Early life

Morris was born in Thousand Oaks, California, and was raised in Scottsdale, Arizona. She began dancing when she was 9. Morris competed at a young age in a variety of styles including jazz, tap, and contemporary. Morris's father died of cancer when she was 14 years old. "It's something that is hard for me, because I'm sad about it, but I don't dwell on it," she said during an interview workshop with students in December 2009. "I know he's in a better place, instead of suffering." After graduating from Desert Mountain High School, Morris decided to enroll in a local university but realized she was in the wrong place and moved to Los Angeles instead at age 19.

Career

Morris' first significant appearance was in 2006 on So You Think You Can Dance Season 2 where she made it through "Vegas Week" without being cut, but failed to make the final 20 by a vote of 3 to 2.

Not discouraged, Morris actively pursued a career in dancing and was trained in jazz dance. Her big break came in 2007 via Beyoncé. Morris was one of Beyoncé's backup dancers on The Beyoncé Experience world tour and, following that, worked again with Beyoncé on a mini "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" promotional tour that included 2008 performances on the American Music Awards, Saturday Night Live, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Today, and MTV's Total Request Live finale. She also danced backup for Beyoncé and Tina Turner at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards in 2008. She later appeared in a small role in the movie Fired Up, where she met choreographer Zach Woodlee. Following that film, Woodlee brought Morris in to dance on other shows he was choreographing, including episodes of Eli Stone and Swingtown, the movie Bedtime Stories, and eventually landed a role as Brittany on Glee.

In December 2010, Morris was named the Celebrity Style Ambassador for FLIRT! Cosmetics, an Estee Lauder cosmetics line. In 2010, Morris made the Maxim Hot 100 list, coming in at number 85. On the AfterEllen hot 100 list, she was ranked #2 behind Naya Rivera.

In 2011, Morris starred in a back-to-school commercial for Staples Canada that featured her dancing. In the October 2011 issue of Fitness magazine, Heather Morris stated that she has had her breast implants removed. She was quoted saying "Implants were something I thought I wanted when I was younger, and now I don't. It was hard being active with them, because my chest was always sore. It hurt a lot, and I didn't like always being in pain, so they had to go!" Her breast implant surgery was done sometime between her time on So You Think You Can Dance at age 18 and age 21 when she was a backup dancer for Beyoncé.

Glee

Morris was taking acting classes and actively pursuing an acting career when she was asked by Woodlee to teach the choreography for Beyoncé's "Single Ladies" dance to the Glee actors. At the same time, the show was looking for a third cheerleader, and Morris ended up landing the role of Brittany. Initially a background character who hardly ever spoke, the role grew as writers discovered Morris had a gift for delivering one-liners. Jarrett Wieselman of the New York Post opined that Morris has "emerged as one of the funniest second bananas on TV right now" and the LA Times wrote of having a "comedy crush on Morris, who plays the galactically dim Glee Club cheerleader Brittany".

When a promotional clip for the episode "Sectionals" indicated that Brittany Pierce and Santana Lopez had slept together, Dorothy Snarker, writing for lesbian entertainment website After Ellen, praised the pairing, referring to them by the portmanteau "Brittana". Snarker called the two her "new favorite Glee pairing", commenting that: "While Heather Morris (Brittany) and Naya Rivera (Santana) have had minimal screen time, they've made it count. Heather in particular has brought the laughs as the Cheerio least likely to get a Mensa invitation. Never mind Finn and Rachel — I'm on Team Brittana now."

Morris' role became more prominent during the final nine episodes of season one and, due to the overwhelmingly positive response to her character, was promoted to official series regular status during season two. She was at the center of the second episode, "Britney/Brittany", (a tribute to Britney Spears) where she made her singing debut covering Spears' "I'm a Slave 4 U" solo and dueting with Naya Rivera on "Me Against the Music". She later got many other singing and dancing solos. The second half of season two saw Morris' character engage in a lesbian storyline with Rivera's character. Both the arc along with Rivera's and Morris' performances were met with critical acclaim. As on Glee, Morris is best friends in real life with co-star Rivera.

In Season 3, she and Rivera's character continue with the lesbian storyline, and others. For example, she had a large role in the episode "Prom-asaurus". During the season finale, she reveals that she had an 0.0 GPA and that she would not be graduating.

During the 2011 Glee Tour, Heather performed Britney Spears' song "I'm a Slave 4 U". She also had a dance spotlight with castmate Harry Shum Jr. during Naya Rivera's performance of "Valerie," and was one of the dancers in the Single Ladies and Safety Dance numbers.

Morris co-wrote and appeared in a January 2011 video for the comedy website Funny or Die, "Nuthin' But A Glee Thang" a parody of "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang" by Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg. Co-written with actresses Ashley Lendzion and Riki Lindhome, the video features appearances from Modern Family's Sofia Vergara and Morris's Glee castmates Matthew Morrison, Cory Monteith, Harry Shum, Jr., and Naya Rivera.

On June 28, 2013, it was reported that Morris would not be returning as regular on Glee's fifth season. However, Morris reprised her role for the show's hundredth episode and the final episode of the show's fifth season. Morris also appeared in five episodes in the show's sixth and final season, including the series finale.

Personal life

Morris is married to Taylor Hubbell, whom she began dating when he was a college baseball player. They attended the same high school in Arizona, but did not know each other there. They began dating after Morris moved to Los Angeles and Hubbell contacted her on Myspace. In a 2011 interview with Fitness, Morris said of Hubbell, "I want to marry him so bad. That's what I really care about. I want to marry Taylor and have kids with him. I love acting, but if it affects my relationship, then I won't continue doing it." After graduating from the University of Louisiana in Lafayette, Hubbell began living with Morris in Los Angeles in early 2012. Morris gave birth to their first child, a son named Elijah Beckwith Hubbell, on September 28, 2013. On August 28, 2014, it was announced that she and Hubbell were engaged, and they married on May 16, 2015. In August 2015 she announced via social media that they are expecting their second child. In an interview with E! News, she revealed that the second child will be a boy. She gave birth to their second child, Owen Barlett Hubbell, on February 11, 2016.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	The Beyoncé Experience Live	Dancer	Concert film
2008	Bedtime Stories	Dancer	Uncredited
2009	Fired Up!	Fiona
2011	A Sense of Humor	Laura	Short film
2011	The Elevator	Girl	Short film; also writer, director and producer
2011	Andy Made a Friend	Kate	Short film
2011	Post	Lily
2011	Glee: The 3D Concert Movie	Brittany Pierce	Concert film
2012	Courage to Create	Bella	Short film
2012	Ice Age: Continental Drift	Katie	Voice
2013	Spring Breakers	Bess
2015	Horrible Parents	Meg	Short film
2015	Most Likely To Die	Gaby
2016	Folk Hero & Funny Guy	Nicole
2016	The Cleansing Hour	Heather	Short film

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008	Saturday Night Live	Beyonce's Dancer	Episode: "Paul Rudd/Beyoncé"
2008	Swingtown	Disco Dancer	Uncredited, episode: "Get Down Tonight"
2008	Eli Stone	Dancer	Uncredited, 2 episodes
2009-15	Glee	Brittany Pierce	92 episodes
2010	How I Met Your Mother	Suit Dancer	Uncredited, episode: "Girls Versus Suits"
2012	Punk'd	Herself	Guest host
2015	Romantically Speaking	Ariel Cookson	Television film
2015	Whose Line Is It Anyway?	Herself	Episode: "Heather Morris"
2015	Comedy Bang! Bang!	Eliza Hansenback	Episode: "Weird Al Yankovic Wears A Different Hawaiian Shirt"
2016	Go-Go Boy Interrupted	Katie	3 episodes

Music videos

Year	Artist	Song
2008	An-Ya	"Nightlife"
	The White Tie Affair	"Candle (Sick and Tired)"
	Hit the Lights	"Drop the Girl"
2011	Leo Moctezuma	"2 Da Left"

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2010	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series	Glee	Won
	TV Land Awards	Future Classics		Won
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Music: Group		Nominated
	Lesbian/Bi People's Choice Awards	Favorite Music Duo or Group		Nominated
	Gay People's Choice Awards	Favorite Music Duo or Group		Won
2011	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series		Nominated
	Grammy Awards	Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media		Nominated
		Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals	Don't Stop Believin' !"Don't Stop Believin' (Regionals Version)"	Nominated
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Music: Group	Glee	Nominated
2012	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series		Nominated
	Grammy Awards	Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media		Nominated
2013	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series		Nominated
	Teen Choice Awards	Scene Stealer Female		Nominated

Discography

Further information: Glee discography

[ Source: Wikipedia ]