Alicia Silverstone was born on October 4, 1976. She made her film debut in the 1993 film, The Crush. There, music video director Marty Callner spotted her and helped her launch her career with three Aerosmith videos, now infamous among the music video world. In Clueless, she captured America's heart with an admirable, breakout performance as Cher, a ditzy Beverly Hills high-schooler. With her trademark grin, Hollywood jumped on this new starlet. Paramount signed Silverstone to a deal to produce and star in two movies for between 7 and 10 million dollars. Now, with Excess Baggage coming out and Batman & Robin released just this last summer, it seems that Silverstone is on the fast track to success. But then again, Hollywood is a lucrative business and one never knows. One thing is for sure, though. Alicia Silverstone has already gained a loyal following among movie-goers everywhere.

With her tender, titillating presence in films and music videos, Alicia Silverstone elicits tingles in adolescent boys and dirty old men alike. Now, however, Silverstone has blossomed beyond her testosterone-laden core audience. In 1995, she put her naughty freshness to use in director Amy Heckerling's Clueless; Silverstone's performance as a good-hearted Beverly Hills teenager won critical and box-office kudos. She very quickly became Hollywood's next big t hing and was signed to a $10 million deal with Columbia Pictures--big numbers for a nineteen-year-old.

A San Francisco native, Silverstone launched her career at the age of six in a series of swimsuit snapshots taken by her father, a real estate investor. Those photos begat a steady stream of modeling gigs--including a Domino's TV commercial--and casting agents soon noticed her nubile charisma. After a guest shot on ABC's The Wonder Years, Silverstone signed up for her cinematic debut as a man-obsessed young woman in 1993's The Crush. Before filming began, Silverstone legally became an emancipated minor in order to evade child labor laws that would have restricted her working hours.

The Crush bombed with critics, but the Beavis and Butt-head set found Silverstone's presence quite compelling. She then further agitated the country's hormone pool with a trio of wildly successful music videos for a group of prehistoric rockers called Aerosmith. Though she had captivated countless high school students, Silverstone herself dropped out of Beverly Hills High because of career demands. That's not to impart on her some sort of airhead status, as Silverstone has displayed considerable show-business savvy: she doesn't do nude scenes ("As if!"); she declined a role on post-Brenda Beverly Hills, 90210; she agreed to play Batgirl in the next Batman installment; and, as part of her Columbia package, she secured a three-year, non-exclusive first-look deal for her First Kiss Productions. Hot and bothered itself, Hollywood is betting big that Alicia Silverstone will continue to capture America's fancy. Speaking of big, Silverstone was recently skewered in the press for packing on some post-Clueless pounds. But no worries, it seems she fits just fine into her Batgirl costume.