Tiffani Thiessen is an actress known for her roles as Kelly Kapowski in Saved by the Bell and as Valerie Malone in Beverly Hills, 90210. After many years of going by her full name, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, she is now credited as simply Tiffani Thiessen. Thiessen was born in Long Beach, California, the daughter of Robyn, a homemaker, and Frank Thiessen, a park designer and landscape architect. She has two siblings: an older brother named Todd, an actor and avid cyclist, and a younger brother named Schuyler. Her father is of German descent, and her mother is a mix of Greek, Turkish, and Welsh descent. She credits her brother, Todd, as one of her most important sources of inspiration and her mother and grandmother as role models. She attended Cubberley Elementary and Marshall Junior High School in Long Beach. In 1992, Thiessen graduated as valedictorian at Valley Professional High School in Studio City, Los Angeles. Her uncle, Roger Ernest, was the first person to suggest that Thiessen enter show business; he attended college with Steven Spielberg, co-writing and starring in one of his student films called Slipstream, and later appeared in Spielberg's The Sugarland Express and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. After a childhood of beauty pageants, Thiessen was crowned Miss Junior America in 1987 and won Teen magazine's "Great Model Search" in 1988, gracing the cover of that issue. At the age of fifteen, she auditioned for the role of Kelly Kapowski on the television program. Saved by the Bell, which was publicized and given a great deal of fanfare by the same magazine. [5] In the end, Thiessen got the role.