Maggie Grace is an American film and television actress. She made her acting debut at the age of 18 with a titular role in the web series Rachel’s Room, and subsequently rose to prominence through roles in popular television shows like CSI: Miami, Law and Order and Lost. Since then, she has appeared in the Tom Cruise starrer Knight and Day (2010), Decoding Annie Parker (2012) and major movie franchises like the Taken trilogy and the Twilight Saga.
Early Life
Born Margaret Grace Denig in Worthington, Ohio, Grace is the oldest of the three children of Valinn and Fred Denig. While studying in Thomas Worthington High School, she started appearing in numerous plays and became a part of the local community theatre, which sparked her interest in acting. Following the divorce of her parents, Grace dropped out of high school and moved to Los Angeles with her mother.
Personal Life
Maggie Grace began dating her Lost co-star Ian Somerhalder in 2006, but the couple broke up soon after. Between 2008 and 2009, she dated the entrepreneur Blake Mycoskie.
In 2015, Grace announced her engagement to writer-director Matthew Cooke. However, an year later, the actress announced that they had split up.
Movie Career
Maggie Grace began her film career with a titular role in the web-based series Rachel’s Room (2001), which delved into the inner world of a teenage girl. She then appeared in films like Shop Club (2002) and Creature Unknown (2004), before landing a lead role in the remake of the 1980 horror film Fog (2005). The film, which was the actress’ first major theatrical release, was a critical and commercial failure. Grace’s next role was in the romantic comedy Suburban Girl (2007), where she appeared alongside Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alec Baldwin. In the same year, she played an openly lesbian character, Chloe, in the romantic drama The Jane Austen Book Club (2007). The movie opened to positive reviews and was a moderate box office success.
Her breakout role came in 2008, when she starred alongsideLiam Neeson in the action thriller Taken. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing close to $230 million at the box office. Grace then bagged the lead role in Malice In Wonderland (2009), a modern-day adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. In 2010, she appeared in a supporting role in the
Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz starrer Knight and Day and a lead role in the action thriller Faster, where she starred alongside Dwayne Johnson. Both the films fared well at the box office despite the mixed critical reception. Experiment (2010), which was based on the Stanford Prison Experiment, came out in the same year.
In 2011, Grace portrayed Irina inBreaking Dawn: Part 1 - the first of the two part finale to the Twilight Saga franchise. She reprised two of her most popular roles in the following year, with Breaking Dawn: Part 2 and Taken 2. Both the movies went on to become blockbusters and remain the highest grossing films of their respective franchises till date.
After a one-year hiatus, the actress returned to the silver screen with three releases in 2014. The third installment in the Taken franchise – Taken 3 – was again a commercial success, but received mainly negative reviews. The other two films that released that year, We’ll Never Have Paris and About Alex, couldn’t make much of a mark either critically or commercially. While the romantic drama The Choice (2016) had Grace playing a minor supporting role, she was seen in the lead role in the Lifetime film Showing Roots (2016). The period drama, which was set in the 1970s, told the story of two women who set out to unite their small town at a time of heightened racial tensions. The movie was well-received.
The Scent of Rain and Lightning, the comedy Supercon and the drama thriller Aftermath are some of the actress’ most anticipated projects in 2017.
Television Career
Grace’s breakout role on television was in the television movie Murder In Greenwich (2002). Her performance in the telefilm earned her a Young Artist Award nomination for Best Performance in a TV Movie, Mini-Series or Special . She then went on to guest-star in CSI: Miami, Miracles and Law and Order.
Grace’s most popular role on came in 2004, when she was cast in a leading role in the adventure drama Lost. She was nominated for a Teen Choice Award for Breakout Performance for her role in Lost. In 2013, Grace guest-starred in ten episodes in the sixth season of Californication (2013), where she portrayed a groupie named Faith, who captures the attention of the protagonist Hank Moody (David Duchovny).
Since then, she has appeared in the web-series Susanna and the critically acclaimed period drama Masters of Sex.