Bess Fanning is a versatile actress whose roles have ranged from sweet, comic ingenues to no-nonsense, sharp professionals. Since moving to Los Angeles in 1996, her television roles have included a white trash female wrestler on NBC's MY NAME IS EARL, a harried HMO doctor on PROMISED LAND, and a recurring role as Karen’s sassy assistant on the critically acclaimed ONCE & AGAIN on ABC. She also recently co-starred on the Web Series “Quarterlife,” directed by Eric Stoltz. In the film short "The Recipe," she played a wife who exacts revenge on her philandering husband by adding a special ingredient to the lasagna. Some of her commercial appearances include Progresso Soup, Singulair, Special K, and Hardees. New additions to her theatre resume include Susie the nurse in WIT, Nadine and Juanita in DEARLY DEPARTED, and Lovey the Fairy Godmother in LOVE IN PIECES. Bess has written several one woman shows and performed them locally in Los Angeles. She also recently wrote, Executive Produced, and starred in “An Excellent Choice,” a short film that was accepted to three film festivals in 2007, including the Newport Beach Film Festival and San Diego International Film Festival. For more information on the film, visit www.AnExcellentChoiceTheMovie.com.

Born in Rhode Island and raised in Florida, Bess began her artistic path by
studying flute and piano for 10 years, as well as soprano singing by the
time she was in high school. She began her pursuit of acting by stumbling
onto the role of Olga, the Russian pianist in Stage Door while at St.
Petersburg High School--she was the only one who could play the piano. She
fondly remembers some of her early direction from fellow students in her
scene--“just get really mad,” they said. And so she did.

After high school, Bess studied acting at Florida State University in the
BFA program. Some of her favorite roles at FSU included Joan of Arc in
George Bernard Shaw’s St. Joan, Poppy Norton-Taylor in Michael Frayn’s
Noises Off, and multiple roles in the musical Quilters. While at FSU, Bess
also explored directing with a full production of Richard Greenberg’s
Eastern Standard. The summer after her senior year, she spent a month at
the Moscow Art Theatre in Russia on an exchange program where she played
Varya in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard.

Upon graduation, Bess continued her career in Chicago. There she found a
lively theatre scene and she happily got to work producing a one-woman show,
Personality, by Gina Wendkos and Ellen Ratner at Cafe Voltaire. This led to
many other stage roles, including Frontiers (like Quilters but without the
music!) and Henry IV, Part One at the Folio Theatre, Alabama Rain, produced
by Halcyone Theatre, and The Trojan Women at Bailiwick’s Director’s
Festival. After having worked as an actress in the musical Hans Brinker,
Bess was hired to direct two staged readings of the children’s musical The
Well of the Guelphs at New Tuners Theatre. She also continued her singing
in performances with ARS Musica Chicago, a group specializing in Early
Music, and with the Jingle Singers, a Christmas carolling quartet.

Bess Fanning has enjoyed a varied career and looks forward to continued
success in film and television. “I would love to play a comic lawyer next,”
she says. “I prefer to find the comedy in everything.”
All content ©2007 Bess Fanning