A knights tale shannyn sossamon

As gifted as she is quirky, Shannyn Sossamon followed her independent spirit to build a fascinatingly diverse acting career.

She landed her star-making role as Heath Ledger's fiery love interest, Lady Jocelyn, in "A Knight's Tale" (2001), earning nominations for three MTV Movie Awards and two Teen Choice Awards.

Sossamon scored follow-up successes in the abstinence comedy "40 Days and 40 Nights" (2002) and the Bret Easton Ellis adaptation "The Rules of Attraction" (2002), but made her biggest media splash when, the following year, she famously named her firstborn Audio Science.

That was very uncomfortable,” and explored new art forms.

In 2003, in her early 20s, Sossamon gave birth to her first child, the unconventionally named Audio Science Clayton, with her then-partner, writer and illustrator Dallas Clayton. Directed by Monte Hellman, Road to Nowhere is part romance and part thriller, weaving a story of crime, scandal, and intrigue. Sossamon was the first actor cast for the film, having been seen in an acting class by Road to Nowhere's producer, Steven Gaydos.

I never felt like a Shannon. Other credits include THE END OF LOVE starring Michael Cera and Mark Webber; OUR FAMILY WEDDING starring Oscar winner Forest Whitaker, WRISTCUTTERS: A LOVE STORY starring opposite Patrick Fugit; THE RULES OF ATTRACTION starring opposite James Van Der Beek; 40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS starring opposite Josh Hartnett, and as the lead in Monte Hellman's ROAD TO NOWHERE.

She is of Irish, French, Dutch, Hawaiian-Filipino, German and English ancestry. It’s a strange rhythm, but I’m OK with it.” We’re OK with it too, and knowing this, we’ll just appreciate her even more next time she’s in a movie.

Sossamon's only acting credit between 2003 and 2005 was an appearance on Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit in 2004.

In the past, she had dabbled in music, and spent four years in the indie rock band Warpaint with her sister, and she also does tarot card readings. That same year, she also had a small role in the hit rom-com The Holiday.

After those films, Sossamon made multi-episode appearance TV shows including Dirt (2007), Moonlight (2010), How to Make It in America (2010), Mistresses (2013), Sleepy Hollow (2015-2016) and Wayward Pines (2015-2016).

What Shannyn Sossamon has been up to lately

While Sossamon has kept a lower profile in recent years, she never retired.

I really loved that feeling. In 1995, she moved to Los Angeles, where she studied dance and worked as a DJ. During this time, she also modeled, appearing in commercials and music videos.

As a model/DJ, Sossamon established her cool girl bona fides before she even had any acting credits to her name, and soon enough, she was discovered in a truly hipster fashion.

As Sossamon described it, “The overall sentiment was that they were fans, and they hadn’t seen me play something quite like this before, and they would love to have me. That same year, she was in the ensemble cast of the college-set literary adaptation The Rules of Attraction. So I added the Y“) in Hawaii in 1978.

Rather, she grew frustrated with being in the public eye, saying, “I didn’t feel like the person that was being projected onto me. After graduating high school at age 17, she moved to Los Angeles, California, to pursue a life in the creative arts.

Recent credits include the feature films THERE ARE NO SAINTS and BACKSPOT, opposite Devery Jacobs.