Michigan is the 11th largest state by area and is known for having the most shoreline of any other state in America.
Kristen Bell was born and raised in Huntington Woods, Michigan. The actress lived there with her parents, who sadly split when she was two, meaning that she mainly grew up between houses.
Read more below about Kristen’s early life, her acting career and her family today.
Growing Up in Michigan
Michigan is a state in American situated in the Great Lakes and Midwestern regions. It’s name derives from the Ojibwe word “mishigami” which roughly translates to “large water” or “large lake”. The state has over 11,000 inland lakes and nearly 10 million residents, spread out over eighty-three counties.
Kristen Bell was born in Michigan on July 19, 1980, and was raised in the Detroit suburbs. She recalls her childhood as a happy one, her mother, Lorelei, a registered nurse, and her father, Tom Bell, a television news director.
Interestingly, Kristen’s mother is of Polish descent, whilst Tom, Kristen’s father, has German, Scottish and Irish ancestry. However, Kristen’s parents divorced when she was only sixth months old.
Fortunately, the split didn’t cause Kristen much distress, “I really feel close to both families,” she told Michelle Caruso in a New York Daily News interview, “because I was split pretty evenly between the two.” Kristen has no full siblings but has two stepsisters from her father’s second marriage, as well as two half-sisters and two half-brothers from her mother’s second marriage.
Kristen’s Acting Career
Kristen began acting at a young age, appearing in commercials and on television at only 13 years old. After graduating from high school, Kristen moved to New York City to study Musical Theater at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
However, in 2001 Bell left university to enter into her first Broadway show, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in which she played Becky Thatcher, and the following year was cast in a Broadway revival of The Crucible.
Her breakthrough though would be Veronica Mars, an American teen mystery drama, which first premiered in 2004 and went on to produce 4 seasons and a film, all with Bell as the main character. However, Bell’s most recent, and arguably most successful works, have been her roles in the Frozen franchise and Netflix series, The Good Place.
Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard
Bell began dating back Dax Shepard back in 2007. The couple have co-starred in a few different films over the years, the first being When in Rome, made in 2010, the second was Hit and Run, made in 2012, and their final and most recent film together was CHiPs, shot in 2017.
Once the Defense of Marriage Act was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, Kristen asked Dax to marry her in a tweet. Back in 2013 the actress wrote, “will you marry me? Xo #marriageequality #loveislove.” Shepard replied saying, “DOMA is dead. Prop 8 is dead. Now let’s bring my big, gay marriage to @IMKristenBell to Life!!!!” The pair were officially married on October 16, 2013, at the Beverly Hills County Clerk’s Office.
Later the same year, Kristen gave birth to their first daughter and the following year they had a second child together. Kristen keeps a lot of her personal life private. However, short videos and pictures of her husband and children playing together during family breaks can be seen on her Instagram and Twitter feeds.
In 2016, Kristen posted an adorable snap of Dax and one of their children out enjoying Lake Michigan, with the picture captioned, “first daddy daughter swim in Lake Michigan-a right of passage for any Mitten baby.” Click the link below to see the Kristen’s post.
As well as this, more recently, in the summer of 2019, Kristen posted a short clip on Twitter showing her husband and two daughters swimming out in one of the great lakes of Michigan State. See the full post by following the link below.