Age: 19

Hometown: Boston, where she and her three older brothers were raised by their mother, Judy, a college professor, who Dushku calls her hero.

Current residence: Los Angeles, where she lives with her brother Nate, also an actor. "I'm becoming so domestic, it's scary. Friends call and I can't go out because I'm making curtains for the guest room."

You slay me: Although Dushku started making movies at age 11 (That Night, True Lies, This Boy's Life), she really broke through with her role as Faith, a vampy slayer-gone-bad, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Sins of the granddaughter: Some of her Slayer scenes were too steamy for her Mormon relatives. (She's no longer a follower.) "After the jump-your-bones scene with Xander, my grandma would not return my calls. She was embarrassed to go to church. She tried to call Michael Ovitz [the head of Dushku's management group] to tell him I was too naked on TV."

Cheer fever: Dushku, who swore never to become a cheerleader in high school, plays one in the upcoming movie Bring It On with Kirsten Dunst. But after pep boot camp, she developed an appreciation for the girls on the squad. "My muscles ached and my smile was plastered on, but camp made us feel like a team,"she says. Better yet, her family won't mind seeing the film: "They'll be happy because I don't have sex or leather or a bad attitude."

Reprinted from US Weekly - By Carrie Bell - September 4, 2000