Celebrity crush: Marla Sokoloff

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Here's an actress I always felt deserved a little higher profile than she got from her long stint on The Practice, though music, marriage, and motherhood (coming in 2012!) have entered the picture, so I think she's doing OK.

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Name: Marla Sokoloff (images | Web site | Twitter)
Hometown: San Francisco, Calif., according to her Wikipedia profile.
Best Known For: Marla's longest acting engagement came on The Practice, which she joined in its third season and remained with for the rest of the series, more or less. Since that show's conclusion, she has recurred on Desperate Housewives in one season and had guest roles in numerous other shows, as well as the occasional short-lived comedy (Big Day and Modern Men in 2006) and mini-series (Meteor and Maneater, both a bit more recent).

On the big screen, she appeared with Jennifer Garner in the cinematic masterpiece Dude, Where's My Car? (No, seriously -- not about it being a masterpiece, but about Marla and Jennifer Garner appearing in it. They played the girlfriends of the two geniuses played by Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott.) Sugar & Spice paired her with American Beauty's Mena Suvari and fellow crush Melissa George as cheerleaders on a crime spree. And she's released an album of her original music.

Stand-alone TV appearances include a guest turn on Friends as Joey's pregnant younger sister, the 2001 horror anthologies Night Visions and Strange Frequency, and a more serious-than-her-norm turn on Burn Notice as a young woman out to avenge her father's murder. The TV-movie Date with Darkness (about the arrest and trial of a Max Factor cosmetics heir on multiple rape charges) saw her appear alongside Sarah Carter as one of Andrew Luster's victims and was better than your average Lifetime movie.

And you thought I was lying about Jennifer Garner
being in Dude, Where's My Car? Here's proof.

Humble Beginnings: Marla started her TV and film career in her teens. Among the items I'm not listing for sale below because she was under 18 -- and because they're not already linked for sale in any other celebrity crush's profile -- are appearances on Full House (1993-1995) and Party of Five (1995-96) and in the movies The Baby-Sitters Club, So I Married an Axe Murderer, and True Crime.

(She was a little bit shy of 18 when she joined The Practice as the firm's receptionist, but she turned 18 before the season ended, so I've included the entire third season on a technicality.)
Not the Courteney Cox Factor: Until 2003, Marla was rhythm guitarist and singer for a Los Angeles band called Smittin. (And really, who wouldn't be smitten with her to the point of forgetting how to spell that emotional state?) Grateful, her first solo album, was released in 2006.
Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: "Adorable" was the word that came to mind from her work as Lucy on The Practice, and her appearances in Dude, Where's My Car? and the comedy Big Day didn't do much to dislodge it. So her appearance on Burn Notice -- which can sometimes skew darker than most of USA Network's offerings -- was a revelation.

She's also just an all-around gorgeous woman. I hope to see her return to working after she and her husband welcome the new addition, and it would be awesome if she ended up doing another album sometime.
Voice Work and Music: Bionicle: The Legend Reborn (2009 animated film) (Amazon | iTunes) * Grateful (2006 album) (Amazon | iTunes)

Film and TV-movie Credits: Scents and Sensibility (post-production) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Chateau Meroux (Amazon | iTunes) * Gift of the Magi (2010 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * Flower Girl (2009 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * Play the Game (2009) (Amazon | iTunes) * Christmas in Boston (2005 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * Crazylove (Amazon | iTunes) * The Drive (2005 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Tollbooth (Amazon | iTunes) * Love on the Side (2004) (Amazon | iTunes) * Freshman Orientation (Amazon | iTunes) * A Date with Darkness: The Trial and Capture of Andrew Luster (2003 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * Prairie Dogs (2001 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * Sugar & Spice (2001) (Amazon | iTunes) * Dude, Where's My Car? (Amazon | iTunes) * Whatever It Takes (2000) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Climb (1999) (Amazon | iTunes)

Marla (right) in the Lifetime mini-series Maneater with, from left,
Judy Greer, mini-series lead Sarah Chalke, and Noureen DeWulf.

TV and Web Series Credits: CSI: New York, season 7: "Party Down" (Amazon | iTunes) * Drop Dead Diva, season 1: "Crazy" (Amazon | iTunes) * Maneater (2009 mini-series) (Amazon | iTunes) * Meteor (2009 mini-series) (Amazon | iTunes) * Burn Notice, season 2: "Seek and Destroy" (Amazon | iTunes) * Big Day (2006) (Amazon | iTunes) * Modern Men (2006) (Amazon | iTunes) * Desperate Housewives, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * The Practice, season 8 (Amazon | iTunes) * The Practice, season 7 (Amazon | iTunes) * Friends, season 8: "The One with Monica's Boots" (Amazon | iTunes) * The Practice, season 6 (Amazon | iTunes) * Strange Frequency (2001): "More Than a Feeling" (Amazon | iTunes) * Night Visions (2001): "My So-Called Life and Death" (Amazon | iTunes) * The Practice, season 5 (Amazon | iTunes) * The Practice, season 4 (Amazon | iTunes) * The Practice, season 3 (Amazon | iTunes)