Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
May 8, 2004

Archives: Where are They Now?
Annabeth Gish
by Melody Parker
Courier Arts / Special Sections Editor

Actress Annabeth Gish is looking forward to goofing off.

"I can't wait to get back home and lay around the house with my dog and my husband," the Cedar Falls native says. "I want to hang out and just chill."

That won't happen for a few months, at least. The actress has a lead role in the flick, The Celestine Prophecy, based on James Redfield's New Age-y best-selling book. The movie is being filmed on location in Ocala and St. Augustine, Fla., and Puerto Rico.

Gish also stars in the made-for-TV movie, Life on Liberty Street, premiering Sunday [May 9] on the Hallmark Channel. Another film, Knots, will be released later this year, and she co-stars with Tom Berenger in the TV miniseries, The Detective, for USA Network, now in post-production. Fans of The West Wing recognize Gish as President Bartlett's oldest daughter, and she also played [FBI Special Agent] Monica Reyes on The X-Files.

In The Celestine Prophecy, Gish plays Julia, a Ph.D. in linguistics who is involved in trek through a Peruvian rain forest to find a sacred manuscript.

Gish was married seven months ago. Wade Allen, a fight choreographer and martial arts expert in Krav Maga, and Gish exchanged vows in an outdoor ceremony Oct. 11 at the Sea Ranch Lodge near San Francisco. The bride wore a Le Spose Di Gio gown and the couple's golden retreiver, Lola, was the "flower girl."

"I'm so lucky I found a man who is very centered and stable, and not swayed by Hollywood. I'm sure my parents were relieved, too," Gish says, laughing.

Robert, a former UNI professor, and Judith Gish now live in California.

Gish graduated from Northern University High School, and from Duke University cum laude with an English degree in 1993. She was 13 when she made her big-screen debut in 1985's Desert Bloom.

Her life, she says, is "consistent. When I have down time, I do a lot of yoga, go hiking with Lola, and Wade and I read, go see films and have dinner parties. It's a simple but rich life."