Live From New York, It’s Seattle Biotech’s Most Famous Daughter, Anna Faris

Seattle biotechies, set your calendar this Saturday for a date with the city’s most famous offspring from life sciences. Anna Faris, the daughter of Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association president Jack Faris, is getting some big-time exposure this weekend when she hosts Saturday Night Live.

The younger Faris’s profile is on the rise. She starred in The House Bunny, a comedy about a Playboy bunny who gets kicked out of the mansion when she gets too old, and ends up hanging out with some sorority girls. The film, which opened Aug. 22, has turned into a decent hit, earning $42.2 million in the U.S. in its first three weeks, according to boxofficemojo.com. She also appeared on the cover of the September issue of Playboy, but didn’t pose nude (she did the 20 questions interview). None of it hurt her chances in getting the invitation from Lorne Michaels and Co.

Faris’s proud dad notes that she’s traveling to New York today to begin rehearsing for SNL. The show’s season premiere, hosted by Olympic swimming star Michael Phelps, generated the best ratings in seven years, so this could be a big stage for Anna to show her comedy chops.

Author: Luke Timmerman

Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.