Although she made her film debut in the atrocious Pootie Tang, this plucky actress had much better luck with her subsequent projects. After studying at NYU's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, she quickly found stage work, including a leading role in the campy off-Broadway musical Reefer Madness, which was eventually turned into a TV-movie also starring Bell. The small screen ended up being her primary medium, and she had a number of guest appearances and TV-movies under her belt when she landed the title role of a teen-outcast-turned-investigator on Veronica Mars.