Kristin Richardson
| Kristin Richardson | |
|---|---|
| Born | Kristin Kay Willits August 4, 1970 Shawnee Mission, Kansas, U.S. |
| Occupation | |
| Years active | 1992–present |
| Height | 5' 9" (175 cm) |
Kristin Kay Richardson (née Willits) former named Kristin Kay Willits, known after her marriage to Kevin Richardson as Kristin Richardson (born August 4, 1970 in Shawnee Mission, Kansas) is an American actress, model and back-up dancer for Cher.
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Early life and education
Kristin Kay Willits,Kristin Willits was born August 4, 1970 in Shawnee Mission, Kansas. Her parents are John Willits, a chiropractor, and Susan Patton, who works at a car dealership. She has an older sister, Tina Heut, and brother, Brad Willits. Kristin graduated from Shawnee Mission Northwest High School (She was a Cougar!) in 1988, where she was an active member of the Cougarettes Drill team, Gymnastics (co-captain of the gymnastics team, a leader, and a choreographer) team, the Cheerleading squad and staff of her school paper, The Northwest Passage. While in high school, Kristin worked at Worlds of Fun as a dancer and singer in the variety shows. She attended the University of Kansas for one semester before transferred to Oklahoma City University to study dance and graduated with a Bachelor of Performing Arts degree in Classical and Jazz Dance in 1992. Kristin worked at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Va., during the summers she was in college.[1]
Career
Early career
While in high school, Kristin worked at Worlds of Fun as a dancer and singer in the variety shows. She then worked at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia, during the summers while she was in college.
Dancing
After leaving Oklahoma in the dust, Kristin’s first job was dancing at Walt Disney World in Orlando. While performing in their stage show “Beauty and the Beast” where she played Belle, she met her future husband, Kevin Richardson, in the employee cafeteria in 1992. Kevin was performing as an Aladdin, Prince Eric, Goofy, Pluto and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle”.
After that, Kristin then left the cozy safe world of Disney to perform on the world cruise ship Royal Odyssey for a year. This adventure took her all over the world, and she did not return to the United States for 8 months. As a young girl this experience proved to be invaluable. The Big Apple called and Kristin moved to New York to auditioned for and was accepted to spend a year to perform with the Radio City Music Hall famed the Rockettes. A dream come true for any young dancer. She toured with the Will Rogers Follies company across the United States and performed “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” on Broadway, alongside Jerry Zaks, Rob Marshall, Nathan Lane and Whoopi Goldberg. She left Broadway to pursue film and television roles in Los Angeles. She then moved on to an ever bigger dream and performed the role of “Geminae” in “A Funny Thing Happended on the Way to the Forum” on Broadway. She will always be grateful for the learning experience that cam from working alongside the talents of Jerry Zaks, Rob Marshall, Nathan Lane and Whoopi Goldberg. After completing the workshop production of “Footloose” Kristin decided to leave Broadway to pursue film and television roles in Los Angeles, electing not to continue with the show for its Broadway run.
In 1999, she was one of the five dancers for Cher’s Do You Believe Tour and Do You Believe in the Believe music video. one of three dancers in Cher’s “Believe” tour. You can see her in” All Or Nothing”, Cher’s video clip which consists of different parts of “Believe” tour.
Acting career
After her time on stage, Kristin made the transition to television acting on the Comedy Central show “Viva Variety.”
In 1997, she appeared in the European version of the Backstreet Boys music video “I’ll never break your heart” as her then-boyfriend's love interest. Also, she appeared in Will Smith’s Wild Wild West video in 1999 and in Everclear’s “Rock Star” video in 2001.
When she returned to LA, she played her first role in Warner Brother’s “Rock Star” alongside Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston. Kristin has guest-starred on numerous TV shows including Angel, Charmed, Supernatural, Joey, Cold Case, NYPD Blue, and CSI.
Personal life
Kristin met Kevin Richardson, a member of the Backstreet Boys, in 1992 while they were both working at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. "She was sitting’ down with some friends and, uh, a buddy of mine came up to me and said ‘You need to ‘introduce yourself to her’ so, evidently she’d been kinda checking’ me out so he kinda gave me the green light ‘cause I’m, I was a shy type a guy, can’t just go up and ask ladies out so I went and introduced myself and later on, a couple days later I asked her for her number and asked her if she was interested in going’ out." Kevin recalls. They began a relationship and dated on and off for about seven or eight years on the down low before they took their romance public. Their first appearance together was at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards premiered on September 9, 1999.
Marriage and family
Kevin went the old fashioned route and asked her father, John Willits, for Kristin's hand in marriage. It happened in Kansas City after a Backstreet Boys concert. She decided to leave the road life when Kevin asked her to marry him. The engagement was announced to MTV News in February 2000, and the couple got married on June 17, 2000 at the Estill Cathedral Domain in Lexington, Kentucky. Kristin wore a beige wedding gown and walked barefoot on red rose pedals up to the altar. Kevin wore a suit and Versace sandals. Her twin nephews were ring-bearers, and her 1.5 year niece was the flower girl. There were 180 family and friends at the wedding. The ceremony was performed by Tim, Kevin's brother, while his other brother was the best man. The newlyweds spent their honeymoon in Italy.
After Kevin left the group in 2006, Kristin gave birth to their first child, a healthy baby boy named Mason Frey Richardson on July 3, 2007 at 4:56 a.m. He weighted 8lbs. 2 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. She took a small break from Hollywood to be a mother. 3 months after his birth, she was back working as a guest star on “CSI Miami” and playing a lead role in the independent film “Boiler Maker”. Alongside her career, Kristin is supporting Kevin in pursuing his new acting career, discovering the world again with Mason, and diving deeper into her love of photography by currently taking classes at LACC. Also, Kristin is going for her love for photography and is currently taking classes at LACC. It wasn't until 2012 when Kevin rejoined the group and this past April 2013 when he tweeted the news of his wife's second pregnancy.[2] She gave birth to her 2nd child, a son named Maxwell Haze Richardson on July 10, 2013. They have two sons Mason Frey and Maxwell Haze Richardson.[3][4] Kristin is a founding member of her husband’s environment organization Just Within Reach.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Man on the Moon | Tony Clifton Showgirl dancer | |
| 2000 | Crossings (short) | Sharon | |
| 2001 | Rock Star | Samantha | |
| 2004 | Shut Up and Kiss Me! | Jessica Preston | |
| 2005 | Laundry Night (short film) | Sydney | |
| 2005 | Jarhead | Stewardess | |
| 2006 | Final Movie | Sarah Underhill | |
| 2007 | Stan Lee's Harpies | Cecilia | |
| 2007 | Soupernatural | Kelly O'Day | |
| 2008 | Boiler Maker | Trish | |
| 2010 | Anderson's Cross | Step-Mom Missy | |
| 2012 | Between the lines (short flim) | Sally | |
| 2015 | Wingman Inc. | Kim |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Malibu, CA | Kelly | Jason's New Job |
| 2000 | The Michael Richards Show | Lorrel Canyons | It's Only Personal |
| 2001 | Once and Again | Delancey | Tough Love |
| 2003 | Charmed | Darla | Centennial Charmed |
| 2003 | Angel | Female KTLA Reporter Tracy | Peace Out |
| 2004 | Eve (TV series) | Carmen | Ride or Die Chick |
| 2004 | Two and a Half Men | Tiffany | Just Like Buffalo |
| 2004 | Lost (TV series) | Jessica | Confidence Man |
| 2005 | NYPD Blue | Elizabeth Keenan | La Bomba |
| 2005 | Cold Case | Angie Parrington | Family |
| 2005 | CSI: Crime Scene Investigation | Eva | Room Service |
| 2005 | Supernatural | Jenny | Home |
| 2006 | E-Ring | Princess Amelia | The Two Princes |
| 2006 | Out of Practice | Trisha | Yours, Mine or His? |
| 2006 | Joey | Edie | Joey and the Beard |
| 2006 | Close to Home | DeeDee Bass | Homecoming |
| 2007 | CSI: Miami | Kate Lambert | CSI: My Nanny |
| 2009 | Without a Trace | Chelsea Keyes | Chameleon |
| 2009 | Criminal Minds | Yvonne Ashford | Pleasure Is My Business |
| 2010 | CSI:NY | Sarah Hansen | Criminal Justice |
| 2010 | Numb3rs | Roxie Ray | Devil Girl |
| 2010 | The Defenders | Jen Riley | Nevada v. Riley |
| Year | Title | Artist | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Barney Live in New York City | Barney Live | Dancer, Winkster(sp) and/or the Barney Bag | |
| 1995 | I'll Never Break Your Heart | Backstreet Boys | Kevin's love interest | Music video (European version) |
| 1999 | All or Nothing (Cher song) | Cher | Female Backup Dancer | Music video |
| 1999 | Wild Wild West (hip hop song) | Will Smith | Dancer | Music video |
| 1999 | Everybody | Backstreet Boys | Dancer | American Music Awards |
| 1999 | Believe Tour | Cher | Dancer | HBO Concert |
| 2001 | Rockstar | Everclear |
References
- ↑ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0932514/bio
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External links
- (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0932514/): IMDB Link.
