Rise to Fame
At 17, a feisty high school feminist built on Shakespeare landed her the role that made her face unavoidable. Cast as Kat Stratford in 10 Things I Hate About You after Kate Hudson passed on the part, she picked up an MTV Breakthrough Female Performance award. The role hit because she leaned in where other actresses might have softened it. Save the Last Dance (2001) grossed over $130 million worldwide, with her performing nearly all her own dancing despite only childhood ballet behind her. Playing Nicky Parsons in the Bourne franchise from 2002 to 2016 gave her staying power most of her peers from that era never found.
In the Spotlight
She's been quietly building a career for two decades since the teen-movie peak, mostly outside the American radar. Riviera, a Sky Atlantic thriller she led for three seasons, was a hit in Europe but barely landed in the US. Her Dexter arc in Season 5 earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress and an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in 2011 (which plenty of people somehow missed), and the indie work has kept coming since. Orphan: First Kill, two seasons of The Lake on Amazon, and a psychological thriller series in production. She doesn't seem to need a comeback arc because, from a certain angle, she never really left.
Side Notes
Mid-career, she enrolled at Columbia University and finished an English degree, which is either the most New York thing an actress could do or the most practical. She's said she went because college would make her 'more interesting,' which is true and slightly annoying. She almost skipped the first Bourne film over scheduling conflicts with exams, then reportedly deferred a semester and did both. At Columbia, she caused a minor scandal by calling campus cafeteria workers 'mole people' on a Late Night with Conan O'Brien appearance. The university gave her its John Jay Award in 2010, so apparently that particular transgression had a shelf life.