Alia Shawkat : Role: Maeby Funke
Birthday : 18th April 1989
Birthplace : Riverside, California, USA
Recent Role : Robin on The Starter Wife
Birth Name : Alia Martine Shawkat
Height : 5′ 5½” (1.66 m)
Gender : Female

Alia Shawkat was born with an Iraqi heritage on her father’s side and an Irish-Norwegian heritage on her mother’s side. She is one of the three children of her parents and has two brothers. Her maternal grandfather Paul Burke, was an actor and her maternal grandmother Peggy Pryor, was a dancer.

When Alia was 16 years old and was not busy filming, she studied at a private school near her home in Rancho Mirage. Here she was able to continue her study of English, Physics, Math, Geography and Drama. However, Alia is quite ambitious about her studies and aspires to be able to attend Yale University eventually where she intends to study International Relations.

When Alia is not acting or studying, she likes to spend her time in enjoying horseback riding, ice-skating and dancing. She is a talented pianist and also has a good hold on a number of languages. Currently she shuffles between Los Angeles and Palm Springs, which is her hometown and where she lives with her family and her pet cat Max.
Alia’s first brush with show business came when she appeared in a catalog of Calvin Klein. This immediately brought her into the attention of commercial and theatrical agents in Hollywood and by the time she was 10, she had already grabbed a role opposite George Clooney in Three Kings. The rest, as they say, is history and soon Alia became one of the busiest child actors in Hollywood.

Following her movie debut in Three Kings, Alia went on to portray varying characters in numerous movies like Rebound, Deck the Halls, Bart Got a Room, Prom Wars, Amreeka and the yet to be released movie Whip It, etc. Her upcoming movie The Runaways is currently being filmed and she is also speculated to play a part in the recently announced Arrested Development movie.

Alia made her small screen debut when she was 11 years old. Her first appearance on television was for the series JAG. Later she got a prominent role in the series State of Grace and followed it up with numerous other roles on various other prominent shows including, Without a Trace, Arrested Development, Veronica Mars, The Business, The Starter Wife, and an upcoming TV series named Bad Mother’s Handbook.

Alia has been honored with two prestigious awards, besides having been nominated for three other awards. She, along with her co-stars was nominated twice for the Screen Actors Guild Awards under the category of Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, for her role in Arrested Development, in 2005 and 2006.

In 2004, she and her co-stars from Arrested Development won the Future Classic Award at the TV Land Awards. In 2002, Alia was nominated for the Young Artist Award under the category of Best Performance in a TV Comedy Series – Leading Young Actress, for her work in State of Grace. In 2005, she won the same award under the category of Best Performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama) – Supporting Young Actress, for her work in Arrested Development.

Role In Arrested Development

In Arrested Development, Alia plays the role of Maedy Fünke. She is the teenage daughter of Lindsay and Tobias, and the cousin of George Michael, who has a crush on her. Initially it is implied that she is a test tube baby, which is a topic of joke for the greater part of the series. However, later Tobias reveals the fact that she is not a test tube baby. Maedy is also shown to harbor feelings for he cousin George Michael and the two finally end up getting married accidentally. Towards the end of the series Meady tells her story to her boss Ron Howard, who suggests that her story might gain more success if it is made into a movie.