May-chen Ay-mick was born in Reno, Nevada on December 12, 1970 to Bill and Judy. She is half German, a quarter Norwegian, and a quarter Swedish. Mädchen's parents divorced when she was two and a half years old. Her mother, a medical office manager, re-married to a musician and band leader, now deceased, who Mädchen considers her real father. Mädchen has trained in various forms of dance: tap, ballet, jazz, and modern. Mädchen began to study the piano at age three, and continued for twelve years. She also learned to play the bass, violin, and guitar. She is a gifted painter as well, having begun painting in oils while in school, and has sold some of her work.
When she was sixteen years old, Mädchen dropped out of school and moved to Los Angeles, where she found work as a model, and soon was appearing as a dancer in pop music videos with such artists as Julio Iglesias, Dweezil Zappa, and Rick Astley. Even at that young age, her outstanding potential was evident to show-business professionals. Mädchen's acting life began quite modestly. First there was a 1988 episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", titled "The Dauphin", in which she played a shape-shifter who at one point turned into a teddy bear. Then, in 1989, she appeared in an episode of "Baywatch" titled "Panic at Malibu Pier". Her first starring role was in the 1990 low-budget TV horror movie" I'm Dangerous Tonight". There were also a couple of small parts in other films.
In 1990, director David Lynch chose her to play waitress Shelly Johnson on the TV series "Twin Peaks", and viewers of that cult hit soon come to love Mädchen's sensually innocent character, who endured terrible abuse at the hands of her husband, Leo. David Lynch played a pivotal role in Mädchen's development as an actress. A highlight of Mädchen's film career is the 1994 feature film "Dream Lover", a thriller in which she co-starred with James Spader. It is one of the few films to showcase her awesome ability to portray a complex character.
Mädchen's return to network TV came in the fall of 1995,in the much-publicized CBS dramatic series "Central Park West". Despite her brilliant performance as the sexy and manipulative Carrie Fairchild, the series suffered from poor ratings and was pulled after only about seven episodes. The month-long eight-episode return of the show as a new and improved product called "CPW" in June 1996 (delayed from January) was poorly promoted by the network and received scant attention from viewers.
She had starring roles in two recent direct-to-video releases: the thriller "Wounded"(1996) and the romantic comedy "French Exit"(1995). She also stars "Bombshell", a futuristic thriller produced in 1996 by Molecular Films but not yet released. She appears in another video movie called "Perfect Crimes", whose status is unknown. It was during these first years among the bright lights of Hollywood that Mädchen's personal life took an important turn. She met a neighbour across the street, David Alexis, an aspiring singer and songwriter as dedicated to music as she was to acting. They would eventually marry and have two children.
