Kristen Bell

Bell was born and raised in Huntington Woods, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Her mother, Lorelei (née Frygier), was a registered nurse, and her father, Tom Bell, was a television news director. Bell has described her mother as "very religious", something that put a strain on their relationship. Her mother is of Polish descent, and her father has German, Scottish and Irish ancestry. They divorced when Bell was 6 months old; both have since remarried, and Bell has 6 half-siblings: two step-sisters from her father's second marriage and four half-siblings from her mother's second marriage.

At the age of four, Bell stated that she did not like her first name, so her mother encouraged her to use her middle name, Anne, which she used until she attended high school.

Just before her first year of high school, Bell's parents decided to remove her from the public school system. She attended Shrine Catholic High School in nearby Royal Oak, where she took part in the drama and music clubs. Before attending Shrine, she attended Burton Elementary School and Norup Middle School (now known as Norup International School), part of the Berkley School District. At Shrine, she won the starring role in the school's 1997 production of The Wizard of Oz as Dorothy Gale, and appeared in productions of Fiddler on the Roof (1995), Lady, Be Good (1996), and Li'l Abner (1998). In 1998, the year she graduated, she was named the yearbook's "Best Looking Lil' Lady" by senior class vote.

Shortly after her high school graduation, Bell moved to New York City to attend New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, studying musical theater. In 2002, during her senior year, she left a few credits shy of graduating to take a role in the Broadway musical version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.