Piper Lisa Perabo (born October 31, 1976) is an American stage, film and television actress.erabo was born in Dallas, Texas and grew up in Toms River, New Jersey, the daughter of Mary Charlotte (nee Ulland), a physical therapist, and George William Perabo, the Dean of English Literature at Ocean County College. She is of Portuguese and Norwegian descent. Her parents chose to name her after actress Piper Laurie. Her brother Adam is also an actor. In high school (Toms River North), Perabo...

Piper Lisa Perabo (born October 31, 1976) is an American stage, film and television actress.erabo was born in Dallas, Texas and grew up in Toms River, New Jersey, the daughter of Mary Charlotte (nee Ulland), a physical therapist, and George William Perabo, the Dean of English Literature at Ocean County College. She is of Portuguese and Norwegian descent. Her parents chose to name her after actress Piper Laurie. Her brother Adam is also an actor. In high school (Toms River North), Perabo appeared in the annual musicals. She was also president of the National Honor Society chapter and the editor of the school literary magazine, Polaris.

She graduated from high school at Toms River High School North and then summa cum laude from Ohio University's Honors Tutorial College in 1998 with a BFA in theater. After graduating, Piper studied acting at the LaMama Theater in New York and had small roles in two plays. She was a waitress in New York City at an upscale restaurant prior to being discovered.

In 2000, Perabo was cast in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle as lead character FBI agent Karen Sympathy. Her next film, Coyote Ugly, was more of a star-making role. She played Violet Sanford, nicknamed "Jersey," a young woman who moves to New York to pursue her dream of becoming a songwriter. Perabo took lessons in voice, guitar, piano and bartending to prepare for the role. Despite poor reviews, the film was a modest box-office success and she won an MTV Movie Award for Best Music Moment for "One Way or Another."

In 2001, Perabo starred in an independent Canadian movie called Lost and Delirious, playing a boarding school student who falls in love with a female classmate. The next year, she starred as a French exchange student in Slap Her... She's French, which was shelved in North America for two years, then released under the new title She Gets What She Wants. The film was released under its original title in Europe. In 2003, she had a role as the eldest Baker child, Nora, in Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) which she reprised in its 2005 sequel.

Other recent films include The i Inside (2003), Perfect Opposites (2004), George and the Dragon (2004), The Cave (2005), Imagine Me You (2005), Edison (2005), The Prestige (2006) and Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008). She appeared as a nutritionist on the Fox TV show House.

In 2009, Perabo made her Broadway debut in the Neil LaBute play reasons to be pretty.

In 2011, Piper would be playing Nora Baker in Cheaper by the Dozen 3 alongside with Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt.