Sultry, dark-eyed, brunette leading actress Gina Gershon mixes a muscular toughness with her seductive femininity. She is best known for playing the jaded veteran stripper who shows newcomer Elizabeth Berkeley the ropes in Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls (1995) and for playing the tough lesbian ex-con who falls in love with gangster's moll Jennifer Tilly and with her pulls off an audacious caper in Bound (1996). Born and raised the youngest of five children in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, Gershon gets her exotic looks from her French, Russian and Dutch heritage. After high school Gershon decided she wanted a more sophisticated image than those usually attributed to Valley Girls like herself and so moved to the Big Apple to earn a bachelor of arts degree at New York University. While in New York, Gershon studied acting with such well-known teachers as Sandra Seacat, David Mamet, and Harold Guskin. She started out in theater and worked on both coasts. Gershon has been on television since the mid '80s. Her most notable role was that of Nancy Sinatra, the daughter of Frank in the CBS miniseries Sinatra (1994). Gershon made her feature film debut playing a small role opposite Molly Ringwald in Pretty in Pink (1986). She played the role of Coral opposite Tom Cruise in Cocktail (1988). Through the '90s. Gershon has worked for a number of distinguished directors, including John Sayles and Robert Altman. She is a co-founder of the New York-based Naked Angels theater company.