A student of dance, music and art as a child in Reno, Nevada, Madchen Amick decided to focus on acting as a teenager, and shortly thereafter, she got her major break in David Lynch's innovative TV series Twin Peaks (1990). After moving to L.A. at 16, Amick appeared on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Baywatch, as well as in The Borrower (1991), John McNaughton's ill-fated second feature. Amick became famous as waitress Shelly Johnson, one of several beautiful young small-town women harboring terrible secrets on the much-praised and memorably-eccentric Twin Peaks. More a succ賠d'estime than a long-running hit, Twin Peaks still seemed poised to jump-start the careers of the principal actors, including Amick. Her performance in Lynch's feature/prequel Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), however, became a de facto cameo. Although Amick followed Twin Peaks with starring roles in the Stephen King horror fest Sleepwalkers (1992), and as the femme fatale in the neo-noir Dream Lover (1994), she worked more consistently in B-films, including the romantic comedy French Exit (1995), sci-fi thriller Bombshell (1996), and TV movies such as Love, Cheat and Steal (1993). Amick returned to 1990s series TV twice in two high-profile failures, CBS' Central Park West (1995) and ABC's 1998 edition of Fantasy Island.

--Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide