in movies like Three Way (2004), A Lot Like Love (2005), Confess (2005), and Homo Erectus (2007). In 2007, she starred opposite Bollywood superstar
Salman Khan in the romantic musical Marigold. Based on the life of an American actress who comes to India and experiences a transformation of sorts, the movie was heavily criticized for a mediocre plot and failed to create any stir both in India and America.
Ali Larter was then roped in, for the third installment of the sci-fi action horror film
Resident Evil: Extinction. Directed by
Russell Mulcahy, the movie was met mostly with negative reviews. In 2009, she along with
Idris Elba, and
Beyoncé Knowles featured in another box-office dud, Obsessed, directed by Steve Shill. For the tussle scene between Sharon and Lisa, the characters essayed by Beyonce and Ali, respectively, the movie bagged an award for Best Fight at the 2010 MTV Movie Awards.
In the following years, she reprised her role as Claire Redfield in the fifth and sixth sequel of the Resident Evil franchise-
Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) and
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016), with both the movies being big successes commercially.
Television Career
She was a series regular on NBC’s sci-fi thriller drama, Heroes, winning the Teen Choice Award for Choice Television Actress: Action Adventure. Larter has also appeared in single episodes on shows like Suddenly Susan (1997), Chicago Sons (1997), Chicago Hope (1998), Just Shoot Me! (1998) and Dawson's Creek (1998).