Berkley was born and raised in Farmington Hills, a community located among Detroit\'s northern suburbs in the affluent Oakland County, Michigan. She is the daughter of Jere, a gift basket business owner, and Fred Berkley, a lawyer. She has an older brother, Jason. Berkley\'s family is Jewish. She was raised in a Conservative Judaism household, and at age 12 had a Bat Mitzvah. Berkley was born with heterochromia, the condition of differently colored irises; her right eye is half green and half brown, and her left eye is all green. She also has a mole on her forehead which she covers with camouflage makeup, citing it was a bother to her growing up, after name calling. She graduated in 1990 from North Farmington High School in Farmington Hills after previously having attended the Cranbrook Kingswood School, a private school in Bloomfield Hills.\n', '

From a young age she danced, and she practiced in a room that her parents arranged for her in the basement of their house. She auditioned for the lead role in the film Annie, but was turned down. As her love for dancing increased, she became more interested in pursuing it professionally, traveling to New York to train with other dancers and choreographers. She began to take part in several ballets, including Swan Lake and in 1983 she appeared in some musicals.\n', '

Berkley was a teenage model for Elite before pursuing an acting career. She made her television film debut in 1987 with a role in the television film Frog and following this, made a number of guest appearances on several television shows. In 1989, at the age of fifteen, she auditioned for the role of Kelly Kapowski in Saved by the Bell, but the producers of the show could not decide whether to cast her or Tiffani-Amber Thiessen. In the end, they created for Berkley the character Jessie Spano, a role she played from 1989 to 1993, as well as in both of the show\'s television film installments.\n', '

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