Film & TV / Music
Jessica Cauffiel
born 1976 · actress, singer
Legally Blonde's Margot and White Chicks' Tori, a Detroit native who moved to Chelsea as a teen and studied musical theater at the University of Michigan.
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Jessica Cauffiel was born in Detroit in 1976 and spent her early years in the city before moving as a teenager to Chelsea, west of Ann Arbor. There her love of performing took off: she competed in the statewide high school forensics circuit and won tournaments in storytelling and singing. She then earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theater and vocal jazz at the University of Michigan School of Music. Hollywood cast her largely in comedy and horror in the early 2000s. She is best remembered as Margot, the bubbly sorority sister of Reese Witherspoon's Elle Woods in Legally Blonde (2001) and its sequel, and as Tori in the Wayans brothers' White Chicks (2004), with further roles in Urban Legends: Final Cut, Valentine and The World's Fastest Indian. She has also kept up her singing.
Highlights
- Margot in Legally Blonde (2001) and Legally Blonde 2 (2003)
- Tori in White Chicks (2004)
- BFA in musical theater and vocal jazz, University of Michigan
- Also in Valentine (2001) and The World's Fastest Indian (2005)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1990s
University of Michigan
Cauffiel earned her BFA at the School of Music here.