She's best known for playing fashion editor Nina Van Horn on Just Shoot Me!, but aside from their model pasts, Wendie Malick and her character don't have much in common. "Funny and snarky’s been very good to me, as I often tell people," Malick told Smashing Interviews in 2016. "When people meet me, they’re usually very pleasantly surprised that I’m so kind and normal (laughs)."
Malick portrayed the leopard-print-loving Blush magazine employee for six years, from 1997 to 2003, and was nominated for two Emmys for the role. Since then, the actor has moved on to other successful TV shows, plus movies, voice roles, and plays. Read on to find out about Malick's life today at 71.
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Her acting career is still red hot.
Sebastian Artz/Getty ImagesAfter Just Shoot Me!, Malick went on to star in all six seasons of Hot in Cleveland. She's also had recurring roles in many popular shows, including Frasier, American Housewife, This Is Us, and Dear White People. This year, she continued her role as a school president on Young Sheldon, returned for a second episode of Billions, and kept voicing Eda on the Disney Channel animated series The Owl House.
“I just keep showing up,” Malick toldThe Buffalo News in 2021. “I love what I do, and I try to leave it on the mat in every job I have and give them the best I got and never take it for granted. I realize how fortunate I am in that you are so lucky if you get to do the thing you love so don't ever phone it in.”
She's passionate about animals and the environment.
Chris Weeks/Liaison via Getty ImagesMalick, who lives on a ranch and has two horses of her own, has a deep love for animals and the environment and is on the board of directors for the Environmental Media Association. She appeared in a video for the organization that shows her tidying up her ranch with plant-based cleaners.
"I am very involved in trying to save the last of America’s wild horses," she told Smashing Interviews. "We are losing them systematically. They’re being rounded up and put in government holding facilities, and too often times, they end up being slaughtered. It breaks my heart to think of those magnificent animals being treated as disposable."
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She's married.
Steve Granitz/WireImage via Getty ImagesMalick has been married to her second husband, Richard Erickson, since 1995. During a 2020 interview with Access Daily, the actor explained that they met when she made an embarrassing mistake during a trip to Tijuana. She and a friend were working with a volunteer group to build houses, and Erickson was also participating.
"The first night, I met someone over the vegetarian spaghetti sauce, and thought, 'Well, he’s an interesting character,'" Malick shared. "That night, we were sleeping out in the field in sleeping bags. And I went out to pee in the field, and I went behind what I thought was a rock, but it was his sleeping bag, and that’s how we met." She added, "I guess I was marking my territory.”
She recently reunited with her Just Shoot Me! co-stars.
Amanda Edwards/Getty ImagesIn 2020, the stars, creator, and director of Just Shoot Me! participated in a virtual reunion for Hulu. During the event, Malick looked back on auditioning for the role of Nina.
"I remember walking into the room, and I think I knew in my bones that this had to be created for me, because I had been a model and I can be dingy at times," she said with a laugh. "I had a feeling it was going to have legs, and in fact, it did. And [I] was really happy to get that job."
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