Calista Flockhart was born on November 11th, 1964 in Freeport, Illinois. She was named after her grandmother, and in Greek, Calista means 'most beautiful'. Flockhart's father was a Kraft Food executive and her mother was a school teacher. Her family moved four times while she was growing up, finally settling in Medford, New Jersey.

After finishing high school, Flockhart studied at Rutgers University in New Jersey. To avoid the lack of respect an undeclared major usually receives, she enrolled in the fine arts program, where she was bit by the acting bug. After appearing in college and community theatre and graduating from Rutgers in 1987, she packed up and moved to New York to pursue an acting career.

While appearing in smaller plays, Flockhart taught aerobics classes to pay the bills. She made her television debut in 1989 playing Elise in an episode of “The Guiding Light”. Soon after, she began winning praise for her performances in Off-Broadway productions of Sophistry and All For One.

Flockhart made her movie debut in Darrow (1991), a bio-pic that starred Kevin Spacey as the famed Attorney Clarence Darrow. A year later, she had her first starring role in the made-for-TV movie The Secret Life of Mary-Margaret: Portrait of a Bulimic (1992). This was part of HBO’s Family in Crisis Series. 

Later, she won more praise for her regional theatre production of Chekhov’s Three Sisters. However, this was the beginning of a downward trend in her career. She worked for eight weeks off-off-Broadway for $400. During this time, she lived off of a case of Ravioli that her brother sent her. Her career picked up again with her Broadway appearance in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie. For her performance, she won a Theatre World Award and a Clarence Derwent Award. 

That year, Flockhart began appearing in more movies with small roles in Quiz Show, Getting In, and Naked in New York. In 1995, she had her first major supporting role in Drunks. The movie showed an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, with different characters telling their stories. Richard Lewis, Spalding Grey, Parker Posey, and Faye Dunaway also starred. 

Flockhart appeared in The Birdcage in 1996, where she played Barbara Keeley, the daughter of the arch-conservative Senator Kevin Keeley (Gene Hackman). The movie also starred Robin Williams and was a critical and commercial success.

After her brief role on “The Guiding Light”, Flockhart refused to do television again, but after much encouragement from her friends, she finally went an audition for a new TV series, and was cast as the lead in Ally McBeal in 1997. She starred as the title character, a lawyer. The show was a hit, and in 1998 Flockhart won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Comedy/Musical.

Flockhart continued to make movies while doing Ally McBeal. In 1997 she appeared in the romantic comedy Milk and Money, and co-starred with Michelle Pfeiffer in the film adaptation of a A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 2000, she appeared in Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her, co-starring Cameron Diaz. She also returned to her theater roots and starred in the Broadway production of The Vagina Monologues.

In January 2001, Flockhart adopted a baby boy and named Liam. In 2002, she became engaged to Harrison Ford, yet the couple has not officially tied the not yet.

Next up, Flockhart will appear in The Last Shot, also starring Matthew Broderick and Alec Baldwin.