Selma Blair

Selma Blair is an American actress whose career spans independent films, mainstream comedies, supernatural action movies, and television. Born on June 23, 1972, in Southfield, Michigan, she graduated from the University of Michigan in 1994 before moving to New York City. There, she pursued acting and studied at the Stella Adler Conservatory. Her early screen work included the 1996 film The Broccoli Theory, but her visibility increased substantially through several distinctive supporting roles at the end of the decade.

In Cruel Intentions (1999), Roger Kumble’s contemporary adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons, Blair played Cecile Caldwell, a sheltered teenager drawn into the manipulations of wealthy Manhattan students. Her performance opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar included a kiss that won the MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss in 2000. She also starred as Zoe Bean in the television sitcom Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane, which premiered in 1999. These projects established her presence in a generation of youth-oriented films and television series.

Blair played Vivian Kensington in Legally Blonde (2001), initially presenting a formidable rival to Reese Witherspoon’s Elle Woods before becoming her ally. That same year, she appeared in Todd Solondz’s Storytelling, demonstrating an interest in more unsettling material. In Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy (2004), she portrayed Liz Sherman, whose ability to generate fire makes her both powerful and vulnerable. She reprised the role in Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008). Her other credits include The Sweetest Thing (2002) and portraying Kris Jenner in The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016).

In October 2018, Blair publicly disclosed that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease affecting the central nervous system. She described symptoms that interfered with movement, speech, and everyday activities. Her appearance at the 2019 Vanity Fair Oscar party, using a cane, became a widely discussed moment of disability visibility. Director Rachel Fleit’s documentary Introducing, Selma Blair (2021) followed her experience of illness and treatment, including a hematopoietic stem cell transplant. Blair subsequently announced that her multiple sclerosis was in remission, while acknowledging continuing effects.

Her memoir, Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up, appeared in 2022 and examined childhood, family relationships, alcoholism, and experiences preceding her diagnosis. Also in 2022, she competed on Dancing with the Stars with professional partner Sasha Farber, withdrawing on medical advice. Blair has one son, Arthur, born in 2011. Her public advocacy emphasizes accessibility and the complicated realities of living with disability.