Elisabeth Röhm (/roʊm, ruːm/, German: ; born April 28, 1973) is a German-American television and film actress. She is best known for playing Kate Lockley in the television series Angel from 1999 to 2001 and Serena Southerlyn in the television series Law & Order from 2001 to 2005.
She has also appeared in films such as Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005), American Hustle (2013), Joy (2015), Once Upon a Time in Venice (2017), The Tribes of Palos Verdes (2017) and Bombshell (2019).
Early life
Röhm was born in Düsseldorf, West Germany, to Lisa Loverde and Eberhard Röhm. Her father was a German partner at the law firm of Duane Morris LLP New York, and the family moved to New York City before her first birthday. Her mother was an American scriptwriter who once wrote for the TV soap opera Guiding Light. Röhm's parents divorced when she was 8 or 9. Her maternal grandfather was an Italian immigrant.
Röhm attended grades 11–12 at St. Andrew's-Sewanee School, a small private boarding school in Sewanee, Tennessee, and then graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied writing and European History.