Kimberley Kates
One 1989 comedy fixed her in pop memory. Kates plays Princess Elizabeth in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, one of the two medieval princesses the film's time travellers collect along the way, and it is a modest part in a picture people have now been quoting for over thirty years.
What followed was a working genre career rather than a breakout. She moved through syndicated television and cable across the nineties: Dallas Ft. Worth on Alien Nation, Elaine Robb on Kindred: The Embraced, Alana Michaels on On Our Own, a witch on the cartoon Eek! The Cat. The features went largely to the video shelf, including the sequel Chained Heat 2 and the thriller Shadow of Doubt, with Jilly Miranda in Highway arriving later.
The more interesting turn came off camera. She founded Big Screen Entertainment Group, a Los Angeles production and distribution company that is publicly traded, and runs it as chief executive. Going from a supporting role in a teen time-travel comedy to running a listed film company is not a standard actor's trajectory, and it is the part of this page most worth knowing about.
Movies (5)
TV (6)
Where to start with Kimberley Kates
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is why anyone lands here and it remains the only essential item: watch it for the film, and notice how much personality she gets into a role written as a plot device.
After that, adjust expectations. Kindred: The Embraced is the most interesting of the television, a short-lived vampire drama with a good deal more ambition than budget, and it has aged into a cult item. Alien Nation is a genuinely good science-fiction series that she passes through. Eek! The Cat is a pleasant surprise on an otherwise live-action resume. Shadow of Doubt and Highway are the better-mounted of the features, and Chained Heat 2 is strictly for people who collect video-shelf sequels. The producing career is the more interesting second act, and none of it appears on this list.