Carolyn Stotesbery
Quick Facts
Biography
Carolyn Stotesbery-Levens (née Stotesbery) is an American actress, writer, and producer best known for portraying the character Pamela Richardson on the TNT drama Agent X and her acting roles in Grey Lady and Castle.
Early life
Stotesbery was born in Wayzata, a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she lived part-time as well as spending summers on a cattle ranch in Big Timber, Montana. She is the daughter of Anne and Patrick Stotesbery. Her father was a cattle rancher, but traded the cattle business for cabernet by moving from their Montana ranching community to Napa Valley to create Ladera Vineyards, which has flourished into a coveted label.
Stotesbery is the youngest of 4 children; she has an older brother, Dan, and 2 older sisters, Nicole and Laura. Stotesbery attended Breck School and Wayzata public school before attending USC. She began acting at the age of 5, and at the age of 8 became a part of the Children's Theater of Minneapolis.In high school, Stotesbery was cast in multiple musical theater productions as well as plays, including Into The Woods, West Side Story, and Noises Off.
Stotesbery studied Shakespeare at Cambridge University in England, and New York University (NYU) Tisch Stella Adler Conservatory, as well as Theater at USC.
Stotesbery is an Improv Olympic West Alumni and a member of UCB. She also spent time at the Second City Training Center and The Groundlings.
Acting career
In 2003, Stotesbery made her first appearance in a Hollywood film with a small role in the Farrelly brothers’ Stuck On You, opposite Greg Kinnear and Matt Damon.Before that she had appeared in the hit comedic show MTV's Undressed.
Stotesbery subsequently played opposite Jason Schwartzman in the FOX pilot Cracking Up created by Mike White and portrayed Johanna Hoffman, a Dutch Jew that survived the Holocaust in CBS’s award winning, Emmy nominated show Cold Case with Kathryn Morris. In 2006, she appeared in the independent film Bobby directed by Emilio Estevez.
In the 2010s, Stotesbery appeared in Glory Daze from Van Wilder director Walt Becker on TBS and Treasure of the Black Jaguar, as well as the independent film Crosshairs directed by Nick Lentz, which also starred Tom Sizemore. She starred as one of the leads in the pilot Olympia, which did very well in the festival circuit and won 5 awards.She later reunited with director Nick Lentz and starred in the French comedic short film Cupcakes. Stotesbery also starred in the dramatic short film Cold Feet and the music video for Adele’s Don’t you remember.
In 2015, Stotesbery played the role of Pamela Richardson on the TNT series Agent X starring Sharon Stone, Jeff Hephner, Jamey Sheridan, John Shea and Mike Colter.
Following Agent X, Stotesbery went on to appear in episodes of Castle and the feature filmGrey Lady released in mid-2017. In 2019 she was hired to write a television series, Menace of Venice for Todd Garner's Broken Road Productions along with her husband, Philip Levens.
Modeling
As a freshman in high school, Stotesbery was chosen 1 out of 400 girls in the Ford Modeling search to represent Beauty in the Midwest. Stotesbery was selected to go to New York and featured on CBS after which, Ford placed her in Chicago where at 15 she lived on her own working as a model.She has shot with top photographers Ellen Von Unwerth, Odette Sugerman, Jill Greenberg, Jeremy Goldberg, Peggy Sirota, Andrew Southam, Bonnie Holland, and Jason Nocito, appearing in such magazines as Italian Vogue, Rolling Stone, Glamour, and Allure.
Personal life
Stotesbery is married to screenwriter Philip Levens.The couple lives in Los Angeles.
Television
Year | Title | Role | Network/Prod Co./Director |
---|---|---|---|
2001 | Undressed | Guest Star: Dawn | MTV |
2004 | Cracking Up (Pilot) | Co-Star | FOX |
2006 | Cold Case | Guest Star: Johanna Hoffman | CBS |
Felt Up (Pilot) | Series Regular | FOX Interactive/Dir. Jill Greenberg | |
2010 | Glory Daze | Co-Star: Carol | TBS/Dir. Lev L. Spiro |
2012 | Olympia (Pilot) | Series Regular: Dakota Aubrey | Dir. Hisonni Johnson |
2015 | Agent X | Recurring: Pamela Richardson | TNT |
2016 | Castle | Guest Star: Genevieve | ABC |
Theatre credits
Year | Production | Role | Theatre/Director |
---|---|---|---|
The Glory of Living | Sarah | El Centro Theater | |
East Berlin | Sarah | NoHo Arts/Dir. Christopher Brown | |
Noises Off | Vickie | Breck Theatre/Dir. Joe Korsmo | |
A Midsummer Night's Dream | Oberon | Cambridge Summer Program | |
West Side Story | Jet Girl | Breck Theatre/Tom Hegg | |
Into The Woods | Tree | Breck Theatre/Tom Hegg | |
Carry The World | Eastern European Role | Imagine Life Theatre/Dir. Diana Castle/Featuring Oscar Nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo |