"Dawson's" may be her first starring role in a series, but Michelle Williams is already a veteran of numerous feature films and television projects. The proverbial small town girl, Williams was born and raised in rural Kalispell, Mont.,before moving with her family to San Diego when she was 10 years old. She became involved in community theater productions and was soon commuting to Los Angeles for professional auditions At age 14, Williams made her big-screen debut in the 1994 family film "Lassie," and was soon cast as the young alien in the film "Species." Most recently, Michelle was seen in the dramatic feature "A Thousand Acres," starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jason Robards and Jessica Lange. In television, she starred in the television movie "A Mother's Justice." In her free time, 17-year-old Williams is an avid reader, with her current favorite authors being Hermann Hesse, Dostoyevsky and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. She also enjoys boxing, which feeds into her early childhood fantasy of becoming the first female heavyweight champion of the world.
