Overview (4)

Mini Bio (1)

Spouse (1)

Trade Mark (1)

Red hair



Trivia (40)

Graduated from North Hollywood High School in 1992.



Was a clarinet player in junior high school.



Played soccer until she got an injury in her early teens.



Alyson's parents divorced when she was 2. Her mother is a real estate agent in Atlanta, Georgia, and her father was a truck driver in Missouri.





The producers of American Pie (1999) originally wanted her to play the role of Heather, but she wanted to play the role of Michelle because she thought it was funnier.

Has a tattoo of tribal dolphins on her ankle, a Japanese kanji (for luck and happiness) on her back, and a cartoon turtle on her left foot.





She (along with actresses Tangi Miller and Holly Marie Combs ) is a spokesperson for breast cancer, and will appear in a new four page brochure (to be featured in Vogue, Glamour, Self, Mademoiselle, and Women's Sports and Fitness) to raise awareness about the disease. [May 2000]



She co-starred in the television series Free Spirit (1989). The program was about a witch. Interestingly, she has now played a witch on the TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997).



Married to Alexis Denisof . Denisof proposed during a trip to Northern California wine country during the 2002 holiday season. They were married in October 2003

At age 11 moved from Atlanta, Georgia, to Los Angeles



Her wedding was featured in the February 2004 issue of InStyle Magazine.





Has had two songs recorded about her: " Alyson Hannigan " by Juvenile Wreck, and "This One Time" (named for her famous "This one time, at band camp..." quotes from American Pie (1999)) by The Malcolm Effect.



She was invited to join the cast of the TV show In the Game (2004), but backed off, citing creative differences. Hannigan was supposed to play the best friend of the character played by Jennifer Love Hewitt , but according to a Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service interview reported January 25, 2005, she was unhappy with the diminished, trivialized role they presented her with. She chose to walk away from the offer.

Her father has Irish ancestry. Her maternal grandparents, Jacob Posner and Dorothy Mendel, were born to Russian Jewish immigrant families.



Owns a mansion in Sacramento, California.



Attended California State University in Northridge, California majored in Psychology





Babysat for Bob Saget 's children in her teens. Once went on vacation to Hawaii with his family. Two decades later, they co-starred together in How I Met Your Mother (2005), with Saget playing (the voice of) the older "Ted Mosby" and Hannigan playing younger Ted's best friend's fiancée.

She supports the StubHub's Mom's Night Out program. This program celebrates mothers and works with the Adopt-A-Classroom program.





She made an estimated $8,700,000 in earnings from her work on the series. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997).

Voted #42 on Ask men's top 99 'most desirable' women of 2012.





Gave birth to her 1st child at age 35, a daughter Satyana Marie Denisof, on March 24, 2009. Child's father is her husband, Alexis Denisof



Was 8 months pregnant with her daughter Satyana when she completed filming the 4th season of How I Met Your Mother (2005).



Returned to work 4 months after giving birth to her daughter Satyana to begin filming the 5th season of How I Met Your Mother (2005).



Gave birth to her 2nd child at age 38, a daughter Keeva Jane Denisof, on May 23, 2012. Child's father is her husband, Alexis Denisof



Was 7 months pregnant with her daughter Keeva when she completed filming the 7th season of How I Met Your Mother (2005).



Returned to work 2 months after giving birth to her daughter Keeva in order to begin filming the 8th season of How I Met Your Mother (2005).



Forbes Magazine calculated her total earning for 2013 to be $8 million. Most of her income was based on her per-episode take at $300,000 for How I Met Your Mother (2005) plus syndication for re-runs of the show.



Is very good friends with singer Pink who named her daughter Willow. Hannigan praised her name choice on Twitter.

Member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority.



Personal Quotes (8)



"It was great for a change to share a week's work, rather than being on different projects. With the hours Alexis and I spend on set, you can tend to pass like ships in the night. Weekends, however, are great because we can share precious time together. But when we're at home, I promise you, we certainly don't talk about vampires or suck each other's blood for tea" [on playing the season 4, episode 15, role of "Willow" as a crossover on Angel (1999) June 4, 2003].



[on her role as the witch "Willow", crossing over from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) to act in the episode Angel: Orpheus (2003) on the series Angel (1999), where her fiancé, Alexis Denisof , is a regular:] "I finally get to spend a day with my honey, so that's really nervous coming in. I had butterflies in my stomach. I don't know why I was so nervous -- maybe because I don't know how to pronounce half the lines I have to say today. They're in some made-up language".

It's like walking around a history book. You have all these beautiful buildings that were built before 1980. - on London.



You need to suffer to be interesting.



Nerds are far more interesting human in later life. - on the varying times of "blossoming" for individuals.



Asked in a May 6, 2003, interview by Fred Topel what might be her final thoughts on playing Willow Rosenberg, Hannigan answered, "Oh, I'm going to miss everything. It's been the most amazing and significant job of my life obviously and I'll always have it near and dear to my heart. I'm so grateful and appreciative that I worked with the best crew and the best writers and producers and cast and I love them all." The follow-up interview question was: "What would you like the fans to do with an extra hour in their schedule?" Hannigan replied firmly: "Read."



[She was asked in a May 6, 2003 interview by Fred Topel how she developed the "Willow voice"] I sort of got her voice when I was auditioning. I was sitting in the parking lot looking at the material, and I didn't have it, I didn't have it. Then there was one particular line which, from there on, I was like, "Okay, I know how I want to play this character."



[sardonically, on wrapping Series 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer] I was just relieved they weren't going to do the fifth year of high school. [A&E Biography: Buffy the Vampire Slayer]



Salary (2)