February 1: Heather Morris, AKA cheerleader Brittany Pierce in "Glee," is 27-years-old today.

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Heather Elizabeth Morris was born in Thousand Oaks, California and raised in Scottsdale, Arizona. She began dancing at the age of one, eventually competing at a young age in a variety of styles including jazz, tap, and contemporary.

After graduating high school, Morris decided to enroll in a local university but moved to L.A. instead at age 19.
Morris' first significant appearance was in 2006 on So You Think You Can Dance Season 2 where she made the "green mile" but failed to make the final 20 by a vote of 3-2.

Afterwards, she moved back to Los Angeles and actively pursued a career in dancing. Her big break came in 2007 when Morris was one of Beyoncé's backup dancers on The Beyoncé Experience world tour and, following that, worked again with Beyoncé on a mini "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" promotional tour that included 2008 performances on the American Music Awards, Saturday Night Live, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Today, and MTV's Total Request Live Finale.

She also danced backup for Beyoncé and Tina Turner at the 50th Grammy Awards in 2008. She later appeared in a small role in the movie Fired Up, where she met choreographer Zach Woodlee. Following that film, Woodlee brought Morris in to dance on other shows he was choreographing, including episodes of Eli Stone and Swingtown, the movie Bedtime Stories, and eventually Glee.

Morris was taking acting classes and actively pursuing an acting career when she was asked by Woodlee to teach the choreography for Beyoncé's "Single Ladies" dance to the Glee actors. At the same time, the show was looking for a third cheerleader, and Morris ended up landing the role of Brittany. Initially a background character who hardly ever spoke, the role grew as writers discovered Morris had a gift for delivering one-liners.

 

(Press album cover for direct link to the entire Amazon Website):

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When a promotional clip for the episode "Sectionals" indicated that Brittany Pierce and Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera) had slept together, Dorothy Snarker, writing for lesbian entertainment website After Ellen, praised the pairing, referring to them by the portmanteau "Brittana." Due to the positive response to her character, Morris was promoted to official series regular status during season two.

She was at the center of the second episode, "Britney/Brittany," (a tribute to Britney Spears) where she made her singing debut covering Spears' I'm a Slave 4 U solo and dueting with Naya Rivera on Me Against the Music. As on Glee, Morris is best friends in real life with co-star Rivera.

 

In December 2010, Morris was named the Celebrity Style Ambassador for FLIRT! Cosmetics, an Estee Lauder cosmetics line.

Morris co-wrote and appeared in a January 2011 video for Funny or Die, "Nuthin' But A Glee Thang," a take-off of the Dr. Dre/Snoop Dogg collaboration "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang." Co-written with actresses Ashley Lendzion and Riki Lindhome, the video features appearances from Modern Family's Sofia Vergara and Morris's Glee castmates Matthew Morrison, Cory Monteith, Harry Shum, Jr., and Naya Rivera.

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