By the time Kimberly J Brown earned attention and acclaim for her co-starring role as the pre-teen daughter of a Southern woman who has difficulty putting down roots in the highly-regarded indie "Tumbleweeds" (1999) she was already a veteran performer with three Broadway shows and an Emmy-nominated stint on a daytime serial on her resume. As Ava Walker, the petite brunette shone as the 12-year-old looking to finally settle in one place and enjoy some semblance of a normal life, yet equally understanding of her free-spirited mother. With British actress Janet McTeer (who managed the appropriate North Carolinian accent), Brown crafted a believable familial relationship which lent an aura of authenticity to the film.Born in Virginia in 1984, Brown began her career as a child model with the Ford Agency as age five. Two years later, she was among the pack of nine children onstage in John Guare's Tony-nominated Broadway play "Four Baboons Adoring the Sun". That part in turn led to Brown's stint as the young Cosette in the long-running musical "Les Miserables". Brown later appeared as young Kim and in the ensemble of the 1994 highly-praised, award-winning revival of "Show Boat", staged by Harold Prince. By this time, the youngster was displaying her prodigious talent and winning a legion of fans as Marah Lewis on the popular CBS daytime drama "Guiding Light". During her five years (1993-98) on the soap, Brown literally grew up in front of viewers and her emotional and touching work during the 1995-96 season brought her a Daytime Emmy nomination and higher visibility. She went on to portray the spoiled cousin of Jena Malone's titular "Ellen Foster" (CBS, 1997) and a teenage witch in the Disney Channel comedy-drama "Halloweentown" (1998) before her star-making turn in "Tumbleweeds".
Profession(s):
Actor, singer, voice actor, model
Sometimes Credited As:
Kimberly Brown
Independent Spririt Award Best Debut Performance "Tumbleweeds" 2000
ShowEast Star of Tomorrow Award 1999
2002 Starred as an autistic child who may be capable of communicating with ghosts in the ABC miniseries "Stephen King's Rose Red"
1999 Breakthrough screen role as the daughter of Janet McTeer in "Tumbleweeds"
1993 - 1998 Played Marah Lewis on the CBS daytime drama "Guiding Light"; received a 1996 Emmy nomination
1993 Joined the cast of the Broadway musical "Les Miserables". playing the young Cosette
1992 Broadway debut as Stockard Channing's daughter in John Guare's play "Four Baboons Adoring the Sun"
1990 At age five, worked as a child model with the Ford Agency
Did commercial voice-overs primarily for General Mills cereals (Trix, Lucky Charms, etc.)