Early acting credits (1986–1999) Encouraged by her parents to pursue acting when she was young, Faris gave her first professional performance at age nine in a three-month run of
Arthur Miller's play
Danger: Memory! at the
Seattle Repertory Theater. She made US$250 for the role, which was "huge" for her at the time. "I felt like I was rolling in the dough," she recalled. She went on to play
Scout in a production of
To Kill a Mockingbird at the
Village Theatre in
Issaquah, Washington, the title character in
Heidi, and Rebecca in
Our Town. Her theater credits during that period included productions of
Rain,
Some Fish,
No Elephants, and
Life Under Water. While in high school, Faris appeared in a television commercial for a
frozen yogurt brand and in a training video for
Red Robin. On the latter, she said in May 2012: "I play, like, the perfect hostess. And I think they still use it." While in college at the
University of Washington in 1996, Faris appeared in the
MSN Preview, an interactive
CD-ROM promotional video for
Microsoft's
MSN 2.0 online service filmed at the
Paramount Theatre in
Seattle, as the presenter of
Channel 5, a "hip and edgy" website for young adults. Faris played brief roles in the made-for-TV film ''Deception: A Mother's Secret
and the independent drama Eden
, the latter of which screened at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival. Her first major film role came shortly after college, in the independent slasher film Lovers Lane (1999), in which she played an ill-fated cheerleader. A B-movie, it received a straight-to-DVD release. Critical reception was mixed, but for her part, Faris garnered her first acting reviews by writers; efilmcritic.com'' Greg Muskewitz found her the film's "one center of interest".
Breakthrough with Scary Movie (2000–2006) Faris's breakout role came in 2000 when she starred in the horror-comedy
parody film Scary Movie, portraying
Cindy Campbell, a play on the character of
Sidney Prescott (
Neve Campbell) in the slasher thriller
Scream. It marked her first starring credit, as she had appeared only in small and supporting parts in theater plays and low-budget features. She found the experience a "great boot camp" for her, as she told UK's
The Guardian in 2009, explaining that she "hadn't done much before that. With those movies, you have to be so exact with your props and the physical comedy and everything, so it was a great training ground."
Scary Movie was a major commercial success, ranking atop the box office charts with a US$42 million opening weekend gross. It went on to earn US$278 million worldwide. For her performance, Faris received nominations for the
Breakthrough Female Performance and
Best Kiss Awards at the
2001 MTV Movie Awards. She subsequently reprised her role in
Scary Movie 2, released on July 4, 2001. Her next film role was that of the lesbian colleague of a lonely and traumatized young woman in the independent psychological thriller
May (2002), which premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival and was released in selected theaters. In its review,
The Digital Fix found it "one of the finest examples of independent American genre filmmaking" and asserted that Faris played her role "with an infectious level of enthusiasm, frequently skirting the border between a believable performance and one that is completely over the top, but always managing to come down on the right side." Later in 2002, she starred alongside
Rob Schneider and
Rachel McAdams in the comedy
The Hot Chick, about a teenage girl whose mind is magically swapped with that of a 30-year-old criminal. It was a modest commercial success, grossing US$54 million worldwide. In 2003, Faris was "cast last-minute" opposite
Bill Murray and
Scarlett Johansson in
Sofia Coppola's drama
Lost in Translation, where she played a "bubbly, extroverted" actress. She felt the film gave her the chance to get people to know her body of work a "little more," and called it "the best experience of [her] life" at the time. While
Variety remarked that Faris "contributes an amusing turn" as her "vacuous movie star" character,
New York Times concluded that the actress, "who barely registers in the
Scary Movie pictures—and she's the star—comes to full, lovable and irritating life as a live-wire starlet [...] this movie will secure her a career." Budgeted at US$4 million,
Lost in Translation grossed US$119.7 million globally. She portrayed Cindy Campbell for the third time in 2003's
Scary Movie 3. In 2004, Faris debuted on
the last season of the sitcom
Friends in the recurring role of Erica, the mother whose twin babies are adopted by
Chandler (
Matthew Perry) and
Monica (
Courteney Cox); and in the summer that year, she filmed a small part in
Ang Lee's drama
Brokeback Mountain (2005). As her character had just "one scene in the movie," she only spent two days on set in
Calgary. but a
View London reviewer, remarking that the director had "assembled a decent comic cast," felt that "he gives them practically nothing to do. Reynolds and [...] Faris were hilarious together in
Just Friends, so it's a shame that their talents are so wasted here." In
Just Friends, Faris portrayed Samantha James, an emerging, self-obsessed pop singer landing in New Jersey with a formerly overweight nerd (played by co-star Reynolds), now a successful record producer. It grossed US$50.9 million around the globe, and earned Faris nominations for an
MTV Movie Award and two
Teen Choice Awards. Faris played Cindy Campbell for the fourth time in
Scary Movie 4, which premiered on April 14, 2006. In 2006, she also appeared opposite
Uma Thurman and
Luke Wilson in
Ivan Reitman's romantic comedy
My Super Ex-Girlfriend, playing Hannah, the co-worker of a man (Wilson) dating a neurotic and aggressive superhero (Thurman). While critical response was mixed, it made US$61 million worldwide, and Faris and Thurman both got
MTV Movie Award nominations for
Best Fight.
Continued comedic roles (2007–2012) In
Gregg Araki's independent
stoner comedy Smiley Face (2007), Faris starred as Jane F, a young woman who has a series of misadventures after eating a large number of
cupcakes laced with cannabis. It premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival and received a limited theatrical release in Los Angeles. Reviews were largely positive; according to the film-critics aggregate site
Rotten Tomatoes, writers agreed that her "bright performance and Gregg Araki's sharp direction" made the film "more than [the] average stoner comedy." It earned her the "Stonette of the Year" prize at
High Times magazine's
Stony Awards. Most critics agree that it remains one of her best films. Faris appeared opposite
Diane Keaton and
Jon Heder in the independent comedy ''
Mama's Boy, playing an aspiring singer and the love interest of a self-absorbed 29-year-old (Heder). Distributed for a limited release to certain parts of the United States only, Mama's Boy'' premiered on November 30, 2007, to lukewarm critical and commercial responses. She followed up by producing and starring in a mainstream feature comedy,
The House Bunny, devised and written by
Karen McCullah and
Kirsten Smith, with
Fred Wolf coming onboard to direct. In the film, she appeared as Shelley, a former
Playboy bunny who signs up to be the "
house mother" of an unpopular university
sorority after being expelled from the
Playboy Mansion. Although it received average reviews, critics were unanimously favorable towards Faris's part, most of them agreeing, according to website Rotten Tomatoes, that she was "game" in what they called a "middling, formulaic comedy." The film was released on August 22, 2008, in the US, and made US$70 million in its global theatrical run. Faris's first movie of 2009 was the British
science fiction-comedy
Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel, which follows two social outcasts and their cynical friend as they attempt to navigate a time-travel conundrum in the middle of a British pub. Faris played Cassie, a girl from the future who sets the adventure in motion.
The Guardian described her appearance as a "bewildered cameo". It received a theatrical release only in the UK, and later had several television premiere airings across Europe. '' in 2009|alt=|left In the
black comedy Observe and Report (2009), Faris co-starred opposite
Seth Rogen, portraying a vulgar, hard-partying cosmetic counter employee on whom Rogen has a crush. She was drawn to appear in the movie, as it gave Faris the opportunity to play an "awful character" rather than the usual "roles where you have to win the audience over or win the guy over, and be charming." Controversy arose regarding a scene where Rogen has sex with Faris's intoxicated character, with various advocacy groups commenting that it constituted
date rape. Budgeted at US$18 million,
Observe and Report made US$26 million. Faris voiced a weather intern and the love interest of a wannabe scientist in the animated
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs as well as Jeanette Miller (one of
the Chipettes) in the live-action hybrid
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, both of which were box office successes. Faris starred in the animated live-action film
Yogi Bear as a nature documentary filmmaker befriending the titular character. It was released by
Warner Bros. on December 17, 2010, receiving largely negative reviews, with many critics unimpressed by its screenplay.
The Hollywood Reporter, while admitting to find her "very talented" in its verdict, wondered "what on earth" made her agree to play her role. The film, however, made US$201 million worldwide. Faris's subsequent film release was the retro comedy
Take Me Home Tonight, about a group of friends partying on one summer night during the 1980s. Filmed in 2007, it received a wide theatrical release four years later, on March 4, 2011, to negative reviews and lackluster earnings. Faris, however, obtained a
Teen Choice Award nomination for Choice Movie Actress – Comedy. She next had the starring part and served as executive producer of ''
What's Your Number?, where she appeared with Chris Evans. It was released on September 30, 2011, and made US$30 million worldwide. She also reprised her voice-over role in Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked'', released on December 16, 2011. Her next film role was that of a human rights activist befriending a childish autocrat in the political satire
The Dictator (2012), co-starring
Sacha Baron Cohen. Faris, who was eager to work with Baron Cohen as she had been his fan "for years," stated that "90 percent" of the acting in the film was improvised. The picture was a box office success, grossing US$179 million globally, and earned Faris the Star of the Year Award at the
National Association of Theatre Owners.
Mom and Unqualified (2013–2017) In 2013, Faris acted for the third time with then-husband
Chris Pratt, following
Take Me Home Tonight and ''What's Your Number?
in a segment of Movie 43, an independent anthology black comedy that featured 14 different storylines, with each segment having a different director. The film was universally panned by critics, with the Chicago Sun-Times calling it "the Citizen Kane of awful." In the British romantic comedy I Give It a Year (2013), Faris played an old flame of a writer (Rafe Spall) who hastily tied the knot. Released shortly after Movie 43'', the film received mixed reviews and was a commercial success in the UK. Faris obtained the main role of the
CBS sitcom series
Mom, which debuted on September 23, 2013. Her character is Christy, a newly sober single mom who tries to pull her life together in
Napa Valley. Landing the part gave Faris, who had guest-starred in various television programs until then, her first full-time television role. Throughout its eight-season run, the sitcom became the third most-watched comedy on television, and received generally favorable reviews;
Vulture called her "the most talented comic actress of her generation," and
Boston Herald critic, Mark A. Perigard wrote in his verdict: "This is dark material, yet Faris balances it with a genuine winsomeness, able to wring laughs out of the most innocuous lines." She has been nominated for one Prism Award and two
People's Choice Awards. In 2020, Faris left the show after seven seasons. Faris reprised her voice-role in the animated science-fiction comedy sequel
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, released in theaters four days after
Mom premiered on television. Like
the first film,
Meatballs 2 was a commercial success, grossing US$274.3 million worldwide. The following year, she had an uncredited cameo in the closing-credits sequence of the
action-comedy 22 Jump Street, appearing in a segment called
30 Jump Street: Flight Academy. Faris and
Mom co-star
Allison Janney hosted the
41st People's Choice Awards, which were held January 7, 2015. In November, she launched
Unqualified, a free-form advice podcast; along with producer Sim Sarna, she is the host of the show, which consists of interviews with celebrities and cultural figures, followed by personal phone-calls to listeners asking for relationship and other advice. Faris was inspired to create the podcast after listening to
Serial, and explaining the evolution of the idea, she said: "I love to talk about relationships; that's all I want to talk about with my friends. And then I just thought, I kind of want a hobby [...] So I started asking around to some friends, and I asked this technical producer guy what equipment I should buy on
Amazon. And I just started recording my friends when they would come over. And then with my dear friend Sim, we started flushing [sic] out the whole thing, which clearly there's still a lot more flushing [sic] out to do. It started out as a dinky hobby." As of May 2021, 249 episodes have been released. Faris reprised her voice-over role in
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip in 2015, the fourth installment in the
Alvin and the Chipmunks film series. In 2016, she had a brief appearance as an exaggerated version of herself in the action-comedy
Keanu, and starred in the music video for the song "Hold on to Me" by
Mondo Cozmo. She voiced one of the lead characters, Jailbreak, in the 2017 animated comedy
The Emoji Movie, which was universally panned by critics. In October 2017, Faris published her first book,
Unqualified. The memoir became one of the "top 20 blockbuster books of autumn," according to Amazon, and received a positive critical response;
The New York Times found the book to be "goofily self-deprecating, casually profane and occasionally raw, earnest and blunt, like Ms. Faris herself," and
The Ringer remarked: "
Unqualified is observant, sharp, and startlingly revealing, not only about Faris's romantic history, but of the broader discrepancies between modern male and female
Hollywood stardom writ large."
Film return and recent work (2018–present) In
Overboard (2018), a remake of the 1987
film of the same name starring
Goldie Hawn and
Kurt Russell, Faris played a single, working-class mother who convinces a spoiled wealthy playboy (
Eugenio Derbez) with amnesia that they are married. While publications such as
IndieWire and
Film Inquiry praised the chemistry between Derbez and Faris, most critics felt that the film made "poor use of the ever-charming" Faris. Her first leading film role since 2011's ''What's Your Number
, Overboard'' was a commercial success, grossing over US$91.2 million worldwide. Faris starred alongside
Toni Collette in
The Estate (2022), a black comedy about two sisters who attempt to get into good graces with their aunt before she passes to inherit her fortune. The film was critiqued for its plot, though
Peter Bradshaw of
The Guardian and Tomris Laffly at
RogerEbert.com praised the ensemble. Faris next played a supporting role in
My Spy: The Eternal City (2024), the sequel to 2020's
My Spy, starring
Dave Bautista. It was similarly panned, but
The Guardian's Cath Clarke felt that her acting was among "some nice enough performances". In August 2025, it was announced that Faris would be returning to her role as
Cindy Campbell in the sixth installment of the
Scary Movie franchise. The movie began filming in October 2025 and will release on June 12, 2026. Her other upcoming projects include the
Andrew Niccol film
I, Object (replacing
Melanie Lynskey) and
Jon Lucas and
Scott Moore's comedy feature
Spa Weekend. ==Media image==