Shiri Appleby

Biography

Shiri Freda Appleby is an American actress. She is best known for her leading roles as Liz Parker in the WB/UPN science fiction drama series Roswell and Rachel Goldberg in the Lifetime/Hulu drama series Unreal.

Appleby was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Dina Appleby (née Bouader), a Jewish day school teacher, and Jerry Appleby, a telecommunications executive. Her mother Israeli-born is of Sephardic Jewish (Moroccan-Jewish) descent, and her father is American and of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Appleby’s mother was an actress in Israel. She and her younger brother Evan were raised in Calabasas in Los Angeles County. They observed kosher in their home growing up. She attended Hebrew school, and had a Bat Mitzvah.

Appleby graduated from Calabasas High School in 1997. She attended University of Southern California from 1998 to 1999, where she studied English. After two years she got the starring role in Roswell and was working steadily, but while shooting Life Unexpected in 2010, Appleby started to work towards a psychology degree from the online University of Phoenix. It took her 14 months, while also working, to complete the degree in 2012.

In July 2012, Appleby got engaged to her boyfriend of two years, chef and restaurateur Jon Shook, during a trip to Ventotene, Italy.