TRAFFIC Star Erika Christensen Wants a Singing Career

Erika Christensen announced she intends to embark on a singing career.

The 23-year-old actress, who has been praised by all her friends for her vocal skills, decided to take a step forward and share her talent with the world.

"I have thought about (launching a singing career) and I will do it. I'm kind of just biding my time because I want to sing my own material and I don't really have any", the Traffic star confessed.

Erika Christensen was born in Seattle, Washington on August 19, 1982.
At the age of four, she moved to Los Angeles with her family.

At eleven, Erika started singing, dancing and acting with professional children's theatre groups, as well as volunteering to perform for foster family events and community groups. Within a year, she had performed in hundreds of shows throughout Southern California and in many venues including The Serendipity Theatre Company and the Pasadena Dance Theatre
At the age of twelve, Erika declared her life-long goal to be an actress. She immediately started working professionally and enrolled in a school that allowed her to continue her academic studies while working on film sets.

At thirteen, she landed the coveted role of "Karen", Wally Cleaver's girlfriend in Universal Picture's feature film Leave It To Beaver.

Erika Christensen graduated the Voyager Charter School at the age of sixteen with a 4.0 grade average at the top of her class of 1998. She continued to perform in popular television shows and was nominated for the Best Performance by a Young Actress in a TV Series Drama Award by the Hollywood Reporter.

At seventeen, Erika starred as Michael Douglas' drug addicted daughter in Steven Soderbergh's Oscar and Golden Globe winning film, Traffic. The part earned her the Movieline Award for "Standout Performance" and MTV's "Breakthrough Performance Female" Award.

Since Traffic, Erika has played the daughter of Susan Sarandon in Fox Searchlight's, The Banger Sisters, co-starring Goldie Hawn and Geoffrey Rush.

She also appeared in the 20th Century Fox film Swimfan, that debuted as #1 at the box office, in which she reprises a classic femme fatale role in a love triangle, and in Paramount Pictures The Perfect Score.
In 2004 Erika made her screen singing debut playing the role that was immortalized in Emily Bronte's book Wuthering Heights as Cate Earnshaw , in MTV's Television adaptation of Wuthering Heights. (www.erikachristensen.com)