Bethany Joy Lenz

chick style · September 27, 2006

Birth name

Bethany Joy Lenz

Nickname

Joypiter

Height

5' 3" (1.60 m)

Biography

Bethany Joy Lenz (born April 2, 1981 in Hollywood, Florida but she moved to Texas at age 4) landed her first role at age 7 as a munchkin in a production of The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz. At 10, she was cast as Scout in a production of To Kill a Mockingbird at the Irving Community Theater in Texas.

Since 2003, Bethany is appearing on the WB's One Tree Hill as Haley James Scott.

She has guest-starred on The Guardian, Charmed, Felicity, Maybe It's Me, and Off Centre. She was also cast as Mary Tyler Moore's on-screen daughter in the reunion movie Mary and Rhoda (2000).

Before One Tree Hill, Lenz was best known for her role as Michelle Bauer Santos (1998-2000) on the CBS soap opera Guiding Light. She first appeared as the teenaged clone of Reva Shayne in a controversial storyline but made such an impression on viewers and critics that she was later recast as Michelle Bauer upon Rebecca Budig's exit.

In movies, she has starred in Thinner (1996) as Linda Halleck, and Bring It On Again (2004) as Marni.

She recorded a demo album in 2002 titled Preincarnate. In March 2005, she embarked on a month-long music tour with Tyler Hilton, The Wreckers (Michelle Branch and Jessica Harp), and Gavin DeGraw to promote One Tree Hill., where she performed some of her original songs from her second independent record, Come On Home (which was sold at the concert venues).

Prior to joining One Tree Hill in 2003, she was credited as Joie Lenz, a spelling of her middle name which she adopted in her early teens.

She is currently married to the band Enation's Michael Galeotti. They wed on December 31, 2005 in Hillsboro, Oregon; in the One Tree Hill opening credits, she is credited as Bethany Joy Galeotti.

Trivia

She has a springer spaniel named Scout, and two cats named Noah and Allie.

Released the limited CD "Preincarnate" featuring eight original tracks (2002)

The unusual spelling of her name was adopted in her early teens.

Her hobbies are Photography, painting, writing, horseback riding, knitting, and making stationery.

Is also a talented musician and singer with a four-octave range.

Goes by her middle name "Joy."

She has a 13 year old sister, who is not allowed to watch her on the WB's "One Tree Hill" (2003).

Impressed producers so much during her three week stint as "Teenage Reva Clone" on "The Guiding Light" (1952), she was re-hired later that year in the contract role of "Michelle Bauer" on the daytime serial.

Her favorite musicians are: Sheryl Crow, U2, Coldplay, "and anything that's not a sellout".

Her favorite TV shows are: "Joan of Arcadia" (2003), "Alias" (2001), "I Love Lucy" (1951), "Lost" (2004), "Arrested Development" (2003) and "Friends" (1994).

Her prized possession is Journals.

She is engaged to Michael Galeotti of the band Enation

November 2005: Announced she will be marrying Michael Galeotti by the end of the year. She will be taking his surname and using "Bethany Galeotti" professionally, which should be reflected in the "One Tree Hill" (2003) opening credits by the new year.

Since leaving "The Guiding Light" (1952) in 2000, she has kept in touch with co-stars Tammy Blanchard (Drew) and Paul Anthony Stewart (Danny).

Performed with Tyler Hilton, 'Gavin Degraw' and The Wreckers (Michelle Branch and Jessica Harp) on the One Tree Hill Tour.

Best friends with Brittany Snow, Sophia Bush, Hilarie Burton and Abigail Spencer.

Personal quotes

"I never rule anything out, I just follow where I'm lead."

"I don't party. I'm a total homebody. I like hanging out with my cat and I've actually been known to stay home and knit."

Joining "One Tree Hill" (2003) has been: "Like summer camp, only it's really cold in Wilmington, North Carolina! I've never lived in a small town, but I always pictured myself in a small house, drinking lemonade on my porch swing. Now I have the porch!".

Favorite holiday: Christmas. "It will always be number one on my list. You feel cozy for like two months straight. You sing songs, all the stories look exactly the same. There's no other holiday where everybody decorates. There's a joy and a spirit of excitement that's in the air around Christmastime. It's the best."

"If I ever got married and my husband wanted me to give all this up and follow him wherever he wanted me to go I would. I love acting because it's fun to play and I love music but I will be writing music for the rest of my life, forever. I'd be just as happy doing community-theater as I am doing a TV show. Doesn't much matter to me."

"I am not a people person. It's not that I am shy, but I am more comfortable in an atmosphere of one-on-one. I hate crowds and parties."

"That's the exciting thing. I still don't know what I'm going to be. I love acting. I would love to be an English teacher. I would love to be a housewife and have a chateau in the South of France, I would love to be a singer that travels to cafes around different towns. I am loving to live out my life right now and see where it goes, it's exciting."

"I guess I've sort of always wanted to be an actress, except when I was five, which, I did want to be the Queen of England."

"Musical theater is oh, my dream. My passion. Music is in my veins. Just being able to mix that passion with my other passion, for acting, would be unbelievable. I have to brush up on my dancing, but I'd definitely love to hit Broadway."

"Music's something I'll be doing for the rest of my life, whether I'm just playing guitar in my living room or whether I'm playing for 3,000 people."

"I am an actor. God forbid I say this, but I would be doing it for free because I love it. If I could, I'd do this every day of my life."

"I am a down-home girl. I love home and a German shepherd and an old red pickup truck from the '50s. I would love an old house in Alabama with little kids running in the yard."

"Lies about your physical appearance in Hollywood creep in like a nasty serpent in your bed. It's awful. "Who's got the best outfit?", "Who's makeup artist is terrible?", etc... I've really been learning that I have to choose to believe that it is not my clothes or my hair or my makeup that is going to make me shine. It's a battle I fight everyday with myself."

"I'm working on a demo and putting down tracks this week, actually. I write all my own music. It's like Sheryl Crow's and Joni Mitchell's stuff. I'm totally staying away from the Britney Spears thing - I don't want to be marketed and packaged".

"I'm a girlie girl. I just like being feminine."

"I think I started to see that acting was a really great catharsis for me. I've always been really creative and artistic, but I think acting was something that I could pour my creative energy into, and it took all of me. To this day, I haven't found that feeling anywhere else."

"I have no desire to be a star."

"I don't believe the human heart was made to be put through the abuse of the dating world. "

"I was probably singing before I could talk, Musical theater is my passion. If I could afford it, I would just do dinner theater and live a simple life."

"My personal style is just really easy, non fashion concerned. I have a lot of jeans and tee shirts."

"So much of my heart is in my music. If you pay close attention to the lyrics, you can get a much better perception of who I am when my guard is down. "

"I can't cook or do crafts. And put a soccer ball or a football in my hand, and I wouldn't know what to do with it, but if you give me a creative outlet, usually, I'd be able to figure something out."

"I eat peanut butter, Swiss cheese and lettuce sandwiches. Really, they're very good!"

"My dream car is a red '57 Chevrolet pickup. So I'd take a road trip in that for a day, play classic rock music the whole time and then stop at a diner at midnight for some apple pie."

"I had a lot of creative energy when I was young. I was not the best student because I was always challenging what the teachers were saying, rather than just accepting it."

"I love being home on rainy days! I usually write and sneak in an I Love Lucy rerun!"

"I love singing. Getting on stage... it's like reaching in to the bottom of my soul and bringing it right up. I love it. "

"I'm not a morning person. But I'm not really much of a night person, either. I'm just kind of there."

On her character Haley: "The interesting thing about Haley is that she feels really awful, but at the same time she doesn't walk around groveling. That would be pathetic. She wants to be forgiven, but she is willing to earn that. I hope the Nathan and Haley fans hang in there because I think they will be very satisfied with the outcome."

"I wrote my first song when I was maybe like four years old. I was always wandering around the house making things up. Back then, I learned a lot about singing from listening to Mariah Carey. I would sing to her [albums] and try and get all her riffs and stuff. I would be in my room for hours until I could get it right, it helps being an only child because I didn't have anything else to do!"

"I've learned so much, especially with Chad. He is really good with camera and lighting and technical stuff. He has learned a lot about that and he's really good to work with and so I have learned so much technically. It's been amazing."

"Music is something that is in you. You can touch people with your music even if you're working a job at starbucks or working a desk job."