Cynthia Gibb was born in Bennington, Vermont, USA on December 14, 1963 to a ballet dancer and teacher. Spotted in a magazine by Woody Allen, Gibb was cast in a minor role as an autograph seeker in the filmmaker's Stardust Memories (1980) and promptly switched to an acting career. Cynthia Gibb graduated high school with honors, but with a sister at Yale and no financial aid available to her, she decided on an acting career. After appearing off-Broadway in "Nathaniel," she landed the recurring part of scatterbrained Suzi Wyatt Carter of daytime television's "Search for Tomorrow" (1951). She joined the cast of "Fame" (1982) and spent three seasons as drama major Holly Laird on the popular series. Between the show's first and second seasons, she starred as a hockey coach's daughter, with whom Rob Lowe fell in love, in Youngblood (1986). Between the second and third seasons, she starred in the much praisedSalvador (1986), as a lay worker (based on the real life Jean Donovan) who, along with four nuns, was murdered by an El Salvador death squad. Just before filming Malone (1987), Gibb finished Modern Girls (1986), in which she plays, not surprisingly, a young actress.