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Rising: Bitsie’s Pieces

by Justin W. Ravitz
March/April 2008

Photograph by Larsen & Talbert Dress by Rozae Nichols, styled by Justin Ducoty, makeup by Miriam Vukich for Lancome, hair by Jeremy Clark for Bed Head. All from Exclusive Artists Management.

I couldn't understand why the hell I ended up in Hollywood. Now it's starting to make sense."

Strike That Three months after its web-only premiere, Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz’s hipster drama quarterlife is now a mid-season debut for NBC. Tulloch, 26, who plays angst-ridden video blogger Dylan, has “next It-Girl” written all over her.

Credits A.B., 2003. TV appearances on Cold Case, The West Wing; co-star on web phenomenon Lonelygirl15; star of quarterlife. Future releases include Lakeview Terrace, directed by Neil LaBute, and independent films Tyranny and Vacuuming the Cat.

Globe Trotting Tulloch’s father works in Latin American finance, and the family lived in Spain, Uruguay, and Argentina before moving stateside when Tulloch was 10. “Because Spanish was my first language, I can’t get clichés right,” she says. “The other day I was calling a woman who was annoying me a ‘twig in the mud’.”

Hipster, Not Prepster “Most people expect me to be from Greenwich with this name.” But “Bitsie” isn’t a contraction of Tulloch’s birth name, Elizabeth. It’s actually an homage to her unusually-nicknamed grandfather, a WW II pilot.

Crimson Casting Couch At Harvard, Tulloch double-concentrated in Visual and Environmental Studies and English, but her theatrical ambitions were thwarted. “I auditioned for a few plays and was always the runner-up. Invariably the director would cast his girlfriend.”

Oxford Blues After graduation, Tulloch deferred plans to study in England, instead taking acting lessons in L.A. “I wanted to do something really risky,” she says. About two years ago, she began auditioning. “I couldn’t understand why the hell I ended up in Hollywood. Now it’s starting to make sense.”

She Only Plays A Blogger On TV “I myself do not blog. I spend a lot of time online buying Gucci shoes on eBay.”

Serendipity She met Herskovitz at jury duty and had no idea that he was an Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning director-producer. Months later, Herskovitz insisted she audition for him after seeing her performance in a play coincidentally entitled Quarterlife. It had nothing to do with the still-inchoate TV series. “How weird is that?” Tulloch says.