Who is: Who is Olivia Jane d'Abo ?

Monday, September 14, 2009

Who is Olivia Jane d'Abo ?

Who is Olivia Jane d'Abo? ^[1] The acting world knows her as a London-born actress Olivia D'Abo, she is most widely known as Kevin Arnold's hippie sister, Karen, on The Wonder Years. She is an English actress and singer-songwriter.

Olivia d'Abo's was born 22 January 1969 in Paddington, London, England.
Tthe daughter of Maggie (née London), a model and actress, and Mike d'Abo, a singer and member of the Manfred Mann band.^[6] She has three brothers and one sister: elder brother Benjamin, younger brother Bruno, the younger siblings twins Ella and Louis (born November 2007). Olivia and Ben both attended high school in the US at Los Feliz Hills School (formerly "The Apple School") in Los Angeles.^[5]
Her film debut was in the supporting role of Princess Jehnna in Conan the Destroyer, released in June 1984.^[2] Just 2 months later,^[3] she also appeared in the supporting role of the peasant girl Paloma in Bolero, in which she had a controversial nude scene - she was fourteen^{[citation needed]} at the time the movie was filmed.

From 1988, She was in the main cast of The Wonder Years in the first four seasons. Her character "Karen Arnold" was the hippie sister in the family. In 1992, she guest starred in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "True Q" as Amanda Rogers. As the recurring villainess Nicole Wallace she made five appearances over a six-year period on television crime-drama Law & Order: Criminal Intent. On the Sci-Fi channel series Eureka she has the recurring role of Abby Carter, ex-wife of Sheriff Jack Carter.

She has had numerous supporting roles in television programs and movies, such as Spirit of '76 (1990), Greedy (1994) and The Twilight Zone (2002). On stage, she appeared in the 2005 Broadway production of The Odd Couple with Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane.

In animation, she was the voice of Jedi Luminara Unduli in "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (2008); Jane in "The Legend of Tarzan" (2001-2003); Sonya Blade in "Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm" (1996).

Olivia d'Abo is singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist.^[4] She has composed and performed for various soundtracks. Her single "Broken" is from the movie "Loving Annabelle".

Her debut album Not TV^[4] contains :

Undertow
Half Mad and Never Pleased
Revolution
Ne'er Do Well
Medicine Girl
When I Was Bad
Addicted
Wide Open Spaces
Caroline
Catastrophe

Other musical projects d'Abo has worked on include: backing vocals for Julian Lennon's "Help Yourself", an acoustic duet version of Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer", produced by Leonard, that appears on their This Left Feels Right hits CD,^[5] and a duet with Seal "Broken". D'Abo also wrote the title track and background vocals for Latin singing star Laura Pausini's "Love Comes from the Inside".

Olivia is the first cousin once removed of Maryam d'Abo, the actress best known for her performance as Kara Milovy in the 1987 James Bond film The Living Daylights.

Olivia was married to music producer and songwriter Patrick Leonard, from whom she is now estranged. She has one child, Oliver William d'Abo, born 11 November 1995. She was engaged to actor Thomas Jane from 1998 to 2001. They worked in several projects together including The Velocity of Gary and Jonni Nitro, of which Jane directed the last two episodes. d'Abo also wrote and performed the title theme to Jonni Nitro.