Chyler Leigh — Acting | Biography, Movies & Career

Biography

Chyler Leigh (born April 10, 1982) is an American actress, best known for portraying Dr. Lexie Grey on Grey's Anatomy and Alex Danvers on Supergirl.

Born in Charlotte, North Carolina and raised in Virginia Beach and Miami Beach, Chyler began her career in front of the camera at age 12 modeling for magazines and catalogues. Her success in print later led to national commercials for Coca Cola and Wendy's, among others.

By age 16, she had already completed several pilots (ABC's Wilder Days (2000) and the WB's Saving Graces (1999)) at the onset. Aaron Spelling confirmed the young actress's talent when he hired her a few years ago as a series regular in the WB series Safe Harbor (1999) after seeing her performance on Saving Graces (1999). She also guest-starred on 7th Heaven (1996) in a powerful three-story arc wherein her character, "Frankie", a young, inept mother had adversely influenced the family.

Leigh made her film debut in the Colombia/Tri-Star hit comedy spoof Not Another Teen Movie (2001), which opened nationwide December, 2001. She originally auditioned for a smaller role, but the producers and directors were so impressed with her performance that they invited her to read for the lead. Leigh was stunned by her good fortune.

By January of 2002, Leigh had already landed a series role on the Fox comedy That '80s Show (2002) (from the producers of "That '70s Show"). The mid season comedy series portrayed Leigh as a rebellious teenager on the Fox Network. After the short-lived run, the series was canceled, and Leigh was immediately brought to executive producer David E. Kelley for consideration in his new Fox series Girls Club (2002). Three days later, Leigh was flown for the New York up-fronts where she was introduced as one of the new series leads, "Sarah Mickle", a young attorney, on Fox's 2002 Girls Club (2002).

After only two episodes of Girls Club (2002) had aired, Leigh received a personal phone call from Kelley informing her of the show's cancellation and his desire to bring her forward to his already established series The Practice (1997). With only a matter of weeks between shows, Leigh was at work on the set of ABC's The Practice (1997) as "Claire Wyatt", a new Series Regular for the 2002-2003 season. In 2004, Leigh was reunited with Fox for their new half hour comedy pilot "Lucky Us". Chyler landed the starring role of the free-wheeling conservative young architect, "Lucy Reed". Weeks later, Leigh made a guest starring appearance as "Kate Spangler", a feisty young ad exec, in Fox's new drama series North Shore (2004)".

Later in the season, Leigh took a brief break from Fox to shoot a series lead role opposite Billy Campbell in the WB's drama pilot Rocky Point (2005). The series was centered on a young woman (Leigh) living on Hawaii's North Shore who takes in her estranged father (Campbell).