Piper Perabo is best known for her breakout lead role of Violet Sanford in the 2000 film Coyote Ugly.
Perabo has had quite a successful career and has worked with many of the biggest names in Hollywood.
Even as a child, Perabo proved that she would spend her life excelling at everything from her education to her future career.
Although she may not be as big a name in Hollywood as she was in the early 2000s, she has been successful enough to diversify her income into investments that have helped propel her towards even more success.
10 Cold Hard Facts About Piper Perabo
Piper Perabo is an actress who has had many major roles that began as soon as she was 20 years old.
After she first broke into the world of film, Perabo could be found in movies throughout the early 2000s.
Perabo got her first role as Sara in the 1999 film Whiteboyz, where she told the casting director that she could rap to get an audition despite not having any experience rapping.
She quickly scheduled some lessons weeks before her audition and got the role.
However, the movie that made the world know the name Piper Perabo was Coyote Ugly.
When she went in to audition for the role, she convinced the casting team to give her the role because she lived the life that her character was living in the show.
Just like Violet Sanford, Perabo was a bartender who had moved to New York City to pursue her dreams.
This was the reason that the nearly no-name actress was able to beat out Britney Spears for the role.
The following year, she appeared in French director Léa Pool’s first English film Lost and Delirious.
The story follows a college freshman who becomes close friends with her two roommates only to find out that they’re in a relationship, which makes for some awkward situations.
Piper Perabo had found out about Léa Pool because she speaks fluent French and was a massive fan of the French director.
Her ability to speak French earned her the role of Genevieve Le Pouff, a French exchange student in the 2001 film, She Gets What She Wants.
In 2013, Perabo turned her focus from film and began taking on television roles.
Her most recent television role is Summer Higgins on Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone, which has created a loyal fanbase.
1. Was Born On Halloween
Piper Perabo was born on Halloween of 1976 in Dallas, Texas.
Her parents, George William Perabo and Mary Charlotte Perabo, named her after the actress Piper Laurie, who appeared in such projects as Twin Peaks, Carrie, and The Hustler.
Soon after she was born, her family moved to New Jersey.
This is where Perabo would spend her childhood.
Although some may assume that her last name is Portuguese, neither of her parents descends from Portuguese roots.
William Perabo is of English, Irish, and German descent while her mother is of Norwegian descent.
Her paternal great-grandfather, from whom the actress gets her name, was actually born in Germany in 1878.
With her mother being a physical therapist and her father being a professor of Poetry at Ocean County College, Perabo’s parents were quick to instill in their children the importance of their education and honing their crafts.
Throughout her school years, Piper Perabo was a dancer and even was a member of the Marinerettes for the high school football team.
While in high school, Perabo fell in love with theater and appeared in all four of her school’s yearly theater productions.
In her freshman year, she started as one of the dancers for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
The following year, she took on the role of Lady Brighton from Me and My Girl.
Perabo played Cousin Fan from Mame during her junior year of high school.
She ended her high school theater career with the role of Katie in Meet Me in St. Louis.
2. Was A National Honor Society Student
Piper Perabo may have had a lot on her plate during high school, but she never let it get in the way of her academic studies.
When she graduated from Toms River High School North as a member of the class of 1994, she was the president of her school’s National Honor Society.
Perabo was also a member of her school’s journalism club and served as an editor for the school literary magazine, Polaris.
When she graduated, she knew that she wanted to see life outside of New Jersey and to see what it was like to live on her own.
To make sure she was far enough away from her parents to feel independent while also being close enough to come home for the holidays, she decided to go to Ohio University.
Once again, Piper Perabo showed off her academic prowess and graduated summa cum laude with her bachelor’s degree in fine arts.
During her college years, Piper Perabo would go to New York to visit her boyfriend at the time.
While she was out with her boyfriend at an audition, she spotted famous casting director Denise Fitzgerald.
The two talked and Fitzgerald was more than happy to help young Perabo get an agent.
After graduating, Perabo decided to move to New York City in hopes that she could find stage or screen roles.
During this time, Perabo struggled harder than she had done before.
Although she had previously been able to work her way to success, New York brought plenty of financial struggles that left the young actress couch hopping and borrowing money so she could get to any auditions.
3. Owns Multiple New York City Bars And Restaurants
Like many celebrities before her, Piper Perabo saw the restaurant industry as her next move to increase her wealth.
Perabo may not be a New York native, but her New Yorker food habits would make you think otherwise.
Like many other citizens of New York, Perabo takes her food seriously and knows that the places to get a good meal are one of the many locally-owned restaurants and bars that New York City has to offer.
For her first restaurant venture, she invested in a speakeasy-style bar called Employees Only.
The bar makes customers feel as if they have stepped into a time machine and been transported back to New York City during the age of prohibition.
For her second restaurant, Piper Perabo played a much larger role in its creation and the design of the interior and menu.
The Golden Globe actress teamed up with Dean Jankelowitz and his wife, Maya Jankelowitz, who both worked their way up through the restaurant industry and were looking to take the final steps of becoming restaurant owners.
Before working with Piper Perabo, the Jankelowitzes had both served as the maître d’ at two of Keith McNally’s restaurants: Schiller’s and Balthazar.
Keith McNally is a legendary restaurant owner who is often referred to as the Restaurateur Who Invented Downtown.
To avoid any negative feelings towards Piper Perabo or the restaurant they were about to create, Dean and Maya Jankelowitz both made sure to ask for McNally’s blessing to take what he had taught them at his restaurants and apply their skills to their own establishment.
He was glad to give them his blessing and see them grow.
Together, the trio created Jack’s Wife Freda, which is named after Dean Jankelowitz’s grandparents.
The Jankelowitzes are in charge of food and waitstaff, and Perabo helped with the preparation.
4. Married Stephan Kay
Piper Perabo met her future husband on the set of their show Covert Affairs, where Perabo played the lead role of Annie Walker and Stephen Kay was an executive producer and co-star.
The couple held a small wedding where Perabo wore a beautiful silver dress with a yellow veil.
After their wedding, the newlywed couple and all other guests walked down to the reception hall with a New Orleans-style band playing for the celebrating family the entire way there.
The longtime couple had been engaged for only a year before tying the knot.
Although Piper Perabo isn’t one to kiss and tell, she has admitted that she has a strong appreciation for men who were “really strong, sort of tidy, simple, beautiful, and with their hair down” like her husband.
When she married the New Zealand director, producer, and actor, she was elated to become the stepmother of his daughter.
Since being able to form a relationship, Perabo has been very open about their strong relationship.
Not only is Piper Perabo grateful for her husband, she feels like she hit the jackpot with her stepdaughter, who has also chosen to go into acting like her parents.
Perabo is incredibly proud of her stepdaughter.
5. Had To Take Music Lessons For Coyote Ugly
In a similar fashion to how Piper Perabo got her role as Sara in Whiteboyz, she lied about being able to play the guitar to get the role in Coyote Ugly.
At the time, Perabo was working with Des McAnuff on her first Hollywood role in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle.
The young actress told McAnuff about the sticky situation she had gotten herself into, and McAnuff was quick to help the promising young star.
The very next day of shooting, Des McAnuff brought in his guitar for Perabo to practice on.
He was the one who taught Perabo how to play when they weren’t shooting The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle.
Perabo was able to learn to play the guitar just well enough to get by when she finally started shooting for Coyote Ugly.
Piper Perabo’s breakout role taught her many new skills, such as dancing.
She was able to learn from legendary choreographer Travis Paynes, who had previously worked with Janet Jackson, Salt-N-Pepa, En Vogue, and even Michael Jackson.
Perabo and her co-stars, including supermodel Tyra Banks, spent multiple hours each day practicing their choreography.
All this practice paid off when Coyote Ugly became a sleeper summer hit in 2000 and grossed $60 million from a $45 million budget in the United States alone.
6. Works With The International Rescue Committee
Piper Perabo has always been a passionate activist who hopes to see many of the most villainized groups get treated as the valuable and worthy people they truly are.
Perabo has been a proud supporter of the LGBTQ+ community ever since the 1990s.
However, Perabo’s main focus as a volunteer has been with the International Rescue Committee.
She has traveled all over the world with the organization to be a voice for those refugees and looks to help people who have experienced religious persecution, political oppression, and those who have been displaced by conflict.
Piper Perabo has traveled to Greece to raise awareness for the refugee crisis going on all over Europe and Beirut.
She has also traveled to Lebanon to visit the children who are forced to work in the city to support their families.
She has traveled to Phoenix, Arizona to talk with the Central American families who are seeking asylum in the United States.
Perabo seeks to change the narrative that some Americans have heard about the families coming to seek asylum.
The actress hopes that more people will see that these families aren’t dangerous criminals who are looking to take over the country.
Instead, she hopes that the citizens of the United States will see them as parents who are desperate to keep their children from dangerous situations.
7. Is A Major Foodie
For Piper Perabo, good food plays a massive role in how she plans her day and where she wants to visit.
One of her favorite things about spending time in New York City is all the amazing food options there are to choose from.
When it comes to food, Perabo doesn’t just have a favorite restaurant in general.
Each meal of the day calls for a different place to grab a bite to eat in a dream scenario.
For breakfast, the actress loves popping into her own restaurant Jack’s Wife Freda.
Her favorite place to grab lunch is a restaurant called La Capital Cantina in Mexico City.
Although she has eaten food all over the world, her favorite thing to have for dinner is the blackened pot roast that her father makes on the homemade buns that her mother made for her and her siblings throughout their entire childhood.
When she’s in New York, Piper never misses the opportunity to get ice cream from The Big Gay Ice Cream Shop.
Winding down for the night calls for the actress’s favorite drink: a classic vodka martini without any fancy add-ons.
To start her day, Piper Perabo loves to make her own egg sandwich with kale and extra hot sauce and a cortado to sip on.
This is followed by a nice walk around the block.
When making an afternoon snack for herself, Perabo loves to munch on pickled herring and avocado toast with lemon juice and radish slices.
The actress also makes sure that she always has locally picked apples, York peppermint patties, mint tea, and a little tequila whenever she’s on set.
Piper Perabo loves a good dinner party or potluck and always comes ready with deviled eggs and a warm smile.
She always keeps water with chlorophyll on hand.
8. Wasn’t A Fan Of Watching Movies Or Television
Before 2013, Piper Perabo was never one to sit down and watch television or a movie.
She has always been an active person who prefers to be doing something with her whole body rather than sitting for entertainment.
After spending a decade constantly hopping from film to film, it makes sense that Perabo doesn’t watch other people do the same job she just came home from.
Perabo prefers to spend her free time going on adventures, learning new skills, or just being active.
Some of her favorite leisure activities include going on walks, checking out all the museums that she can find, or going to see ballets.
In 2010, she had made a promise to watch more movies and television shows but didn’t find the time to until 2013.
Even as a child, Piper Perabo preferred to put on shows with her friends and siblings over watching them.
By the time she was seven years old, she began directing the neighborhood kids when the group would create their own shows.
Perabo is always ready for a good social event and has made an excellent host since she was in college.
One of her favorite parties that she ever held was her “Bring a Bottle, Not a Date” party.
To help unwind from a long day of work, Perabo likes to do yoga and meditate.
These activities have greatly helped Perabo as she copes with the stress of Hollywood.
9. Worked Unsuccessfully As A Waitress
In an interview with James Corden, Piper Perabo admitted that she wasn’t as excellent of a waitress as her character in Coyote Ugly.
When Corden asked how Perabo believed she’d survive as a waitress at a high-end establishment like one owned by famous chef and restaurateur Gordon Ramsey, all Perabo could do was laugh and deny even the slightest notion of being able to do anything of the sort.
When she first got into the restaurant industry, she thought that the job would be a breeze because of how many people she knew who thrived in the industry.
However, Perabo very quickly learned that it takes a certain type of strong person to be able to handle all the responsibilities and stressors that waitresses and other waitstaff experience.
Members of any restaurant’s waitstaff are expected to work extremely quickly and with very few breaks to provide good customer service.
They have to remember which table gets what food, if the customers had any special requests, and be able to balance food on a tray while nearly running around a restaurant full of people trying to do the same thing.
Piper Perabo wasn’t afraid to admit that she had a hard enough time just trying to balance her serving trays while wearing heels.
Because she wasn’t very good at her job, it made the restaurant environment even more stressful, and she ended up job-hopping before becoming an established actress.
10. Never Got To Learn The Magic Tricks From The Prestige
Piper Perabo has never hidden the fact that she loved her time filming Christopher Nolan’s thriller, The Prestige.
From getting to portray Hugh Jackman’s love interest to spending time with the legendary director, Perabo couldn’t have been happier about the filming experience.
The only thing that she claims that she would change is being able to know how the magic tricks were done.
Despite being a part of the act, Perabo was never able to catch on to how Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale were able to pull them off.
Both Jackman and Bale had been sworn to secrecy after being taught the magic tricks by a real magician.
Although Perabo would occasionally figure out how a couple of the illusions were achieved, Bale and Jackman refused to tell her anything despite how much she asked.
While Piper Perabo never found the secrets she was hoping for, she was given an opportunity that she believes most women in the United States would have loved to have.
Her time working with Hugh Jackman was enough to make even Perabo freak out on the inside.
The first time the actors met was when they went to shoot their first scene for the movie, which had their characters in bed together.
While the production crew tried to decide on which side of the bed each actor was going to be, Jackman decided that he’d keep his suspenders on and told Perabo the suspenders would give her “something to hold on to.”
This caused Perabo’s jaw to drop without even thinking about it, but she was quick to regain her composure and respond with an overly cool “okay.”
From the first time they shot, Perabo and Jackman had excellent chemistry that was apparent throughout the film.
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