Early life and education

Davis was born in Boulder, Colorado. She is an only child, and her parents divorced when she was a baby. She was adopted by her stepfather, then-University of Colorado Boulder professor Keith Davis, after he married her mother, Dorothy, a university data analyst, in 1968. She has three sisters from her father's first marriage. Early in her childhood, she and her parents moved to Columbia, South Carolina, where her father served as provost and teaches psychology at the University of South Carolina.

Davis wanted to be an actress from the age of 9, when she was cast in the Workshop Theatre production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Davis lived in South Carolina until she graduated from A.C. Flora High School in 1983. She then moved to New Jersey, where she attended Rutgers University. Davis graduated with a BFA degree in Acting from Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts in 1987.

Career

Television

After graduation in 1987, Davis moved to New York and waited tables before opening a yoga studio with a friend. In 1991, she acted in a couple of episodes of the daytime drama (soap opera) General Hospital. Her big break came in 1995 when she landed the role of villainess Brooke Armstrong Campbell on the nighttime drama Melrose Place. She left the show after one year when producers decided to kill off the character. Davis also had roles in other television series including Friends, Will and Grace and Seinfeld.

In 1998, Davis was cast as Charlotte York in Sex and the City and remained an integral cast member until the series ended in 2004. In 1999, along with the rest of the cast, she was awarded the Women in Film Lucy Award in recognition of her excellence and innovation in her creative works that have enhanced the perception of women through the medium of television. She received an Emmy nomination for her role as Charlotte in the final season.

Davis hosted the VH1 show 200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons. In 2005, she starred in a television pilot entitled Soccer Moms in which she and Gina Torres star as suburban mothers who moonlight as private detectives. She starred as Miss Spider in the animated television special Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Kids and its spin-off series Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends and was recently a guest judge on the Lifetime (TV network) program Project Runway.

Films

Davis's films include The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3D, opposite David Arquette and George Lopez; the 2006 version of The Shaggy Dog, opposite Tim Allen, and Deck the Halls, opposite Matthew Broderick and Danny DeVito. She performed in ABC Family channel's Christmas movie Three Days in 2001, and in a commercial for Head & Shoulders shampoo.

Davis appeared in 2008's Sex and the City feature film, under the direction of executive producer Michael Patrick King. In 2009, Davis co-starred in Couples Retreat, a comedy chronicling four couples who partake in therapy sessions at a tropical island resort. Jon Favreau, who also wrote the script, played her husband.

Stage

Davis made her West End debut playing Beth Gallagher in Fatal Attraction at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, in March 2014.

Additional ventures

Shortly after the wide release of the Sex and the City feature film, in June 2008, Belk, the nation's largest privately owned department store chain, announced a partnership with Davis. The arrangement includes a ladies' apparel and accessories line that debuted in 2008 in 125 store locations and online, with eventual plans for expanding availability to other store locations. In Belk's press release about the product line launch, Davis cited her upbringing in South Carolina as part of her inspiration for working with the chain.

Personal life

In 2011, she adopted a daughter, Gemma Rose Davis. They reside in Los Angeles, California. Davis has never married.

Davis is a recovering alcoholic. She says she was introduced to alcohol early as part of her Southern upbringing: "Alcohol freed me. I was really shy and I didn't know how to come out of my shell. I drank for the same reason I loved acting. I wanted to feel things and express myself and be free. And I'm not naturally that way." She went sober at the age of 22, later stating, "I miss it. You don't go to rehab and then suddenly it goes away."

During her 2009 visit to Africa, Davis, a lifelong lover of elephants, discovered an abandoned baby elephant and arranged for it to be taken to a wildlife rehabilitation center. In recognition of the attention she has brought to the plight of orphaned African elephants, Davis won the Humane Society's 2010 Wyler Award, which is bestowed on a celebrity or public figure who has made news on behalf of animals.

Davis is also a patron of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust which works to protect elephants and other wildlife in Kenya.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Doom Asylum	Jane
1991	N.Y.P.D. Mounted	Young Lady	Television film
1995	Nine Months	Tennis Attendant
1995	Alien Nation: Body and Soul	Karina Tivoli
1996	Ultimate Lie, TheThe Ultimate Lie	Claire McGrath	Television film
1997	Deadly Vision, AA Deadly Vision	Babette Watson	Television film
1998	Traveling Companion	Annie
1998	Sour Grapes	Riggs
1999	Atomic Train	Megan Seger
2000	Take Me Home: The John Denver Story	Annie Denver	Television film
2000	Blacktop	Sylvia	Television film
2001	Someone to Love	Lorraine	Television film
2001	Three Days	Beth Farmer	Television film
2004	Winning Season, TheThe Winning Season	Mandy	Television film
2005	Soccer Moms	Brooke	Television pilot
2005	Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D, TheThe Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D	Max's Mom	Minor
2006	Shaggy Dog, TheThe Shaggy Dog	Rebecca Douglas
2006	Deck the Halls	Kelly Finch	Main role
2008	Sex and the City: The Movie	Charlotte York Goldenblatt
2009	Couples Retreat	Lucy Tippaglio
2010	Sex and the City 2	Charlotte York Goldenblatt	ShoWest Ensemble Award Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress Nominated-People's Choice Awards For Favorite Cast
2012	Journey 2: The Mysterious Island	Elizabeth Anderson
2012	Of Two Minds	Billie Clark	Television film

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991	General Hospital	Betsy Chilson, R.N.
1992	Mann & Machine	Cathy	Episode: "Billion Dollar Baby"
1993	Larry Sanders Show, TheThe Larry Sanders Show	Bri	Episode: "The Breakdown: Part II"
1994	Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman	Carey McGee	Episode: "Thanksgiving"
1995	ER	Leslie	Episode: "Luck of the Draw"
1995-96	Melrose Place	Brooke Armstrong	Recurring cast (season 3) Main cast (season 4) 32 episodes
1997	Single Guy, TheThe Single Guy	Leslie	Episode: "Johnny Hollywood"
1997	Seinfeld	Jenna	Episodes: "The Pothole" / "The Butter Shave"
1998-2004	Sex and the City	Charlotte York Goldenblatt	Women in Film Lucy Award (shared with cast) Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2001) Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2003) Nominated-Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2004) Nominated-Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Series, Miniseries or Television Film (2004) Nominated-Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (2004)
2000	Friends	Erin	Episode: "The One with Ross' Library Book"
2000	Sex and the Matrix	Charlotte York MacDougal	short parody
2004	Will & Grace	Nadine	Episode: "Will & Grace & Vince & Nadine"
2004-09	Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends	Miss Spider	Voice role, 35 episodes
2014	Bad Teacher	Ginny Taylor-Clapp	7 episodes

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2014	Fatal Attraction	Beth Gallagher

Charities

Kristin Davis supports the following charitable causes: Rape/Sexual Abuse, Women's Issues, AIDS, Cancer, Diabetes.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]