Shannon Elizabeth: Her Way from Staring at “American Pie” to Playing Poker Against Top Professionals

Shannon Elizabeth has been a popular actress, known to most people thanks to her role of a stunning Czech student in the movie “American Pie”. She began her career on the catwalk and continues to pursue a career in Hollywood, professionally plays poker, and devotes much time to charity.

The future star was born in Houston (the state of Texas) on September 7, 1973. Nothing in the early Shannon’s biography indicated that in the future, she would manage to achieve such an incredible success. Shannon’s parents were not very rich, but instead of expensive toys, they gave their daughter something much more important – unconditional love and amazing appearance. The girl’s father was a descendant of emigrants from the Middle East, and her mother was a beautiful American woman with European and Cherokee roots.

Thus, young Elizabeth received everything she could from childhood. She studied well at school and, at the same time, attended various classes and sports sections – the girl was engaged in ballet, tap dancing, as well as tennis, which has been always included in the list of the most popular sports in the world. But even that was not enough for her and Shannon wanted much more. Therefore, at the age of seventeen, after graduation from high school, the girl packed all the important things and went to New York. It is not surprising that one of the modeling agencies paid attention to the long-legged beauty with an exotic appearance and decided to sign a contract with Elizabeth.

The career of a model gave Elizabeth the opportunity to meet more goals and expand her horizons thanks to traveling around the world. Of course, for the beautiful girl, working as a model was exciting but, indeed, she did not think of it as a long-term career. For a sexy model, it was a great chance to get noticed and be invited to star in a great movie. As you’ve probably understood, to conquer Hollywood was her major dream.

In order to focus on the career of an actress, Elizabeth moved to Los Angeles and enrolled in special acting classes. The beautiful woman worked hard trying to achieve her main goal and this brought some results. In 1997, Shannon made her debut in the horror film “Jack Frost” by Michael Cooney. Despite the success of this film, Elizabeth got no offers regarding big roles. During the next few years, she starred in episodes of various television series.

Just in 1999, the stunning actress received a great offer – she was given the role of a Czechoslovakian foreign exchange student Nadia in the comedy “American Pie”. Having demonstrating not only comedic talent but also exceptional appearance, Shannon quickly joined the list of the most beautiful actresses in Hollywood. Among other films that made Elizabeth even more popular, it is possible to single out the following:

“Scary Movie” (2000);
“Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” (2001);
“Thirteen Ghosts” (2001);
“Love Actually” (2003);
“Cursed” (2005);
“Night of the Demons” (2009);
“Catch a Christmas Star” (2013).

It should be also noted that during the acting career, Shannon Elizabeth did not forget about modelling and photosessions. Thus, in the summer of 1999, the beauty appeared on the cover of Playboy. The stunning pics further contributed to the increase in the number of fans of the actress. She became even more popular and was included in the rankings of the most desirable women in the world more often. In 2000, Elizabeth made a photo shoot for Maxim and again appeared on the pages of the extremely popular men’s magazine in 2008.

Shannon Elizabeth now: what is she engaged in?

These days, Shannon is living in Capetown (a number of years ago, she decided to leave the US). Despite the fact that Elizabeth is already forty-six years old, she has not lost her natural beauty. She still stands out from the crowd thanks to her great body type, big smile, and shining eyes. It seems that Shannon Elizabeth did not get the chance to fully reveal her acting potential, because most directors saw her just as a beautiful girl, but it does not upset her much. During these years, she explored herself and yet was able to find things that bring her real pleasure.

Thus, the actress is an activist now and tries to raise awareness for many important issues, for instance, environmentalism. Together with her ex-husband, the former model founded a non-profit animal rescue organization that is called “Animal Avengers”, the purpose of which is to save stray animals, reduce their number, and prevent cruelty to pets. And to promote the charity and raise more money for homeless pets, she has been actively utilizing social media and organizing many events.

During one of such events, namely a celebrity poker night, fifty thousand American dollars were raised by Team Bodog for “Animal Avengers”. The fundraising event, which took place on October 8, 2005, was hosted by Matt Savage – a well-known tournament director.

As part of her charity work, the actress has also been a spokesperson for Adopt a Turkey Program, organized by Farm Sanctuary. This is a program, whose aim is to encourage pet lovers to adopt a turkey instead of eating them for the Thanksgiving event.

Another Elizabeth’s passion is playing poker. In 2006, the stunning actress shared information concerning her entrance into the poker world and told that this game would turn into her second career. At the start of the career, Elizabeth visited Las Vegas Valley quite often: a few times each month she participated in poker games competing against the most successful representatives of this industry. It should be noted that at that time, Shannon did not seem to be a very active poker player if to take into account the results of the games she took part in. Thus, from 2006 to 2010, the beauty only scored near twelve tournament cashes.

After the year of 2010, Elizabeth decided to take a break. Then, in 2013, she took part in just one tournament cash and took another break. Coached by Daniel Negreanu, Shannon participated in the Main Event of the World Series of Poker in 2005. One year later, competing against other celebrities and professional poker players, the popular actress won a special tournament dedicated to the opening of the new poker room at Caesars Palace hotel. This success allowed her to cash a total of fifty-five thousand American dollars. During two next years, she cashed various World Series of Poker games four times. However, in the Main Event game, the beauty did not achieve success.

In 2007, she managed to reach the semifinals of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship that was organized by NBC. Elizabeth performed great against some successful poker players and lost to the champion of the tournament – Paul Wasicka.

Shannon’s biggest cash prizes in the poker career

Tournament	City	Year	Prize
NBC National Heads-Up Championship	Las Vegas	2007	125,000 American dollars
$5,000 A.U.F.A Charity Event at the 41st WSOP	Las Vegas	2010	79,776 American dollars
The Celebrity Poker Challenge. Caesars Palace Poker Room	Las Vegas	2006	55,000 American dollars
$5,300 No-Limit Hold’em Championship Event. Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open	Hollywood	2013	11,635 American dollars
$250 + 25 No-Limit Hold’emAmerica’s Poker Classic	Los Angeles	2010	4,415 American dollars

Overall, it is possible to see that Elizabeth is a good player but she has not had any major success in this field. Of course, thanks to her success in the movie industry, poker fans pay much attention to Shannon when the latter sits at the playing table. Moreover, according to numerous rankings, Shannon Elizabeth is considered to be the most beautiful poker player around the whole world. And yet, remembering the incredible determination of the popular actress, we will not be surprised if she soon manages to lead the ranking of the most successful poker players.

What is Shannon Elizabeth’s net worth?

For a large number of professional poker players, this game is a great way to get income that they later will invest in other interesting projects. In this case, Shannon is an exception: the beautiful woman’s net worth does not depend much on her winnings at live tournaments.

As a successful model and a popular actress, Shannon’s net worth significantly exceeds her poker earnings. The beauty earned much money thanks to starring in famous films such as “American Pie”, “Scary Movie”, “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back”, “Thirteen Ghosts” and many others.

Another source of income for Shannon is her work as a representative of Full Tilt Poker. She has also been engaged in diverse PR deals with numerous brands and organizations. However, that’s not all. Elizabeth has been involved in the voice acting work in various video games, as well as film producing – that’s how Shannon Elizabeth has amassed a net worth estimated to be about ten million American dollars. As for the woman’s winnings at poker live tournaments, they amount to nearly three hundred thousand American dollars.

Shannon Elizabeth’s husband and other love relations

Fans have always been interested in the details of the personal life of such a hot actress, but Shannon rarely shared much information concerning her relations with men. It should be noted that at first, the beautiful girl was focused on her acting career that she did not think of being engaged in any relations.

Just in 1995, Elizabeth started to date the American actor Joseph David Reitman. Seven years later, the couple decided to start a new phase in their relationship and got married. Unfortunately, in 2005, the well-known actress filed for divorce. By 2006, David started dating one of the most successful female poker players Annie Duke, and in 2010, they got engaged. Two years later, the couple broke up. Similar to Elizabeth, Reitman has also been interested in playing poker: he has participated in the World Series of Poker four times. Moreover, he has taken part in a large number of charity tournaments during his poker career.

As for Shannon Elizabeth, three years after the divorce, the actress took part in the dance competition in the format of television series “Dancing with the Stars” and started dating with her partner from the show Derek Hough. However, Hough did not become Elizabeth’s husband since, in a year, the couple broke up.

At present, there is no information concerning Shannon’s current love relations. She seems to be much more focused on playing poker and charity. But, who knows, maybe soon there will be someone who can win the heart of this beauty and create a happy family with her.

Frequently-asked questions about Shannon Elizabeth

Who is Shannon Elizabeth?

She is a former fashion model and popular American actress popular for the appearances in such films as “American Pie”, “Scary Movie”, “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back”, “Thirteen Ghosts”, “Love Actually”, “Cursed”, “Night of the Demons”, “Catch a Christmas Star”, and many others.

How tall is Shannon Elizabeth?

The popular actress is 1.75 meters tall.

Who is Shannon Elizabeth married to?

For three years, from 2002 to 2005, Shannon Elizabeth was married to the American actor Joseph David Reitman. At present, there is now information regarding the beautiful woman’s current love relations.