Anna Faris, a beloved figure in Hollywood known for her infectious laughter, comedic brilliance, and charming personality, has left an indelible mark on both the big and small screens. At least, that’s what the tabloids and celebrity bios on the internet say. As for me, I personally only know Anna Faris from the Scary Movie franchise, and I think I can vouch for millions of other people in that regard as well. It’s no secret that the Scary Movie parody film series is where most of the world knows Anna from. In those flicks, she played Cindy, a young girl who always seemed to be caught up in a series of spooky events that are spoofs of some of the most popular horror movies ever made.

In the first Scary Movie flick, which is essentially a parody of Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and a couple of other classic horror flicks, Cindy and her friends are bereaved by a masked killer who turns out to be a mentally challenged lad who is the younger brother of one of Cindy’s friends (spoiler alert, also spoiler warnings ahead for all of the subsequent Scary Movies). In the second Scary Movie installment, which is also a parody of The Exorcist, Poltergeist, Amityville Horror, and other movies, Cindy and her friends are invited to spend a couple of nights in a mansion as an experiment which of course turns out to be haunted by the ghosts of its previous owners. There’s also a creepy butler in the mansion as well with a deformed and misshaped hand who always seems to get very touchy with Cindy and her friends whenever he gets the chance.

Then in the third Scary Movie installment, we meet an older Cindy who now holds down a real job, and in this flick, which is mostly a parody of Signs and 8 Mile and The Ring, Cindy races against time in order to stop a killer video tape from killing people a la The Ring movie. She also meets a new love interest played by actor Simon Rex, who is basically a parodied version of Eminem in 8 Mile - there’s also an alien invasion happening just like the one in the Signs movie, and somehow it’s all connected.

In the end, the little zombie girl who kills people via the killer videotape is defeated, and so are the aliens, with the help of none other than the president of the United States as well as the Wu-Tang Clan, the entirety of which appears as a cameo toward the end of the movie. Anna Faris’ last appearance in the Scary Movie serial was in the fourth installment, which is a spoof of the movies The Grudge, Saw, The Village, and War of The Worlds among others.

This time around we see an even older Cindy who finds out that the house she lives in is haunted by a little boy, plus, there’s another alien invasion happening, as Earth is invaded by a race of Aliens piloting “Tri-Pod” crafts. Yeah, the Scary Movie franchise was a real fun mess, and it was wildly hilarious for its time. Plus. it essentially birthed the parody movie genre, which is pretty much entirely based on parodying whatever is trending and popular and adding a layer of crude toilet humor over it.

Nowadays though, pretty much every parody movie be it the Scary Movies or other parody flicks is either very stale or absolute cringe - they have a few notable moments that still hold up, but it’s mostly trash. Luckily the Scary Movies didn’t define Anna Faris’ acting career too much, as she did go on to play other roles in movies and shows outside of the parody genre. But, what exactly did Anna do outside the Scary Movies? Well, keep reading to find out.

Anna Had A Few Other Notable Comedy Roles Throughout The 2000sAnna continued to make audiences laugh with her roles in films like The Hot Chick (2002), Just Friends (2005), and Smiley Face (2007), proving that she didn’t need to be the star of a pop culture reference-glazed spoof comedy flick to be funny. Her ability to transform herself into a wide range of comedic characters is clear in the aforementioned movies, but still, no matter what sort of movie she appeared in, everyone still referred to her as the girl from the Scary Movies. That being said, Faris nevertheless embraced the comedy genre and became one of the few relevant female actresses of the 2000s who were actually capable of being funny without being cringy. She has impeccable comedic timing and knows exactly how much she needs to try to be funny in order to actually be funny without going into cringe territory - something that way too many female comics and actresses are guilty of. That being said, let’s break down some of her most iconic movie roles.

The Hot Chick (2002) Was Faris’ First Big Non-Scary Movie Movie

Look, it’s an early 2000s comedy movie, so it’s not like the acting is impressive or anything, but I remember seeing this flick back when I was a little kid and it was kinda funny to me back then. And yeah, you can probably guess that Rob Schneider’s character Clive probably gave his new hot female high school cheerleader body a thorough inspection once he woke up in it - of course, the movie doesn’t show that, but in that universe, you can bet that it definitely happened.

Faris Also Had A Major Role In The 2005 Comedy “Just Friends”

Anna Faris Also Produced And Starred In The Sitcom “Mom”

Like her daughter, Bonnie Plunkett is also a recovering addict, and the two share a tumultuous but loving bond with strengthens throughout the show. The show itself explores the challenges of addiction in a humorous way and employs a storytelling angle that mostly relies on witty humor and poignant yet heartwarming moments, which is a pretty fresh direction for a modern-day TV show.

Faris Has Been Running A Podcast Since 2011

She Also Has A Kid With Chris Pratt

I guess Pratt let the fame go over his head once he started getting paid those big Marvel bucks for his Guardians of the Galaxy roles, and nowadays he’s also the voice of Super Mario, that guy’s got it good - Faris however, is nowhere near as popular as he is. I smell some infidelity here, but maybe I’m wrong - either way, their son Jack is now about 11 years old, so Pratt has 7 more years of alimonies left.

• Anna Farris is one of the few funny female actresses who peaked during the 2000s
• She seems like a genuinely good and down to Earth
• She still appears in movies today, either as herself or via voice acting’

• Nothing