Tiffani Thiessen was THE girl of the nineties, starting her rise just before the decade began and taking it over completely before the 90s were halfway through.
With her massive popularity starting young on Saved By the Bell and growing even stronger through Beverly Hills 90210, where can she be seen these days by the fans that grew up dreaming about her?
Born and raised in Long Beach, California in January of 1974, Tiffani was the youngest of two children and would start participating in beauty pageants throughout her younger years before winning Junior Miss America in 1987.
This would shoot her to modeling stardom and her television role.
Early to Class
Saved by the Bell wasn’t the first television show aimed at teen viewers trying to capture the drama and angst of high school life, but it did set a standard for those that came after.
The storylines and messages may not have always landed, but the characters’ chemistry and charm are what makes the show memorable, with everyone from Mark-Paul Gosselaar’s Zack Morris, Mario Lopez as AC Slater, Lark Voorhies as Lisa and Tiffani as the cute and quirky Kelly Kapowski.
Saved by the Bell wasn’t her only project through, with Thiessen also guest starring on major sitcoms of the time like Married with Children and Charles in Charge while appearing in all four seasons and the sequel series of Bell.
As if that wasn’t enough, there were two television movies made for the series both during and after it ended, tying up the stories of Zack and Kelly with a wedding.
Tiffani stayed busy too, filming Saved by the Bell: The College Years and movies A Killer Among Friends alongside the unfortunate Pauly Shore disaster Son in Law before 1995 rolled around.
In 1994, when Saved by the Bell was mostly over and done with The College Years not panning out, Thiessen jumped to a new role that was deviously opposite of her previous tenure as Kelly.
Moving Cities
Beverly Hills, 90210 would take Tiffani through the rest of the 90s and finish out in the 2000s, with her role as bad girl Valerie Malone stunning audiences with her debut in season five and remaining until the series ended.
She would garner even more fame and acclaim from the role than she already had and became a juggernaut of television with guest appearances on NewsRadio and Cupid. Unfortunately, her film career wouldn’t fare as well.
Sure, a Pauly Shore movie isn’t a great way to get the ball rolling in film, but it’s not like there’s anywhere to go but up, right?
Unfortunately, Tiffani would stay on a flat line in the Hollywood movie industry with even more critical and box office bombs like Shriek if You Know What I Did Last Summer and From Dusk Till Dawn 2. At least she was in The Ladies Man?
Finding Love (and a New Show)
Tiffani didn’t let it get her down, instead sticking to what she knew and hopping television roles for a while, going everywhere from Two Guys, A Girl, and a Pizza Place to Good Morning, Miami. A temporary spot on Fastlane would keep her busy through 2003, but unfortunately, the show would be canceled due to high production costs. Tiffani would take a small break for a couple of years,
Thiessen’s acting would go on a short hiatus, but her love life would begin anew during that time. While she had a long dating history from her co-star Mario Lopez to the late Dylan Strickland, who unfortunately passed while they were dating.
She would finally find love in actor Brady Smith, and the two would marry in 2005. They’ve since had two children together and are still happily married.
Not content to just act and get married in 2005, she would also make her directorial debut with the film Just Pray, receiving recognition from critics and film festival audiences. She would return to mainstream acting with television specials like the miniseries Pandemic in 2007 and the even more unfortunate Cyborg Soldier in 2008.
If your agent ever sends a script that involves a former UFC fighter as the lead, don’t do it. Don’t even open it. Put it outside and wait for Uwe Boll to scurry from his little nest and take it in the night.
Where Is Tiffani Thiessen Now?
Thankfully she found a home on television once more in 2009, coming into White Collar as Elizabeth Burke and remaining through the entire run until 2014. Another short break would follow the end of White Collar along with the holiday film Northpole.
Tiffani would instead take time to raise her two children and enjoy motherhood for a time until joining Alexa & Katie on Netflix in 2018, finishing out the run through 2020 when the show ended.
The disaster of 2020 and the ever-unfolding years after have only seen Tiffani taking part in the Saved by the Bell broadcast on Peacock for two seasons, being canceled in 2021.
Otherwise, she found a love and passion for cooking, finding new fun and much less grueling hours than acting as she hosted Dinner at Tiffany’s from 2014 to 2017 on The Cooking Channel before moving to Deliciousness, a spinoff of Ridiculousness that was created by a chatGPT precursor run off a rotten tomato and stolen copper wire.
Tiffani doesn’t have many other gigs lined up but does occasionally appear as a guest and judge across various cooking and baking shows while not raising her family. Most recently she published her second cookbook, all about utilizing leftovers and she has a blog where she posts recipes and updates about her life.