Tiffani-Amber Thiessen (born January 23, 1974) is an American television and film actress. After many years of going by her full name, she is now credited as simply Tiffani Thiessen. As a child, she competed in many beauty pageants, and she won the Miss Junior America pageant in 1987. Her first big break in show business was her role on the television program Saved By The Bell, as nice girl teen Kelly Kapowski, a role she continued playing in the short lived Saved by the Bell: The College Years. This was very different from her next major role, as a duplicitous vixen, Valerie, on Beverly Hills, 90210. She later starred in the sitcom Two Guys and a Girl and the short-lived action show Fastlane.
Her transition to movies has not gone well so far, as most of her movies, including Love Stinks, have been critically panned. In 2002, she appeared in the film Hollywood Ending by Woody Allen.
She also guest starred as "Amy" on the television show Just Shoot Me!.
In March 1999, her boyfriend at the time, actor David Strickland (Suddenly Susan), committed suicide.
In 2005, she released a short (21 minute) film she had directed called "Just Pray". It placed at several film festivals. It was the first major effort from her new production company, Tit4Tat Productions.
On July 9, 2005, she married actor Brady Smith and they honeymooned in the Greek Islands. It is the first marriage for both.
Her father, Frank, was a park designer and her mother, Robyn, was a homemaker. She is of German, Greek, Turkish and Welsh descent. "I'm a mutt. I have so much of everything in me, and half of it I don't even know. German on one side; Greek, Turkish and Welsh on the other. My mom is very olive-skinned; I get my blue eyes from my dad." Her brother, Todd, was a really big inspiration to her.
