From fashion to film, California-born actress-model Beau Garrett went from photography shoots to moving pictures. With an acting resume that began with television series and segued into big screen thrillers, Garrett’s acting career caught on fire, quite literally, as Frankie Raye – a.k.a. Nova – the military daughter and a flame-wielding girlfriend of Johnny “The Human Torch” Storm.Born on Dec. 28, 1982 in Beverly Hills, CA, Garrett was one of two girls raised in the Santa Monica mountains area of Topanga Canyon. As a youth, her fresh-faced looks had modeling agents circling. One agent in particular managed to recruit her for work after spotting her at a Santa Monica mall, so by the time she had entered high school in the 1990s, she was a client of the famed Elite Modeling Agency. Garrett was then pulled into the world of GUESS fashions by founder Paul Marciano and had become a staple of a variety of clothing advertisements by the end of the decade.
After several years of successful modeling, Garrett made a relatively hassle-free transition into Hollywood with a few small screen appearances. Early in 2004, she officially kicked off an acting career, filming an episode of Fox’s short-lived Hawaii drama “North Shore” (2004-05). That same year, she famously appeared on HBO’s popular Hollywood insider comedy, “Entourage” (2004- ), playing the much talked-about Fiona, a sexy object of desire for the series’ fictional rising star Vince Chase (Adrien Grenier).
Over 12 days in September 2004, the eager Garrett headed back to Hawaii to shoot a pilot for The WB entitled “Rocky Point,” which was not picked up to become a series. In early 2005, Garrett appeared in the pilot for another Fox series – the short-lived comedy “Head Cases” (2005), which began airing that September. Over her summer, she was filming an independent horror thriller “Unearthed” (2007), as well as John Stockwell’s “Turistas” (2006) for the newly-formed Fox Atomic division. For “Turistas,” Stockwell – who was behind “Rock Point” – once again turned to Garrett to round out his cast, snagging the young actress to appear in the film about young tourists on a Brazilian vacation gone fatally wrong.
In the summer of 2006, hot off the heels of her big screen debut, Garrett was giving her acting a serious push, filming the reality-television mockumentary “Live!” (2007), before signing on to appear in the big-budget sequel “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” (2007). The year 2007 seemed poised to become the breakout time for the former model. Garrett started things off with another small screen appearance in January of 2007, appearing on ABC Family’s equestrian ranch drama “Wildfire” (2005- ). While looking towards her next projects, she awaited the premieres of both “Unearthed” and “Live!” at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival, followed by the rollout of “Fantastic Four” during the lucrative summer season.