Ariana Richards (born September 11, 1979) is an American actress and professional painter.
Richards was born Ariana Clarice Richards in Healdsburg, California, the daughter of Darielle (née Parmelee), a public relations representative and film producer, and Gary Richards. Her sister, Bethany, is also an actress. Richards is of Irish and Italian descent, and is a descendant of Renaissance painter Carlo Crivelli.
Richards Graduated from Skidmore College with a degree in drama and fine arts, earning a B.S. Degree in Fine Art and Drama, with distinction. She continued with instruction at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.Attending Western Oregon University (2006).
Richards made her movie debut in 1987's Into the Homeland, a made-for-cable release that starred Powers Boothe. Her most notable appearance was as Lex Murphy in the first Jurassic Park film; she reprised the role very briefly in the sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Similarly, she appeared as Mindy Sterngood in the first Tremors film and reprised her role in the second sequel Tremors 3: Back to Perfection, which went straight to video. She has been featured in other films such as Angus, where she played a bulimic girl; she has also appeared on television episodes of The Golden Girls, Empty Nest, and Boy Meets World.
When casting for the roles of Tim and Lex in Jurassic Park, director Steven Spielberg cast Joseph Mazzello for the part of Tim Murphy, but because Joseph was younger for the role (Joseph was nine years old at the time and in the book, Tim was eleven years old), Steven recognised problems with the idea of casting a much younger actress to play Alexis "Lex" Murphy as she would have to be about four years old and it would have presented too many problems for the movie. The ages of Tim and Lex were reversed, so that Lex was now older than Tim. Ariana Richards was invited to read for the role of Lex after Steven spotted her Young Artist Award winning performance in Switched at Birth. Steven expressed an interest in hearing how well Ariana could scream. Putting her in a room, the casting director recorded Ariana's screams for three minutes, after which it satisfied Spielberg that she was right for the part. Steven Spielberg claimed that he had never heard realistic screams like that since "Fay Wray from King Kong".
As well as movies, in 1998, Richards had appeared in the music video "Brick" by Ben Folds Five, portraying a High School student having an abortion. Richards recently appeared in the September 2006 issue of UK Movie Magazine Empire discussing a possible return to acting.
Richards has become a successful artist; many of her paintings are on display at the Lee Youngman Galleries in Calistoga, California, as well as at Willow Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona. Her paintings, usually of landscapes and figures, tend to be in the style of the impressionists. In October 2005, she was awarded with the first place prize in the National Professional Oil Painting Competition sponsored by American Artist Magazine. The painting that had won Ariana the prize was titled 'Lady of the Dahlias', for which her younger sister Bethany had modeled. Bethany had also appeared in films and had played the younger versions of Ariana's characters in both Angus and Switched at Birth.
She currently resides in Salem, Oregon and is apprenticing under a professional painter.
Richards' only album, "First Love"
Ariana released her only album in 1993 on the Pony Canyon label in Japan. The album was a mix between teen-pop and dance friendly ballads of the early-1990s. There was also a single released in very small volume of one of the main tracks on the Album. Only released in Japan, Ariana tried to get the album out in Europe, with new songs attached to the release, but the deal fell through and the project was abandoned. Ariana, along with her mother Darielle Richards, wrote the words to the fourth track "You're the Reason".
First Love contained the following tracks:
