Tami Stronach (born summer 1972) is an actor, dancer, and professor.

Personal life

Tami Stronach was born in summer 1972 in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. Her parents were the

archaeologists Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes ...

David Stronach David Brian Stronach (10 June 1931 – 27 June 2020) was a British archaeologist of ancient Iran and Iraq. He was an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Stronach was an expert on the city of Pasargadae. He was edu ...

from

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

(1931–2020) and Ruth Stronach from

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

(; 1937–2017). After fleeing the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dyna ...

, Stronach, her sister Keren, and their parents moved to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

in 1981 to allow David to teach at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

. By late 2014, Stronach and her three-year-old daughter Maya lived in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

; Stronach was married to Greg Steinbruner as of mid-2020.

Career

In addition to her artistic projects, Stronach also followed in her father's footsteps, becoming a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Acting

While Stronach was a

child actress The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage or in movies or television. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associated t ...

portraying Piglet in a

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

stage adaptation of ''Winnie-the-Pooh'', she was approached by the

casting director In the performing arts industry such as theatre, film, or television, casting, or a casting call, is a pre-production process for selecting a certain type of actor, dancer, singer, or extra for a particular role or part in a script, scr ...

for ''The NeverEnding Story'' and asked to

audition An audition is a sample performance by an actor, singer, musician, dancer or other performer. It typically involves the performer displaying their talent through a previously memorized and rehearsed solo piece or by performing a work or piece giv ...

for the role of the

Childlike Empress This article lists character information from the 1979 novel '' The Neverending Story'' by Michael Ende and the film adaptations of the same name. Bastian Balthazar Bux Bastian Balthazar Bux is a shy and bookish boy, 10 or 11 years old, wh ...

. After three auditions, Stronach beat

Heather O'Rourke Heather Michele O'Rourke (December 27, 1975 – February 1, 1988) was an American child actress. She had her breakthrough starring as Carol Anne Freeling in the supernatural horror film ''Poltergeist'' (1982), which received critical acclaim and ...

to star in the 1984 film; it has been her only major motion picture. Ruth Stronach declined a sequel contract for her daughter, worried about lacking the wherewithal to "help her daughter navigate the turbulent waters of childhood stardom in the film industry." After ''NeverEnding Story'' became a sensational success, the Stronachs were besieged with unwanted attention: their home and telephone were stalked, adults proposed to the eleven-year-old with

engagement ring An engagement ring, also known as a betrothal ring, is a ring indicating that the person wearing it is engaged to be married, especially in Western cultures. A ring is presented as an engagement gift by a partner to their prospective spouse wh ...

s, and she received "offers from Hollywood to play roles featuring scenes (with nudity) completely inappropriate for someone her age." Stronach returned to acting in 2002 with a physical theatre company, and by 2006 had performed in ''Chambre'' at

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, the theatre began in the ...

and was continuing to study acting with Laura Esterman. By the 2010s, Stronach had co-founded a

theatre company Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

called Shoehorn Theater; in 2012, they began creating a new play, ''Light: A Dark Comedy'' ("a group generative effort where everyone is involved in every step of the creation.") In July 2020, ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly large ...

'' reported that Stronach had been cast to star in '' Man & Witch'' alongside

Sean Astin Sean Patrick Astin (né Duke; February 25, 1971) is an American actor. His acting roles include Samwise Gamgee in ''The Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003), Mikey Walsh in ''The Goonies'' (1985), Daniel Ruettiger in '' Rudy'' (1993), Dou ...

Rhea Perlman Rhea Jo Perlman (born March 31, 1948) is an American actress. She played head-waitress Carla Tortelli in the sitcom ''Cheers'' (1982–1993). Over the course of 11 seasons, Perlman was nominated for ten Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Ac ...

Christopher Lloyd Christopher Allen Lloyd (born October 22, 1938) is an American actor. He has appeared in many theater productions, films, and on television since the 1960s. He is known for portraying Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown in the ''Back to the Future'' tril ...

, and

Michael Emerson Michael Emerson (born September 7, 1954) is an American actor who is best known for his roles as serial killer William Hinks on ''The Practice'', Benjamin Linus on ''Lost'', Zep Hindle in the first '' Saw'' film, Cayden James on ''Arrow'', and ...

Dancing

Switching her focus from acting to professional

dancing Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoi ...

after ''The NeverEnding Story'', Stronach devoted herself to that study for ten years (through her twenties) in

. In 1996, Stronach began dancing with Neta Pulvermacher and Dancers, though she has also exhibited her own productions at Dixon Place,

Washington Square Park Washington Square Park is a public park in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. One of the best known of New York City's public parks, it is an icon as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity. ...

, and the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands ( Spanish: , , ) are an archipelago of volcanic islands. They are distributed on each side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere, and are part of the Republic of Ecuad ...

Performance credits

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stronach, Tami 1972 births 20th-century actresses 21st-century actresses female dancers film child actresses living people people of Israeli descent people of Scottish descent stage actresses