Although she has a distinctive real name, you sometimes need to know the character an actress is best known for before you can locate her. This part was played by Larisa Oleynik in the film 10 Things I Hate About You as Bianca Stratford.
She played the exact opposite of her older sister Kat in the movie and had an outstanding performance. She will always be everyone’s favorite sophomore.
Since her most well-known breakthrough performance, has Larisa’s popularity remained stable? Is she still portraying the vivacious, stylish girl? Is her French still functional? Let’s check to see whether Larisa is still out there punching the bad people even if we don’t know about that last one.
Background info
Larisa Romanovna Oleynik made her public debut on June 7th, 1981 in Santa Clara, California, to parents Roman Oleynik, an anesthesiologist, and Lorraine (Allen) Oleynik, a nurse.
Larisa’s father was both Russian and Ukrainian, thus when her family relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, she was raised as a Russian Orthodox Christian.
Oleynik began her education in 1999 at Pinewood School in Los Altos and eventually earned her degree in 2004 from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York.
Acting Career
Larisa’s debut performance was in a 1989 San Francisco version of Les Miserable when she was just eight years old. Larisa doubled up in the musical, which also starred Rider Strong, as Young Cosette and Young Eponine.
She made an appearance in one episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman in 1993, which served as her debut on-screen appearance. She played Pre-teen Odette in the 1994 animated picture The Swan Princess, however it was merely her voice.
The Babysitter’s Club
Larisa’s subsequent performances in the 1990s were where she first began to receive serious attention as an actress, beginning with her role as Dawn Schafer in the 1995 adaptation of The Babysitter’s Club opposite another breakout actress of the decade, Rachel Leigh Cook.
Secret Life Of Alex Mack
Larisa was chosen to star in the 1993 television series The Secret World of Alex Mack. The main character of the program was Larisa’s Alex, who discovers she has special abilities after getting experimental goo on her from a truck transporting a load from the neighborhood chemical facility. It all has a very Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vibe.
However, Larisa played the primary character in 78 episodes over four seasons of the SNICK series, which also featured guest roles from up-and-coming stars Meredith Bishop, Jessica Alba, and James Marsden.
Larisa reconnected with her Les Mis co-star Rider Strong while still portraying Alex Mack and made three Boy Meets World appearances.
10 Things I Hate About You
But she is best known for playing Bianca Stratford in the 1999 film 10 Things I Hate About You.
With a stellar ensemble that includes the late Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Julia Styles, Gabrielle Union, Andrew Keegan, and Larisa, the younger Stratford sister was masterfully represented by Larisa.
A standard in the teen movie genre with a cult following it most surely earned, this contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew is worth watching several times annually.
Then, Oleynik transferred with co-star Joseph Gordon-Levitt to his television show Third Rock From the Sun, where she appeared in 21 episodes over the course of seasons four through six as Levitt’s girlfriend in a recurring role.
Since then, Larisa has made sporadic guest appearances on the television programs Psych, Without a Trace, and Malcolm in the Middle.
She landed a five-episode role on Mad Men as Cynthia Cosgrove from 2010 through 2015. Among Larisa’s other notable roles include her 28-episode voice work for the animated series Winx Club: Enchantix in 2011–2012 and again in 2013–2014 for Winx: Beyond Believix, as well as her seven appearances on Hawaii Five–O and her part as Maggie Cutler in Pretty Little Liars.
Larisa returned to Broadway in 2014 with Be a Good Little Widow, her first Broadway performance since 1989, and her final performance was in Miss Lilly Gets Boned in 2019, where she played Miss Lilly.
What is Larisa Oleynik doing now?
Larisa is still acting now; her most recent project was the rom-com We Broke Up with Aya Cash from 2021. She appeared in six episodes of the TV series Trinkets from 2016 to 2020 as Shawn.
She played Karen Ferris throughout the whole eight-episode run of the Netflix comedy series The Healing Powers of Dude that same year.
One future project for Larisa is the dark comedy short film Pigeon, in which she plays the lead role of Liz as she navigates life after a breakup during the holiday season.
In a 2020 interview, Larisa said that she was still in contact with the members of the original Babysitters cast via group chat. She continued by saying that the women would always support one another.
What did she think of the first 10 Things I Hate About You film? She still adores it, just like we do.
Larisa, who has worked with the writers since and believes the script is to blame for the success over the years, is unsurprised that it is still a fantastic watch even though it didn’t perform well when it first came out.
She also thinks that the show’s current popularity is a result of how much fun the cast had while filming it and the chemistry they shared.
Personal Life
In 2010, Larisa experienced a scare when a fan began chasing her and got so fixated on him that he changed his last name to Oleynik. A legitimate restraining order was obtained against the individual in 2013, but it expired in January 2016. No reports of a renewed order have surfaced, so maybe Larisa is secure.
It should come as no surprise that Larisa and leading man Joseph Gordon-Levitt formerly had a relationship given the length of time they spent working together.
They got together in 1998 while filming 10 Things, and their relationship lasted until the end of her guest appearance on his show Third Rock in 2002. Larisa appears to be content with her current dating situation.
We’ll watch Larisa’s upcoming film to see what else she takes her personality to as we wait for the 25th anniversary of 10 Things I Hate About You.
