• Faith: Scientology
• Career: Actress
• Birthday:  August 19, 1982

Erika Christensen is an actress. Her filmography includes roles in “Swimfan,” “Traffic,” “The Banger Sisters,” “The Perfect Score,” “How to Rob a Bank,” and “The Case for Christ.” For her performance in “Traffic,” she won the MTV Movie Award for Breakthrough Female Performance and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture along with her co-stars.

In 2006, she starred in the short-lived drama series “Six Degrees” on ABC. From 2010 until it ended in 2015, Christensen starred as Julia Braveman-Graham on the NBC series “Parenthood.” In 2014, she won a Gracie Award for her performance in the role. She played Betty Beaumontaine on ABC’s short-lived crime drama series “Wicked City.” Christensen was born in Seattle, the daughter of Kathy and Steven. She has an older half-brother, Nick, and two younger twin brothers, Dane and Brando.

She lived in Seattle until she was four years old when her family relocated to suburban Los Angeles, California. Christensen started out acting in TV commercials for Volvo and McDonald’s. She started her professional career with a supporting role in the film “Leave It to Beaver” and a one-episode guest appearance on “Nothing Sacred,” both of which were released and aired in 1997. She went on to guest star in several other TV shows in the late 90s, including “The Practice,” “Frasier,” “Touched by an Angel,” and “3rrd Rock from the Sun.” She also starred in the Disney Channel original film “Can of Worms.”

In 1999, she starred as Abigail Winthrop in the short-lived CBS sitcom “Thanks.” That same year, she featured in Michael Jackson’s music video for his song “Childhood” alongside actress Jena Malone.

What religion is Erika Christensen?

Christensen is a member of the Church of Scientology. Her parents became Scientologists in their 20s while living in Seattle and raised her as a Scientologist. They also decided to home-school her. While appearing on her co-star Joy Bryant’s web series, the actress took the opportunity to clear up misconceptions about the religion she calls a “huge part” of her life. She joked, “People assume we’re some kind of closed group, and we’re just the Hollywood religion, and we worship rabbits. I don’t actually know how many people think that.”

She continued, saying she would have no problems introducing her future children to the religion, “I would expose to them, like, this is what I do, which is how my parents did it because my parents are Scientologists. If I had to sum it up, the goal of Scientology is giving the people back to themselves. Like, your own power of choice.”