’90s actress Shannon Elizabeth proved that she hadn’t aged a day since bursting onto the screen in the hit 1999 comedy American Pie. The 52-year-old was glowing in a group selfie snapped on the set of her upcoming film First Witch, which saw her in a simple gray shirt with her long brunette locks curled in subtle waves.
Shannon made her mark on Hollywood with her role as the foreign exchange student, Nadia, in American Pie, and reprised her role in 2001’s American Pie 2 and 2012’s American Reunion.
She was also known for her performances in Scary Movie, Love Actually, That ’70s Show, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Tomcats and Cuts, and most recently appeared in Plan B in 2024.
Aside from her acting career, Shannon is also a high-level poker player, has appeared on several reality shows like Dancing With The Stars and Celebrity Big Brother, and founded her own wildlife sanctuary in South Africa.
“I started looking at dog and cat rescues in LA because dogs were what I knew,” she shared on the Life Outside Poker podcast.
“I realized I want to make my own organization, and over time, I just wanted to help out more animals on a bigger scale. I went on a journey of figuring out what that was and realized there was this hectic poaching crisis going on in other parts of the world.”
© Getty Images“I started my charity, which was called Animal Avengers at the time. And it’s been going since then, it’s just morphed over the years into conservation and wildlife from dogs and cats,” she told fans at Steel City Con in 2025.
“We’re building a sanctuary. We have a blind black rhino we’ve been taking care of, and we’re going to bring in more rhinos as soon as we can do an expansion.”
© PA Images via Getty ImagesShannon lives in South Africa with her husband and fellow activist, Simon Borchert, who also works at the sanctuary. “It’s challenging, but it’s also really, really rewarding to be able to do it with someone that you love and you’re like-minded, and you have the same dreams and the same goals and aspirations,” she explained to Fox News Digital.
© Getty Images for Toyota“And that’s why I felt so lucky to find him because we’re mirror images of each other. We want the same things, and we’re so aligned with everything that we love in the world and love in this universe. And I feel really lucky to have found him. He’s definitely my soulmate.”
© InstagramConservation efforts take up a lot of Shannon’s time, but she hasn’t given up Hollywood yet, as she told Monaco Life.
“A lot of people assume I completely left Hollywood, but storytelling is still a huge part of my life; it’s just evolved. Whether it’s through conservation, poker, or directing and/or producing content to raise awareness, I’m always looking for creative ways to make an impact.”
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