Elizabeth Jean "Busy" Philipps (born June 25, 1979) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles on the television series Freaks and Geeks (1999–2000), Dawson's Creek (2001–2003), Love, Inc. (2005–2006) and ER (2006–2007), for her abortion access advocacy, and for her portrayal of Laurie Keller on the ABC series Cougar Town (2009–2015), for which she received the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She has also appeared in supporting roles in numerous films, such as The Smokers (2000), Home Room (2002), White Chicks (2004), Made of Honor (2008), He's Just Not That Into You (2009), The Gift (2015), and I Feel Pretty (2018). From 2018 to 2019, Philipps hosted her own television talk show Busy Tonight, on E!. She currently stars in the Peacock original series Girls5eva. Childhood Philipps was born in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. She received the nickname "Busy" as a child; sources conflict on whether the nickname came from her parents or a babysitter named Susie. She said on her late-night talk show, Busy Tonight, that her mother gave her the nickname, but during her book tour said that her babysitter had given it to her. This was clarified on an episode of Comedy Bang! Bang! when she confirmed to host Scott Aukerman that it was her babysitter, in his quest to achieve Wikipedia clout. Phillips attended Loyola Marymount University at the same time as Freaks and Geeks costars Linda Cardellini and Colin Hanks. She dated Hanks for several years after they left school. Career While still in high school, Philipps worked at toy trade fairs as a real-life Barbie ("Cool Teen Skipper"). Among the people who saw her at a toy convention was actress Sharon Stone, who was impressed with her performance and told Philipps that she would be a star. Her first major role was Kim Kelly in the 1999–2000 comedy-drama TV series Freaks and Geeks; Philipps appeared in all but one of the show's 18 episodes (the episode "Chokin' & Tokin'"). She made her film debut in the comedy The Smokers in 2000, and had various small appearances on television. In 2001, Philipps was cast as Audrey Liddell in the teen drama Dawson's Creek. She was a series regular in seasons 5 and 6, appearing in 46 episodes, before the show finished in 2003. The role earned her a Teen Choice Awards