When I saw American Reunion on Monday night, I was struck by one of the few teenagers in the film: Kara, Jim’s little next door neighbor who’s now blossomed into a nubile young creature who, better yet, adores her ex-babysitter. In each scene I found myself squinting at the smiling (and at one point naked) young actress, who looked to be a spitting image of Roswell star Shiri Appleby. I figured it might be her younger sister, making her acting debut in a less respectable way than on a WB show but still getting into the biz regardless.
However, IMDb later informed me that Kara was played by actress Ali Cobrin, who has no relation to Shiri. Still, the resemblance is uncanny, right? As I suspected, American Reunion is one of Ali’s first big roles, but she should’ve been cast in that CW show Life Unexpected from a few seasons ago; she looks much more like Shiri’s daughter than Britt Robertson did.
It’ll be fun to see if these two cross paths at events, though with the age difference and divergent career paths, that may never happen. So for now, here are a few more photos to marvel over the similarities.
I literally thought “jackpot!” when I matched this photo of Shiri at a CBS party circa 2000 with Ali dressed in a very similar dress at the American Reunion premiere. Right down to the deep blue — which of course works well with both of their coloring — and a band across the bust. I guess some styles never change in twelve years.
Maybe because we see Kara drunkenly strip down in her attempts to seduce Jim, I can’t help but think of Ali as seductive in every photo of her I come across. But obviously she’s also going for innocent looks, as you can see in this photo of her in all-white. However, she’ll never match the grinning Shiri, who always seemed so grateful for her sudden fame.
