Kari Samantha Wuhrer (born April 28, 1967) is an American actress, model, and singer. Wuhrer began her career as a teenager, and is best known for her time as a cast member on MTV's Remote Control, her roles as Maggie Beckett in the television series Sliders, and as Sheriff Samantha Parker in the horror comedy film Eight Legged Freaks. Early life Wuhrer was born in Brookfield, Connecticut, the daughter of Karin (née Noble), a payroll accountant, and German-American Andrew Wuhrer, a police officer and car salesman. She has three siblings. As a teenager, she sang in nightclubs, sneaking out of the family home to perform. She studied acting from the age of 13 at the Wooster School, then studied drama at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Marymount Manhattan College, Columbia University, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art with famed teacher Uta Hagen. Career Wuhrer's first television break was MTV's Remote Control (1987). She was a regular cast member of the television series Swamp Thing from 1991 to 1992. She also worked as a VJ on MTV during the same period. In 1993, she was a regular in the TV series Class of '96, where she played college student Robin Farr. From 1994 to 1995, she starred as Ariel Hunter in the long-running primetime soap opera Beverly Hills, 90210. During this period, she appeared in The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990) and starred in Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time (1991). In 1995, she also had a supporting role in the John Singleton film Higher Learning, followed by Thinner (1996), Anaconda (1997), and Kissing a Fool (1998). Wuhrer returned to television in 1997 on the series Sliders as Maggie Beckett, joining the cast as a regular and staying until the series ended in 2000. Wuhrer also guest-starred in the TV series Leverage. Wuhrer signed a record deal with Rick Rubin, and her only album, Shiny, was released in 1999 by Del-Fi Records. In addition to her singing, she wrote most of the songs on the album and played both the guitar and the flute on several tracks. Wuhrer made a disastrous appearance on ;=Late Night with Conan O'Brien to promote the album. She began by joking that she could not stand comedian Steven Wright, who was already on the stage and looked surprised that she knew him. Her rambling into random topics was roundly criticized as