Most Likely to Steal a Show

There are a lot of famous TV faces (Michael J. Fox, Bill Cosby and Ted Danson, to name a few) returning to the small screen this fall. But there are also many new personalities making their debut. Here’s an introduction to five of the most interesting newcomers.

Carey Lowell / “Law & Order”

Carey Lowell wasn’t looking to do a TV series. In fact, the model-turned-actress (“Licence to Kill”) was set to study documentary filmmaking this summer at New York University.

“I did a film, ‘Fierce Creatures,’ which hasn’t come out yet, and we wrapped it last August [1995]. I hadn’t gotten anything since then.” So Lowell decided to go to school.

But the week before class was to start on July 1, Lowell was called in to audition for the role of the savvy assistant district attorney Jamie Ross on NBC’s long-running series “Law & Order.”

“I found out on the 29th of June that I had gotten the job,” says Lowell, who has lived in New York since 1979. “So two days before I was supposed to start class, I took this totally different turn.”

The cast of “Law & Order,” Lowell says, has welcomed her with open arms. The series has gone through a revolving door of cast changes since its debut in 1990. Lowell replaces Jill Hennessey, who played assistant D.A. Claire Kincaid for three seasons.

The character of Ross, Lowell explains, is a divorced former defense attorney with a young daughter. She’ll have a different relationship with her boss, Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), than Kincaid did.

“His and Jill’s relationship in the past was more of a mentor-protege type thing,” she explains. “I know my stuff. I am very aggressive about trying criminals and doing as much as I can to put them away. I am pro death penalty. Our relationship is a bit contentious, but we also have a mutual respect for each other.”

Lowell began modeling the summer before her senior year in high school, then moved to New York during her sophomore year in college. She made her film debut in 1986’s “Club Paradise” and was the “Bond girl” in 1989’s “Licence to Kill,” Tom Hank’s wife in “Sleepless in Seattle” and a bank teller in “Leaving Las Vegas.” She also starred in the short-lived 1993 series “A League of Their Own.”

Lowell, who has a 6-year-old daughter, describes her gig on “Law & Order” as “the perfect job for me. The great thing about this job is that it’s half ‘Law’ and half ‘Order.’ I have a couple of days off a week.”

Christine Taylor / “Party Girl”

As the perfectly perfect Marcia Brady in “The Brady Bunch Movie” and “A Very Brady Sequel,” Christine Taylor plays a character stuck in a ‘70s time warp. But she’s very much a ‘90s woman in the new Fox sitcom, “Party Girl,” based on the 1995 independent comedy film.

Taylor’s Mary is a New York party girl who takes a job as a library clerk to prove she can be responsible and still have a good time. Swoosie Kurtz plays her godmother and boss.

“What is so wonderful about Mary is that, for a girl in her early 20s, she is not just ‘the daughter of’ and ‘the girlfriend of,’ which is what you find these days,” Taylor says.

“This is a self-made woman who is free-spirited and independent. People compare her to a Holly Golightly of the ‘90s, which is really terrific, but those are really big shoes to fill. I loved the movie, ‘Breakfast at Tiffanys.’ ”

Taylor landed a development deal at Warner Bros. after several executives saw her in the 1995 “Brady Bunch Movie.”

“It was one of those things that if I was going to do television, it was going to be with Warner Bros.,” says Taylor. “It gave me the opportunity to meet with really terrific producers. I read a lot of different things and this really jumped out at me.”

The actress, though, didn’t see the movie, which starred Parker Posey, until after she shot the pilot. “If I saw something that she did that I liked, I didn’t want to steal it,” Taylor says with a laugh.

Born and raised in Allentown, Pa., Taylor was involved in community theater. While doing a community production of “Fiddler on the Roof” her sophomore year in high school, she caught the attention of a local manager who was about to open a business in New York.

“She asked if I had ever done commercials or was interested in going to New York,” recalls Taylor. “My life was so full then, I figured I would just go to college.”

When summer rolled around, the manager called Taylor again about auditioning for a Burger King commercial. “My mom and I went into New York, and I went in for this one-minute audition and ended up getting it. So I did this Burger King commercial, and commercials just sort of snowballed from there.”

During her senior year she was cast in “Hey Dude,” a Nickelodeon series set at a dude ranch in Tucson, Ariz. “I finished high school with tutors in Arizona,” she says. “And I did ‘Hey Dude’ for 65 episodes.”

Though she was set to attend New York University, she came out to Los Angeles when “Hey Dude” ended. “A roommate situation opened up and now it’s 5 1/2 years later.”

Shanesia Davis / “Early Edition”

Landing the role of the independent, blind Marissa Clark on CBS’ new fantasy-drama “Early Edition” is “totally a dream come true” for Chicago stage actress Shanesia Davis.

“My whole standpoint is that I had nothing to do [with getting the job],” she explains. “This is all a higher power, and no matter who or what tries, no one can take that away because it is meant to be.”

In the Windy City-based series from executive producer Bob Brush (“The Wonder Years”), Marissa encourages her co-worker (Kyle Chandler) to use his knowledge of the future for the good of others.

“There is a certain wisdom in her youth beyond her years,” Davis says of Marissa. “Whether it comes from her disability or not, there is a lot we can learn from her.”

Davis, who has appeared in the films “Backdraft” and “With Honors,” researched her role at the Chicago Guild of the Blind.

“I go back depending on what the episode calls for and just to make sure that everything is correct,” Davis says. “I want to make her as real as possible. Everyone who is blind is not going to like my portrayal, but I have to do what is true for me.”

Davis auditioned for “Early Edition” in Chicago and then came out to Los Angeles for several more meetings. “I did three auditions [in one day], and by the time it was done that night I had the job,” she says.

“It was kind of surreal, actually. It was like something somebody dreams about. I have always been, like, in my own little dream world since I was a kid. ... this proves that this little dingbat girl who dreams all the time, sometimes dreams come true.”

The youngest of seven children, Davis grew up a movie buff. “I loved Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Lucille Ball is, like, the most genius comedian who ever graced the screen, in my opinion. She was one of the women I really admired. A lot of roles I would go out for were, like, sex kittens and all of that, and this is not my personality. I like big comedy. I love doing that.”

David Conrad / “Relativity”

Working in television is a whole new world for Juilliard-trained theater actor David Conrad, who plays the scruffily handsome aspiring painter Leo Roth on ABC’s “Relativity.”

The comedy-drama, which chronicles the relationship of a young couple (Conrad and Kimberly Williams) from their first kiss to their wedding and beyond, is the latest series from “thirtysomething” executive producers Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick.

“The whole process [of shooting a TV series] is kind of nerve-racking,” Conrad confesses. “You have to get used to the down time, where you have to sit around for huge amounts of time. You have to have a lot of hobbies. I am trying to learn how to play the guitar. I sit around and draw pictures and read.”

Conrad, 29, was set to star in a production of Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia” in his hometown of Pittsburgh when his agent gave him the pilot script of “Relativity.”

He says he was drawn to the project because, “it was a really simple thing done really, really well. It is like when you look at a loaf of bread that’s perfectly cooked.”

Plus, he is a huge Ed Zwick fan. “I love his movie, ‘Glory,’ ” says Conrad. “I never saw any of his other series. I read for it on tape and a week later they flew me out for the audition. After the audition, Ed walked up and said, ‘You got the job.’ ”

And the pilot’s shooting schedule was worked out so Conrad could still do “Arcadia.”

Though he’s a theater animal, Conrad never saw a play until he was 16. “I would sit around and read a lot,” he says. While a history major at Brown University, his roommate suggested he audition for the college production of “Our Town.” Conrad ended up playing the lead role of George.

“It was really fun,” he recalls. “I thought this was something I really wanted to do.”

But for nearly two years after graduation he traveled and did odd jobs. “I ended up in Pittsburgh working for a steel union, actually,” Conrad says. “These people were trying to get National Historical Society status for a piece of an old steel mill. I did oral interviews with old steelworkers, their families and their kids.”

That job, Conrad says, lured him back into acting. “It was incredible. That whole experience of people telling stories awakened me and really made me remember why I like the theater.”

Jenna Elfman / “Townies”

Jenna Elfman can still shop at her local Ralphs and “no one has a clue” who she is. But she knows that probably won’t be the case after her first TV series, the sitcom “Townies,” premieres Wednesday on ABC.

“I have friends who are real famous and I have been around them when people recognized them,” Elfman says. “I am kind of excited to see what that will be like [to be recognized], but after a week I will be like, “Oh, God. I need my privacy.’ ”

In the comedy series, the bubbly 24-year-old actress plays the scene-stealing Shannon, who works as a waitress with her best friend Carrie (Molly Ringwald) at a restaurant-bar in their New England hometown. The outspoken Shannon is the ultimate party animal, who drinks a tad too much and has dated almost every available guy in town.

The Los Angeles native says playing Shannon is a terrific way for her to “blow off steam, because she gets to say what’s on her mind and doesn’t hold back. So as an actress it’s really fun.”

And so is going to work every day. “I get soooo excited,” Elfman exclaims. “That is what I wanted. I wanted a show where I was excited to go to work every day. I love the writing. I love who I am working with. We have the best crew. Everybody gets along.”

Initially, Elfman had no intention of being an actress. Studying classical ballet from the age of 5, she put up her toe shoes after high school when an ankle injury made it difficult for her to dance ballet.

“Then I started dancing for TV and films because there was not so much pointe work,” Elfman says. “I danced on the Academy Awards in 1991.”

And toured for two months with the rock group ZZ Top. “I didn’t last the whole tour because I am not into drugs. I am not promiscuous. I just went because I wanted to dance in front of 12,000 people. I was only having fun when I was on stage dancing. All the behind-the-scenes stuff, I am just not interested in.”

Between dancing gigs, Elfman did “commercials, commercials, commercials, commercials.” Then last year, she decided to concentrate on acting.

Landing “Townies,” she says, is “thrilling. This is the first time I have had to maintain a character. It is, like, she changes, she grows and she has new experiences. It has been a great learning experience. I have kind of been teaching myself a lot.”