Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Somerville grew up in a large and close-knit Irish-Catholic family. Passionate about performing at a young age, she sang and acted in school and community theater productions since she was a child. She studied theater at Boston University then moved to New York City to study at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute. While in New York, she formed her own rock-and-blues band, which performed all over the city.
Television audiences might remember Somerville for her starring role as a singer/songwriter during the 1950s in the miniseries Shake, Rattle and Roll. She has also guest-starred in Two Guys and a Girl, Beverly Hills, 90210 and Grosse Point Blank.
Somerville has also been active in feature films, working with Steven Weber and Swoosie Kurtz in the independent black comedy Sleep Easy, Hutch Rimes and with Brendan Fraser and Elizabeth Hurley in Bedazzled. She also starred opposite Ellen Barkin, Monica Keenan and Jeffrey Wright in the independent film Crime and Punishment in Suburbia, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival.
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