Kelli Renee Williams (not to be confused with Kellie Shanygne Williams) is an American actress best known for her roles on The Practice and Lie to Me.
Biography
Williams was born in Los Angeles, California, to actress Shannon Wilcox and plastic surgeon John Williams, both of whom divorced when she was thirteen years old. She has one brother, named Sean Doyle, and two half-brothers. She earned her Screen Actors Guild card before her first birthday by appearing in a diapers commercial, and appeared in several other commercials as a child. She attended elementary school at Lycée Français de Los Angeles. Williams graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1988; there, she was active in the performing arts department. After she starred opposite Steven Burton in the school production of Romeo and Juliet, Williams was signed onto a full acting career by an agent.
Williams began her career on television with a role in a second-season episode of the CBS series Beauty and the Beast and also as Yolanda Washington, the first victim of the Hillside Stranglers, in NBC's TV movie The Case of the Hillside Stranglers. She made her first feature film appearances in Zapped Again! and There Goes My Baby, and also appeared in The Young Riders. In 1994, she portrayed Jennifer Stolpa in the TV movie Snowbound: The Jim and Jennifer Stolpa Story. Williams then guest-starred on the hit Fox teen drama Party of Five in its first season in 1994, as well as a second-season Law & Order episode.
Beginning with the eleventh episode of the sci-fi series Earth 2, Williams appeared in a multiple-episode story-arc, starring Mary, a human orphan raised on another planet by the indigenous alien species known as the Terrians. She also appeared in the fourth and final season of the TV series Picket Fences, starring as an Amish woman who was raped. In 1997, Williams took her most prominent role as Lindsay Dole Donnell on the ABC legal drama The Practice. She also appeared in the series The Lyon's Den and Hack, as well as two episodes of Scrubs. She later appeared as Dr. Natalie Durant on the NBC TV series Medical Investigation, which began on fall 2004 and ran for a total of twenty episodes before its cancellation. Also, in 2004, Williams starred in the TV movie A Boyfriend for Christmas.
In 2000, Williams starred in the TV movie Flowers for Algernon, which was based on the novel by Daniel Keyes. On May 2007, she portrayed Holly Lauren/Kathleen Shaw in a season finale of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, portraying a neighbor and later girlfriend to Detective Mike Logan; her character eventually dies towards the end of the episode. On August 2008, Williams was cast in another well-known lead role of hers, portraying psychologist Dr. Gillian Foster in the FOX series Lie to Me, which ran for three seasons and ended in 2011. On April 2011, Williams was cast in a guest role as Shelley Chamberlain, a grieving mother who goes on a killing spree in the CBS series Criminal Minds. On October 2011, she was cast in a guest role as an abducted child's mother in the CBS series The Mentalist. On 2012, Williams portrayed recurring character Jackie Clark in the Lifetime TV series Army Wives, who was quickly upgraded to a series regular.
On 1996, Williams married author Ajay Sahgal, with whom they had three children: Kiran Ram (b. May 1998), Sarame Jane (b. February 3, 2001), and Ravi Lyndon (b. July 11, 2003).
On Criminal Minds
Williams portrayed female spree killer Shelley Chamberlain in the Season Six episode Hanley Waters.
Filmography
- Army Wives (2012-2013) as Jackie Clarke/Jackie Clark (32 episodes)
- Any Day Now (2012) as Miss Flemming
- The Mentalist (2011) as Beth Flint
- Criminal Minds - Hanley Waters (2011) TV episode - Shelley Chamberlain
- Lie to Me (2009-2011) as Dr. Gillian Foster (48 episodes)
- The Space Between (2010) as Junkie
- Men in Trees (2007-2008) as Julia Switzer
- The One That Got Away (2008) as Joanna
- Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2007) as Holly Lauren/Kathleen Shaw
- Murder on Pleasant Drive (2006) as Deanna Whelen
- Medical Investigation (2004-2005) as Dr. Natalie Durant (20 episodes)
- Third Watch (2005) as Dr. Natalie Durant
- A Boyfriend for Christmas (2004) as Holly Grant
- Hack (2003) as Charlotte Weston
- The Lyon's Den (2003) as Attorney Monica Crane (3 episodes)
- The Practice (1997-2003) as Lindsay Dole (145 episodes)
- Scrubs (2002) as Kristen Murphy (2 episodes)
- Flowers for Algernon (2000) as Alice Kinian
- It's a Shame About Ray (2000) as Anna (short)
- Sweetwater (1999) as Cami Carlson
- Kismet as Kelly (1998) (short)
- Ally McBeal (1998) as Lindsay Dole
- Mary & Tim (1996) as Justine Melville
- E=mc2 (1996) as Claire Higgins
- Picket Fences (1996) as Hannah Mary Beiler
- Voice from the Grave (1996) as Yvonne Shuster
- New York News (1995) as Ellie (13 episodes)
- Earth 2 (1995) as Mary (2 episodes)
- Party of Five (1994) as Annie Alcott
- There Goes My Baby (1994) as Sunshine
- Snowbound: The Jim and Jennifer Stolpa Story (1994) as Jennifer Stolpa
- Mr. Jones (1993) as Kelli
- Lifepod (1993) as Rena Jahnusia
- For Their Own Good (1993) as Erma
- Her Final Fury: Betty Broderick, the Last Chapter (1992) as Kate Broderick (TV movie)
- Sisters (1992) as Sarah Nolan
- Law & Order (1992) as Maggie Corson
- A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story (1992) as Kate Broderick
- The Young Riders (1991) as Emily Metcalfe
- Switched at Birth (1991) as Irisa
- CBS Schoolbreak Special (1991) as Cassie O'Brian
- My Life as a Babysitter (1990) as Kelly
- Elvis (1990) as Mattie Walker (13 episodes)
- Zapped Again! (1990) as Lucy Kaminsky (video)
- Quantum Leap (1989) as Shannon
- Island Son (1989) as Elisa Bordinet
- CBS Summer Playhouse (1989) as Natalie
- Out on the Edge (1989) as Melissa
- Day by Day (1989) as Ross' Girlfriend (3 episodes)
- The Case of the Hillside Stranglers (1989) as Margaret Wilson
- Beauty and the Beast (1989) as Young Lisa
DIRECTOR
- Army Wives (2013)
- The Practice (2004)
PRODUCER
- It's a Shame About Ray (2004) - Producer (short)
LINKS
For an up-to-date filmography, see here.