Birth name Calista Kay Flockhart Date of birth 11 November 1964 Birth location Freeport, Illinois, USA Height 5' 5½" (1.66 m)    Calista is an American actress. She is best known for her starring role as the temperamental lawyer in the 1997-2002 television show, Ally McBeal.

Calista Flockhart was named after great-grandmother. She was born on 11 November, 1964. Her hometown is in Freeport, Illinois. Her mother Kay, was a school teacher, and her father, Ronald, worked for Kraft Foods Inc. She attended Rutgers University in New Jersey to study acting. After College she worked in regional theatre in Cleveland, Louisville, Chicago, and Houston for $400 for eight weeks of work. Three years ago she got her first Broadway role playing Laura in Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie", for which she was recognized with the Theater World and Clarence Darwent Awards. She's also played in an all-star production of Chekhov's "The Three Sisters" playing Natasha. She wasn't too fond of TV before "Ally McBeal" (1997), but did take part in a 1992 episode of the HBO series _"Lifestories: Families In Crisis" (1995)_ . She did take part in many movies, but among them is the remake of The Birdcage (1996). Calista played the fiancée of Robin Williams's son. In 1997 she appeared in Telling Lies in America (1997) as the object of Brad Renfro's obsession.

Calista Flockhart has established herself in New York, Chicago, and elsewhere with an impressive stage and theater repertoire. She worked in the off-Broadway productions of "The Loop", "All for One", "Sophistry", "Wrong Turn at Lungfish", "Beside Herself" and "Bovver Boys". She also starred in non-NYC productions, such as "The Three Sisters" in Chicago, and "Our Town" and "Death Takes a Holiday" at the Williamstown Theater Festival.