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Some people are family legacies because of business moguls far back in their family line. The Fay family has, it seemed, always been involved in Hollywood - from the times of the first movies all the way to the 21st century. If they didn't act, they directed, produced, whatever; and their choice of mates were always people also in show business. So back in November of 1983, when Irina Fay, a member of the Russian ballet gave birth to her first, only child - a little girl christened Poppy Elisabeth, people (who were not yet quite so celebrity obsessed) figured that she would be just as famous as her actor-turned-director father, and have more than a few opportunities presented to her on a white gold platter. They weren't exactly wrong. The Fays not only lived and breathed Hollywood, they were Hollywood, just as significant as the Barrymores and the Ashtonns, their most notorious rivals.
Poppy, it seemed, would have done well in the spotlight. She was a cute child, with large blue eyes and thick, dark curls. But she had no desire to perform in front of the camera again and again - although she landed plenty of spots in commercials, mostly through strings getting pulled, she was notoriously difficult to work with. After all, she was just a kid - she wasn't aware that there was some kind of Hollywood walk of fame legacy to her surname. When Poppy was eight and just a little more well-behaved, she landed a spot in Disney's new Mickey Mouse club, where she worked steadily until the show ended when she was eleven. In between then, she had two jobs in movies - a film version of the Addams Family, playing Wednesday. At the time, Poppy was deeply unhappy with the way things were going.
Unhappy enough to go flying off the roof of the family home in a dramatic attempt at suicide, which failed and failed hard. All Poppy succeeded in doing was breaking her arm and attracting a media circus, even before the advent of TMZ. In the end, she started living with her maternal grandmother and having very little contact with her parents; these would be her "normal" years, where she even attended public school for the first time in her life (she usually got by being home-schooled with tutors on the set of the MMC). Although the media harassed her every now and then, especially when her father made another movie, Poppy lived most of her early adolescence in peace. As a form of rehabilitation for her hand, she learned piano, and then guitar, exposing her to a love for music. That was something she would be interested in, that she could stand to make a name for herself in, that wouldn't make her want to go sailing into the very long driveway in an effort to kill herself.
Still, in 1999, by the age of sixteen, she made a return to her family and the big screen. Partially, because growing up industry had made her a lot more shrewd and ambitious than anyone would've given her credit for being - her family had connections, and she could exploit them - and partially because she genuinely missed her parents. She was moderately successful in the box office with her following projects: Empire Records, 10 Things I Hate About You, and Ghost World, but moreso in the "underground", cult movie sort of way. Her family was able to point her in the direction of an agent and a recording label that wouldn't mind signing a girl who didn't want to be a pop princess at the age of seventeen. Her first album was just an experiment - a three song EP that registered just enough to get Poppy's name out there. In 2001, she released her first full-length album, Fix Me Now with songs she had written throughout high school and between movies. Music remained her primary interest, with several more albums following, but she did make a few guest appearances on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its spinoff, and Heroes. Even character arcs on TV shows that lasted several episodes were less stressful she found than the movies, giving her ample time to tour and write more music, although she couldn't resist appearing in the remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Earlier this year, she released her seventh (eighth, if you count her soundtrack appearance) album, entitled Farewell My Black Balloon, with tracks appearing in TV and film, is in the process of completing the last leg of a summer tour, and is in the process of negotiating her return to Angel and Buffy. Life is good, so really, you can trust her up on your roof. Really.
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