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Heather Elizabeth Morris (born February 1, 1987) is an American actress, dancer, and singer, most known for her role as cheerleader Brittany S. Pierce from the musical/comedy series "Glee". Morris' first appearance on television was in 2006 on "So You Think You Can Dance?", followed by "The Beyonce Experience", "Satruday Night Live", "The Ellen DeGeneres Show", and several more. Sometime afterwards, while Morris was taking acting lessons and pursuing an acting career, she was asked by Woodlee (co-producer of Glee) to teach Beyonce's "Single Ladies" dance to the actors. During the same time period, the show was looking for someone to fill the role of a third cheerleader, which Morris ended up filling as "Brittany Pierce".

Heather Morris is set to voice the role of Katie, a new teenage Mammoth character in Ice Age: Continental Drift, who is commonly referred to as "The Gossip Girl" (in several interviews).

Early life

Morris was born in Thousand Oaks, California, and was raised in Scottsdale, Arizona. She began dancing when she was 9. Morris competed at a young age in a variety of styles including jazz, tap, and contemporary. Morris's father died of cancer when she was 14 years old. "It's something that is hard for me, because I'm sad about it, but I don't dwell on it," she said during an interview workshop with students in December 2009. "I know he's in a better place, instead of suffering." After graduating from Desert Mountain High School, Morris decided to enroll in a local university but realized she was in the wrong place and moved to L.A. instead at age 19.

Career

Morris' first significant appearance was in 2006 on So You Think You Can Dance Season 2 where she made the "green mile" or "Vegas Week" but failed to make the final 20 by a vote of 3-2.

Not discouraged, Morris moved to Los Angeles and actively pursued a career in dancing and was trained in jazz dance. Her big break came in 2007 via Beyoncé. 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.

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

In 2010 Morris made the Maxim Hot 100 list, coming in at number 85. On the AfterEllen hot 100 list she was ranked #2 behind Naya Rivera.

In 2011 Morris starred in a back-to-school commercial for Staples Canada that featured her dancing.

In the October 2011 issue of Fitness magazine, Heather Morris stated that she has had her breast implants removed. She was quoted saying "Implants were something I thought I wanted when I was younger, and now I don't. It was hard being active with them, because my chest was always sore. It hurt a lot, and I didn't like always being in pain, so they had to go!" Her breast implant surgery was done sometime between her time on So You Think You Can Dance at age 18 and age 21 when she was a backup dancer for Beyonce.