Alyson Hannigan Biography

An actor since her childhood, Alyson Hannigan may still be best known as the “band camp” girl in the American Pie series of comedies.

Alyson Hannigan got her start at an early age, working on TV commercials in Atlanta, Georgia. She relocated to Los Angeles at age 11 and found work guest-starring in several television comedies and playing Dan Aykroyd’s daughter in the sci-fi comedy My Stepmother Is An Alien (1988).

She got her real break when she landed the role of Willow Rosenberg, one of Buffy’s monster-fighting sidekicks in the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar). Red-haired and cheerful, Hannigan then co-starred in the surprise 1999 hit American Pie as the chatty object of desire of Jason Biggs’s nebbishy teen. She rejoined the cast for the sequels American Pie 2 (2001), American Wedding (2003, with Hannigan as the bride) and American Reunion (2012).

Hannigan also had a long run as one of the stars of the hit comedy How I Met Your Mother (with Neil Patrick Harris), which aired from 2005-14. In 2009, she won a People’s Choice Award as favorite TV comedy actress for her work on the show.

Beginning in 2016, she played the onstage hostess and straight woman to magicians Penn & Teller on their show Fool Us.