Larisa Romanovna Oleynik was born in Santa Clara County, California. Her parents are Lorraine (a former nurse) and Roman Oleynik (an anesthesiologist) – she is an only child. Larisa grew up in the San Francisco area of California and raised in the Russian Orthodox religion since her father’s family is Russian.

At the tender age of eight, Larisa began her career in acting. After seeing an audition ad in a newspaper, she won the part of young Cosette and began acting in a regional production of “Les Misérables”. After appearing in the musical, she contacted an agent and began taking acting lessons to hone her craft. Larisa then began her screen acting career at age 12, in a 1993 episode of the television series “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman”. The same year, she also appeared in her first film, the made-for-television film “River of Rage: The Taking of Maggie Keene”. Soon after, Larisa was then cast in the lead role of the TV series “The Secret World of Alex Mack”, playing a teenage girl who receives telekinetic powers as the result of an accident. The series ran on Nickelodeon from 1994 to 1998 and was one of the network’s top three most watched shows, becoming a favorite among teen audiences and turning Larisa into a teen idol.

Despite the success in her role as Alex Mack, Larisa decided to focus on school and quit “The Secret World of Alex Mack” in 1997. Her and her family moved back up to Northern California where Larisa finished her senior year of high school with her friends. After graduation, Larisa attended Pinewood School and later Sarah Lawrence College, graduating in 2004. She called her attendance at Sarah Lawrence “the best decision I’ve made”.

After leaving “The Secret World of Alex Mack”, Larisa moved on to acting in various films and TV shows. She had a starring role in the film “10 Things I Hate About You”, a teen comedy also starring Julia Stiles, Andrew Keegan, Heath Ledger, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The film was released in April 1999 and did fairly well at the box office, grossing a total of $38 million domestically. In 1999–2000, Larisa appeared in 21 episodes of the NBC series “3rd Rock from the Sun” (alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt). The same year, she appeared in two independent films: “100 Girls” (opposite Emmanuelle Chriqui, Katherine Heigl and Jonathan Tucker) and “A Time for Dancing” (opposite Shiri Appleby); neither film received a theatrical release in the United States. Other films she starred in during the early 2000′s were the film “An American Rhapsody”, which received a limited release in August 2001, and “Bringing Rain”, a low-budget film.

After college, Larisa began acting again. She appeared in “Malcolm in the Middle” as Reese’s lesbian army buddy, who developed a crush on his mom, Lois. Then she was cast in a supporting role in the series “Pepper Dennis”, which began airing on The WB in April 2006. The series only ran for 13 episodes, with Larisa appearing in only 2 episodes. In March 2008, Larisa guest-starred in an episode of “Aliens in America”, a comedy series that aired on the CW. Larisa also landed supporting roles in the films “Broken Windows”, “Together Again for the First Time” and “Backyard Wedding” as well as guest appearances on the shows “Without a Trace”, “Psych” and “Mad Men”.

In March 2011, Larisa started appearing in a recurring role on the hit CBS drama “Hawaii Five-0″ as CIA analyst Jenna Kaye.

Updated: June 17, 2011
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