Andrea Elson is a professional yoga instructor and a former teen actress, whose ticket to fame was her role as Lynn Tanner on the hit 1980s TV comedy series, “ALF”.
Early life and family
Andrea Hope Elson was born on March 6, 1969 in New York City, USA, so her zodiac sign is Pisces and Aquamarine is her birthstone. She and her sister, Samantha, were mostly raised in Westchester, New York, by their parents, Stephen and Elinor, but they moved to different cities because of her father’s job in advertising, which included spending about four years in San Diego , California when they were growing up.
She discovered her love for performing when she was chosen to star in a school play“Alice in Wonderland.”
Career
First step
Andrea started very young as a model and actress; she appeared in a large number of television commercials and print advertisements before venturing into acting. During her family’s stay in California growing up, she acted in locally produced plays in the community where they lived. Her parents eventually decided to move to Los Angeles permanently. With an agent, she was able to get more modeling contracts for commercials professionally and eventually landed an acting role in the TV series ‘Simon & Simon’ at the age of 12.
The following year, there was a guest appearance on another TV show, ‘Silver Spoons’.
At the age of 14 she was offered a role in ‘Whiz Kids’, an American TV science fiction adventure show. She played Alice Tyler, who solves mysteries with her friends along with the protagonist played by Matthew Charles Labyorteaux. It aired on CBS for one season from 1983 to 1984, and although it only lasted 18 episodes, viewers noticed Andrea, and she began to gain a following that saw her appear on the covers of popular teen magazines in the ’80s, such as Bop, Teen Beat and 16 Magazine.
Further success
A few years after the cancellation of ‘Whiz Kids’, Andrea auditioned for a role in another American sci-fi comedy TV series, ‘ALF’, which stands for Alien Life Form. She won the role of Lyn Tanner, the daughter of a middle-class family who adopted an alien they named “ALF.” – the series revolved around hiding the alien from the community and the government. The show aired on the NBC network, and this time Andrea was part of a TV series that ran from 1987 to 1990, for four seasons with 102 episodes. Unfortunately for the show’s avid fans, the last episode shown had a cliffhanger, but the network decided to abort the series anyway.
The popularity she gained from being a part of “ALF” led to many roles in both television and movies. She went on to be part of more than a dozen projects, but the most notable were “Who’s the Boss” with Tony Danza and Alyssa Milano in 1990, “Married with Children” with Ed O’Neill and Christina Applegate in 1993, and “Mad about You” with Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt in 1994.
After not appearing on television for a year, Andrea reappeared in “Step By Step” in 1996 with Patrick Duffy and Suzanne Sommers, but the next two years Andrea went into hibernation again and people thought she would never be seen on television again . Television again. However, she was then featured in one of the longest running daytime TV shows, ‘The Young and the Restless’ for a two-day guest appearance in 1998, but after that she finally said goodbye to her acting career at the age of 29.
As the owner of a yoga studio
Andrea began teaching yoga in 2009, after earning her Yoga Teacher Training certification with Judith Hanson Lasater of The Yoga Tree in San Francisco, and a year later founded her own yoga studio, Grass Valley Yoga. She continued to study this spiritual discipline by earning more teaching certifications from the Foundations of Svaroopa Yoga and The Yoga Shack.
In 2016, she sold her business when her family decided to move to the Central Coast, but eventually launched another yoga studio called Yoga Village. In addition to offering her services as an instructor, she also conducts Yoga Alliance Teacher Trainings for those interested in teaching and yoga retreats around the world.
Private life
Andrea married Scott Hopper in 1993; she met him on the set of the TV series ‘ALF’. He was a production assistant at the time and was assigned to provide her scripts. During an interview, she said she instantly fell in love with Scott. She became pregnant in 1997 with their eldest, Claire, and that was the main reason for her TV disappearance for a few years. Six weeks after giving birth, she went back on TV in “The Young & the Restless” with a breast pump and an on-set nanny to help care for the baby. She then realized she had to step out of the limelight and focus on motherhood. She and her husband currently live in Arroyo Grande, California with their two children.
Interesting facts
- During the second season of “ALF,” Andrea developed bulimia, an emotional disorder in which she ate too much and then induced self-induced vomiting – she was depressed about her developing body, wanting to stay slim. No one had a clue about her problem because she was always perky and happy on set. Even after the show ended, she was obsessed with keeping herself thin by spending several hours in the gym every day. It was her husband who confronted her and finally, even without professional help, she was able to overcome it when she got pregnant. She now focuses on being healthy instead of just wanting to be thin.
- The atmosphere on the set of the TV series “ALF” was always tense, as the actors were exhausted when filming scenes with the doll. It was too exhausting for most of them as they were filming about 25 hours for just a 30 minute show. The actors were so professional about it that no one outside the set knew about the tension, or how messy the set was at the time.
Acting Awards/Nominations
She received a nomination for Exceptional Young Actress in a New Television Comedy Series from the Young Artist Award (formerly called Youth in Film Award) in 1986 for her role as Lynn Tanner in ‘ALF’. In 1989, she received another nomination from the same awarding body for the same role in the Best Young Actress in a TV Comedy Series category.
Appearance
As a yoga teacher, she keeps her body in top shape. She is 1.73 m tall and weighs about 56 kg. She is white, with brown hair and green eyes.
Net value
As of early 2020, sources estimate her net worth at over $1 million, largely cleared of her acting career and her yoga business.
