Like Her ‘Inventing Anna’ Character, Anna Chlumsky Worked in Journalism
The Netflix limited series Inventing Anna follows the intriguing story of Anna Sorokin (aka Anna Delvey), a high-society con artist who successfully scams wealthy New Yorkers out of their fortunes. Emmy award-winning actor Julia Garner, who captured the essence of the fraudulent debutante, was in good company on the set of the successful series.
Six-time Emmy nominee Anna Chlumsky portrayed investigative journalist Vivian Kent, who was responsible for unraveling the scam. While the character was based on a real-life reporter, the My Girl star made the role her own, pulling from her personal experiences when she worked as a journalist.
‘My Girl’
When Chlumsky was only ten years old, she won the role of Vada Sultenfuss in the 1991 tearjerker My Girl starring Macaulay Culkin, Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis. The perky child actor mesmerized audiences with her charismatic and emotional performance as a death-obsessed pre-teen in the coming-of-age film.
In 1994, she revived her role in My Girl 2, as she continued working in film and television. In 1998, at 18 years of age, the Trading Mom actor decided to leave show business and focus on her education.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Chlumsky, who has an estimated net worth of $5 million, enrolled at the University of Chicago. In 2002, she graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in international studies.
Chlumsky worked as a journalist
After college, Chlumsky wanted to become a food writer but landed a job as a Zagat guide fact checker. She then got a job as an editorial assistant in New York, working for the science fiction and fantasy division of HarperCollins publishing house.
According to ABC News, the former child actor had every intention of giving up acting when she enrolled at the University of Chicago, although that was not to be her fate. As a fan of The West Wing, Chlumsky briefly considered a job with the government, but after realizing her true passion was acting, she returned to Hollywood.
After bouncing around for a few years, working on various film and television projects, she landed the role of Amy Brookheimer in the television series Veep. Acting alongside Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the 42-year-old actor remained on the show for seven seasons from 2012 to 2019.
When she landed the role of the ambitious journalist in Inventing Anna, Chlumsky was thrilled, telling Elle in a 2022 interview, “I was really interested in playing a journalist because I just kind of admired the ability to ask whatever you want.” She explained, “I was always interested in hotspot journalism and war time and stuff like that. And then when this [job] came in, I was like, ‘Oh.’ This is more akin to who I’ve met my whole life.”
What Chlumsky is doing now
In an interview with The Guardian, the Halt and Catch Fire actor revealed she was miserable working as an editorial assistant, saying, “I liked editing manuscripts. My problem is that I’m a slow reader.” Encouraged by her boyfriend at the time, who is now her husband, Chlumsky quit her job and decided to return to acting. She remembers telling herself she was only going to give it a try for a year, and if it didn’t work out, it wasn’t “meant to be.” After enrolling in a drama school, she realized acting was about communicating and telling a story, and Chlumsky was hooked, saying, “Holy shi*t! I’m not just going to give this a year! I’m going to give it everything!.”
After the success of Inventing Anna, Chlumsky became the voice of Charlotte on the television remake of the animated classic Rugrats. She also starred in the film They/Them, featuring Kevin Bacon.
Don’t expect to see the successful actor in a flurry of projects, as she has found a new balance and prefers to focus on her family. The mother of two is married to Shaun So, a former counterterrorism expert. According to IMDb, she explained, “I really don’t like to do back-to-back movies. I concentrate on things at home. My family and school life are important to me. I try to do one movie a year.”
