“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “American Pie” and of course “How I Met Your Mother”: actress Alyson Hannigan (50) has shaped many well-known series and films. It became clear early on that the daughter of a real estate agent and a truck driver would have a career in show business.
She was already seen in commercials as a baby and toddler – for example for cookies and McDonald’s. Raised in Atlanta, she moved to Los Angeles with her mother at the age of eleven. She was discovered as an actress during an audition there. In 1988 – when she was just 14 – she landed her first major film role in “My Stepmother is an Alien”. Although she studied psychology after high school, she pursued acting. In 1997 she celebrated her big breakthrough with the “Buffy” series. For seven years she played the witch and computer specialist Willow Rosenberg in a total of 144 episodes. The series not only brought her professional success, but also her personal happiness…
She met and fell in love with her colleague Alexis Denisof (58) on the “Buffy” set in 1999. The two are now one of the few couples whose relationship has endured in the fast-paced Hollywood love life. They celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary in October 2023 – and Alyson Hannigan dedicated loving lines to her husband. She shared a wedding picture on Instagram and thanked her “best friend, the best father and the best chef.” Then she added: “I love sharing life with you!” This also includes their two daughters Satyana Marie, who turns 15 on her mother’s 50th birthday, and Keeva Jane Denisof (11). Hannigan had both children during her time on the series “How I Met Your Mother”, in which Denisof also appeared in a few episodes: He played the news anchor Sandy Rivers.
Hannigan, on the other hand, was part of the five-member main cast. From 2005 to 2014 she played the educator Lily Aldrige, who, like herself, found the man for life early on. Thanks to Hannigan’s youthful appearance, it wasn’t even noticeable that her series partner Jason Segel (44) was six years younger. But the actress – like many viewers – was not satisfied with the end of the nine-season successful sitcom. In an interview with the Australian news site “news.com.au” she criticized that too many scenes had been cut out. “It was just too fast.” Viewers “would have needed time to process all this information.” Because in the final episode it turned out that the mother, who was the subject of the story for nine seasons, had long since died.
The actress also made her opinion clear on the subject of body shaming. She defended herself against the Hollywood madness that she had to be slim again quickly after giving birth: “I was put under pressure to quickly lose the pregnancy pounds, but I didn’t,” she said. “It’s frustrating, but I don’t think it’s the right message to send to mothers. It’s the last thing we should be focusing on. It’s incredible what the body will do to create a new human being. .. You should thank your body for what it does.” She gained even more self-confidence through her participation in the US version of “Let’s Dance”. Through the hard training, she not only lost the last remaining nine kilos from her pregnancies, but also, above all, “emotional ballast,” as she wrote on Instagram.
Alyson Hannigon is also associated with another successful series – but not through a role. Rather, her house was involved in “This Is Us” because the sixth and final season was filmed there. Since 2018, the family has lived in the house in Los Angeles, which was previously often used as a set. “The previous owners didn’t really live here. I think they just rented it out for film shoots,” she revealed on Michelle Collins’ (42) radio show and joked: “My house’s CV is longer than mine.” Among other things, the thriller “Fracture” is said to have been created there. She gets inquiries “at least twice a month” “because the house is simply well known. But we know what productions can do with locations.” But the 50-year-old made an exception for “This Is Us.” After all, the director of the series is your neighbor, but the format is also “just so good.” Hannigan was relieved to note that the crew had treated the space “very respectfully.” “Not only did they return our home to us in wonderful condition, they also repaired things that I had damaged.”
