Ali Liebert drives with a GPS, but on the road to success she follows her heart.

A 27-year-old up-and-coming actress, Liebert moved around a lot as a child and didn’t study acting professionally until she became a student at the Canadian College of Performing Arts in Victoria, British Columbia. There, an experience Liebert describes simply as “amazing,” one of her teachers told her she might do well in theater and television. Perhaps, as Ali thinks back, it was she who planted the seed.

“As long as I can remember I have loved performing,” Liebert said in a recent interview with Blast. Growing up in a small town near Vancouver, she competed in music and singing festivals and acted in myriads of school plays.

It was her gay uncles, she says, who had a strong influence on her love of performing. Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, and Barbara Streisand: she wanted to be those ladies. Often, her parents could hear her around the house singing “Papa Can You Hear Me?”

Jeff, Ali’s brother, is a talented guitarist, and her Dad dabbles in music as well. Her late mother was once a dancer and model.

“My Mom’s family is very outgoing,” she said. “All of the women are extremely gregarious and funny. Maybe that kind of rubbed off. Maybe I was trying to get attention because everyone was so loud.” As a result, whether it was a backyard barbecue or family room stage, Liebert has always been performing.

After graduating, Ali was approached by an agent who recommended a move to Vancouver. That she did, and she was able to break into the scene while working at a casting agency. During her job as a reader, she went from being a non-working to a working actor. Not only did Liebert learn the ins-and-outs of auditions, she also learned more about human emotion, about someone being there for the part, or maybe just desperately needing to pay rent. “I basically know every actor in Vancouver now, because I read with them,” she laughed.

This appreciation for human emotion has helped catapult Liebert’s career. Four years ago, she played the little boy, Anybody, in Edmonton’s Citadel Theater production of West Side Story — a role that she was so passionate about she cut off all her hair and dyed it from blond to brown.

“I cannot believe I did it!” she exclaimed. “I don’t know if I could do it again. I mean, if it was an amazing role in a story that had to be told, such as Hilary Swank in Boys Don’t Cry, I’d have to do it again.”

Lacking neither passion nor dedication, Liebert’s resume continued to blossom even faster than her hair was able to grow back. Following small parts in “The L Word” and “Dead Like Me,” Liebert quickly landed recurring roles on “Whistler,” “Intelligence” and “Kyle XY.”

It was 2008, however, that proved to be Liebert’s breakout year. Having moved to Los Angeles for pilot season, she landed the role of Nikki on CBS’s “Harper’s Island,” a show that, ironically enough, was being filmed in Liebert’s home of British Columbia.

“It was so weird! I lived on Bowen Island for a year and when we would go over there to shoot, with everyone being from all over the country, I’d be like ‘I went to school there.’ It was so beautiful. It was Heaven,” Liebert said

Described as “the biker chick,” Liebert’s character, Nikki, is a very straightforward and tell-it-like-it-is kind of girl. “I can get very rambunctious and sarcastic,” she said, “and Nikki is definitely like that.”

Nikki is the girl from the small town who never left, and Liebert identifies. “I do feel like that small town girl- big heart, high hopes and dreams.”

Liebert recently completed roles in two motion pictures, “The Breakup Artist” and “Year of the Carnivore,” both premiering later this year. She also just wrapped “Hardwired” with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Val Kilmer.

Sylvia, her character in Sook Yin Lee’s “Year of the Carnivore,” is Liebert’s favorite role so far.

“I loved her whole perspective on life. I am kind of a people-pleaser and she’s just not. I like playing characters that are so straight up with people, honest and to the point. I hope to become more like that,” Liebert said.

While building her resume and making sure to choose roles that are family friendly and respectful to women, Liebert isn’t too “choosy” yet. Is that the ultimate goal? Of course! “I hope it continues and the parts get bigger and more exciting.”

As for her dream role, she laughs as she says it would be Liza Minnelli. Realistically, she thinks, it would be something that included singing. One day, a role in a series based in Vancouver would be ideal. In addition, Liebert’s plan is to be on stage in Vancouver in the next year. She says her heart is where home is.

Back and forth from Vancouver to L.A. can be exhausting, but she hasn’t yet made the plunge to live full time in Tinsel Town. Perhaps she is delaying the inevitable, or perhaps she will always be that small town girl, or maybe Liebert just really is one of the few down-to-earth, sweet, family-loving people refusing to fall victim to celebrity. When asked about her love life, she becomes shy and won’t elaborate, but makes sure to point out “not because I think I’m famous.”

When she’s not working, Liebert loves being around dogs and taking photos of them, though she hasn’t picked one out for herself just yet. “I may have a secondary career as a pet photographer,” she quipped.

What’s to come of the future? One thing seems likely: Liebert hopes she will never lose sight of what’s important. Family, friends, pets, good food (croissants, more specifically) — her appreciation for the simple pleasures in life is palpable.

And ss for that GPS? Well, for right now, it’s recalculating.

If you ever find yourself thirsting for a taste sensation by the same name, Chelan Simmons will know she’s made it.

Viewers first glimpsed the gorgeous Simmons, 25, two years ago in her recurring role as Hillary on ABC’s “Kyle XY,” a Sunday night sci-fi/ teen drama hybrid that takes the angst of feeling out of place during those formative years to a whole new level.

And if her star should ever burn out, she’ll always have her dreams of becoming a gourmet chef. After all, the family has their own top secret recipe for scalloped potatoes said to inspire mythical-type cravings.

At five Simmons landed her first commercial role after her first audition. Three years later she landed a part in the 1990 TV movie version of Stephen King’s “It” as a tricycle riding tot and the first victim.

“It was actually not too scary being a child on a horror movie set,” Simmons said. “I did all my scenes without Tim Curry (who played the infamous Clown). The director just told me how to react and he told me where to look.”

Careful editing makes it look like Simmons appeared on-set with Curry, but eighteen years later she’s still thankful that it wasn’t the case. “I’m scared of clowns still to this day!”

From the start, Simmons idolized child star du jour Shirley Temple.

“When I was little, no matter what restaurant I went to, I always ordered a Shirley Temple,” Simmons says. “(As a child) I wanted more than anything to have a drink named after me. I thought that that meant that you really made it as an actress.”

Simmons also worshipped funny girls Carol Burnett, Kate Hudson and Reese Witherspoon. But Temple held her longtime awe. “I always wanted to be just like her as a child, she was such an amazing triple threat, and I always thought that she just lit up the screen when she was on it,” Simmons says.

The native of White Rock, British Columbia, a suburb of Vancouver, had plenty of chances to strike out into science fiction.

“I just kind of fell into the genre,” she says. “A lot of sci-fi projects are filmed here in Vancouver, so it has just been pure luck that I was able to audition for so many of them.”

The experience helped establish Simmons as a scream queen. “I love any chance I get to scream and run away from some monster.”

With puberty came the opportunity to play a host of sexy, funny teen roles. Her credits include roles like Carol in 2007′s “Good Luck Chuck,” Ashley Freund in “Final Destination 3″ and Hot teenage girl in “2gether: The Series.”

Even at 25, Simmons is still regularly cast in roles that require her to shave off nearly a decade.

Harkening back to her high school days isn’t difficult. “I feel more like a teenager some days than I do an adult,” she says. “I love doing high school scenes … I had some of my best times in high school.”

Her longest stint to date is as part of “Kyle XY,” spending nearly four years with the cast and crew of the ABC hit. “The cast is so connected with each other and everyone is so sweet and talented,” Simmons said. “It really makes going to work everyday such a delight.”

That bonding extends to Simmon’s character Hillary, who’s had the opportunity to mature during the run. “I’m really beginning to love her,” she said.

“At first she was always wanting to be the center of attention, she was boy crazy and wasn’t the best friend in the world,” Simmons says. “But now, she has really grown up and has discovered herself a lot more.”

Simmons and the cast will start filming season three soon, though the actress is tight-lipped about any upcoming plot points. “I can’t give you any hints, because the writers don’t even tell us what’s going to happen,” she says.

On the silver screen, Simmons is looking forward to an upcoming role in Hollywood Brats, a comedic portrait of real-life celebutantes and starlet train wrecks directed by Terry Ingram and slated for release next year, where she’ll play Lindsay Lohan.

The film has been touted as strictly based on documents from the public record in the hopes of dodging the potential lawsuit this kind of undertaking attracts.

To brush up on her best LiLo impression, Simmons studied the starlet’s body language and cinematic r©sum©.

She’s no dead-ringer for Lohan, and she knows it. “I know I don’t look identical to her, or sound just like her, but my job was to act like her as much as I could and get the story across.”

When she’s not on set, Simmons keeps her body ripped with Crossfit training, a mix of gymnastics, Olympic weight lifting and sprinting with her personal trainer at Vancouver’s Studio 55. “My trainer, Nathan, works my butt off,” she said.

Down time is reserved for her other loves: spending time with her beloved four-year-old Yorkie Talula, playing Rock Band on Xbox 360 and cooking.

“I am a big foody,” Simmons admits, “and I am most relaxed when I’m cooking.”

Friends and family are already fans of the hobby, reaping the rewards after a day spent slaving away in the kitchen.

Recent culinary creations include fish delicacies and one of her favorites, Simmons Scalloped Potatoes, concocted from the family’s secret recipe. “Once you taste our Simmons Scalloped Potatoes you can’t stop eating them.”

On the web – visit Chelan Simmons on www.myspace.com/chelansimmons or the soon-to-be launched www.chelansimmons.com . “I always love hearing from my fans after a show has aired … it’s so sweet to hear what they thought of the show that night. My fans are the ones that keep me reaching for the stars.”