Margaret Grace Denig (born September 21, 1983) is an American actress. She is known for playing Shannon Rutherford on the ABC television series Lost (2004–2006; 2010), Kim Mills in the Taken trilogy (2008–2014), Irina in The Twilight Saga (2011–2012), and Althea Szewczyk-Przygocki in Fear the Walking Dead (2018–2021).
Margaret Grace Denig was born in Worthington, Ohio, to Valinn (née Everett) and Fred Denig, who ran a family jewelry business.[2] She attended Worthington Christian Schools from kindergarten through ninth grade and briefly attended Thomas Worthington High School,[3] where she began acting in school plays and community theater,[4] including a 2000 Gallery Players production of The Crucible, at a local Jewish Community Center.[5][6] As a child, Grace was a voracious reader and a self-described "Shakespeare nerd"[7] telling the Los Angeles Times that at age 13, she "was really into Jane Austen, kind of like how some kids are into Star Trek".[7]
Career
Grace acquired an agent within a week of relocating to Los Angeles and enrolled in acting classes.[6] She landed her first role in Rachel's Room, a 2001 web-based video series about the affairs inside a teenage girl's bedroom that was created by Dawson's Creek executive producer Paul Stupin.[8] Her next role was on the 2002 television series Septuplets, which was cancelled before the first episode had aired.[2] Her breakout role was on 2002's television movie Murder in Greenwich, based on the true story of 15-year-old Martha Moxley's murder. She was nominated for a Young Artist Award for her portrayal of Moxley in the Best Performance in a TV Movie, Miniseries or Special – Leading Young Actress category, but lost to Clara Bryant for Tru Confessions.[9] She went on to feature in minor roles on the television series CSI: Miami, The Lyon's Den, Miracles, Like Family, Cold Case and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and the films Twelve Mile Road and Creature Unknown.
Grace at the New York premiere of Won't Back Down in September 2012
After ranking at #27 on Maxim's Hot 100 list of 2005,[13] she returned for Lost's second season. Her character was killed in the season's eighth episode, "Collision", when the series' writers began to feel that the character's "story avenues [were] limited". Executive producer Carlton Cuse said that Grace's departure from the show was "sort of a win-win" as she was eager to enter a full-time career in film.[14] After leaving the series, she nevertheless joined the other principal Lostcast members of season 2 onstage at the 12th Screen Actors Guild Awards where Lost won the award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.[15]
In December 2012, it was announced Grace would be making her Broadway debut in Picnic. The play opened for previews on December 14, running at the American Airlines Theatre. Sebastian Stan co-stars with Grace in the Pulitzer Prize winning play.[30]
She also made her first appearance as a guest star in the Showtime Series Californication in January 2013, in which she plays a groupie and muse to the rock and roll world as well as the personal interest of Hank Moody, starring David Duchovny.
While still working on Lost, Grace and Ian Somerhalder adopted a feral cat named Roo which they found "literally dying" in the jungle on the set. She said that the cat is now her "travel buddy."[32] In February 2017, Grace became engaged to Brent Bushnell, the CEO of an entertainment company.[33][34] They were married on May 28, 2017.[35] The couple's first child, a son, was born in 2020.[36]
Grace often credits her mother as her source of inspiration. When asked about her closest friend, she said that she and her mother were more like sisters and that she is "lucky to have an exceptionally cool mom."[37] She is a self-proclaimed Anglophile, having written to a pen pal in the Lake District from the age of eight, and admiring a number of English poets, including William Shakespeare; she first visited England when she was thirteen.[38] She calls herself very clumsy, claiming to "trip over my legs all the time,"[39] and was jokingly nicknamed "Maggie Graceless" by one of her former cast-mates.[40]
