Anna Chlumsky

Anna Chlumsky is an American actress who first captured audiences as a precocious child star, most famously portraying Vada Sultenfuss in the beloved 1991 film My Girl and its 1994 sequel. Born Anna Maria Chlumsky on December 3, 1980 in Chicago, Illinois, she grew up in a Catholic household with Czech and Croatian roots; her mother Nancy was a singer, actress, and former flight attendant, while her father Frank worked as a chef and saxophonist. After an early modeling stint with her mother, she made her film debut in Uncle Buck (1989) before landing the iconic role that cemented her place in 1990s popular culture. Throughout that decade she appeared in titles such as Trading Mom, Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain, and My Girl 2, establishing a reputation for nuanced performances despite her youth. In 1999 she chose to step away from Hollywood to attend the University of Chicago, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies in 2002 and later worked briefly as a fact‑checker for Zagat and an editorial assistant at HarperCollins. Dissatisfied with publishing, she returned to acting after completing formal training at the Atlantic Acting School, re‑emerging in independent projects like Blood Car (2007) and Armando Iannucci’s political satire In The Loop (2009). Her breakthrough in adult television arrived with the role of Amy Brookheimer on HBO’s Veep (2012‑2019), a performance that garnered six Primetime Emmy nominations and solidified her status as a versatile comedic talent. Since then she has balanced screen work—including appearances on White Collar, Law & Order: SVU, Halt and Catch Fire, and the Netflix limited series Inventing Anna—with stage credits on Broadway and Off‑Broadway, and even lent her voice to the 2021 Rugrats revival. Off‑camera, she married Army Reserve member Shaun So in 2008 and is a mother of two daughters, continuing to blend a dynamic career with family life.