Biography
Tori Bridges is one half French-Canadian/Iroquois, a quarter Latina and one quarter Irish. A second generation American, she is an accomplished actress of more than twenty combined films, television, commercials and print work. Tori was a premature baby, born three months early and weighing under 2 1/2 pounds. She was so small that for the first three months of her life, her crib was a shoebox, her diapers were handkerchiefs, and she could only be dressed in doll clothes. Although born in Las Vegas, she lived in Lake Tahoe, Nevada for most of her childhood, until moving to Oregon in Jr. High School.
Early in life, Tori experienced speech and reading disorders that made schoolwork challenging. As a little girl, she was often embarrassed by her stuttering during public speaking events and she avoided talking in front of people for most of her childhood. Even though she was shy and soft-spoken as a child, Tori demonstrated an unnatural fearlessness that developed further in her, making her overcome her shyness by competing and winning in sports and cheer-leading. Tori learned much later that that her reading and speech difficulties were from undiagnosed dyslexia and a slight hearing problem.
She has always been a risk-taker and is known for striving for perfection in everything she does. At age six, she was put into skiing lessons in Lake Tahoe and became a black diamond skier as a child. She spent an equal amount of time riding horses bareback, galloping through mountain trails alone for hours on warm summer days while developing a love for animals. Tori lived in Marla Bay where she would sled down the street and into the icy Lake Tahoe in the winter months for fun. In Lake Tahoe she developed a passion for all sports like basketball and baseball, and she played outdoors as much as possible. She became an amazingly shooter in basketball, often beating boys her age in one-on-one and free throws. Tori learned to drive from her father, who took her to the Hoover Dam at age nine and allowed her to drive up and down the dam while he covered his eyes while she sat on his lap. She loved it, and has loved speed and danger ever since. When she decided to try out for cheer-leading in Jr. High, she taught herself how to dance and cheer, practicing for hours by herself to create brand new routines. As a result, she was head cheerleader of her squads all the way through elementary, Jr. High and High School where she received standing ovations for her double pike that ended in splits.
On a dare from a friend, and without any acting experience, Tori auditioned for the lead in a high school play and landed the role. She continued to audition and win parts in plays such as The King and I, Fiddler on the Roof, and West Side Story in High School and into college. Plays sparked a love for performing in her, and over time she taught herself not to stutter and she overcame dyslexia to learn her lines.
During her university studies, she took film, television, and commercial acting classes including the Meisner techniques while earning her degree in Sociology. She loved school, and graduated with nearly two bachelor's degrees and 257 credits in Film Acting, International Relations, Psychology, Political Science, and her degree in Sociology.
With her long, flowing black hair, light skin, high cheekbones, and curvaceous figure, it was just a short time before casting directors took notice of her, and encouraged her to audition for films. Tori beat the odds again, and earned her Screen Actors Guild card within the first three months when she landed a speaking role opposite Doug McClure in the western, "Riders in the Storm". She followed this success with a stream of on-screen appearances in film, television, commercials, and print work. Some of her films include "Terminal Velocity" with Charlie Sheen, Jim Jarmush's award winning "Dead Man" with Johnny Depp, Keenan Ivory Wayan's "A Low Down Dirty Shame", "Forget About It" with Burt Reynolds and Rachel Welch, and numerous independent film projects. Her television work includes episodes of "The Fugitive", the highly rated "Jimi", Robin Cook's "Terminal", "Blind Justice" with Armond Assante, "River of Rage" with Victoria Principal, "Wyatt Earp, Return to Tombstone" with Bruce Boxleitner, and many more. Tori was sought out for national commercial work too, and these number in the dozens, including work with director Frank Stallone for "Bulls Eye", country stars Brooks and Dunn for "Miller Light", nation-wide endorsements of Budweiser, Whataburger, Reebok, and many more. Due to her on-camera beauty, she also has appeared in print ads on billboards in Times Square, in Time and Newsweek magazines, and in countless other nationally distributed advertisements for Datek/Ameritrade Online, Checker Auto, Turtle-wax, and many more.
Tori is known as an intuitive and energetic performer, who is hard working, takes direction and is able to portray emotions on cue. She is an athletically gifted performer who, in many cases, has performed complex stunts for herself and others in action scenes including falls and car chases.
Tori is a distinctive beauty who possesses a combination of the untouchable attraction and classic looks of a Hitchcockian Femme Fatale, the power of a Quentin Tarantino leading lady and a compassionate, loving heart that leaps off of the screen through her hazel eyes. On set, and in her personal life, she's known to be level headed, and calm under pressure. Tori is very athletic, nearly fearless, and highly intelligent (with all "As" in her current MBA program), but is also incredibly fun-loving and tender. She considers her sense of humor to be some combination of Zoey Deschanel, and Kate Hudson.
