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'Faking It' star from Warrenville shares 'Home Alone' stories

#8220;People pay me to pretend all day,#8221; she said. #8220;I make a living by doing what every child loves to do for free. That's entirely crazy!#8221;

She was born in Elmhurst, but grew up in Warrenville. Her mother, a former model, wasted no time putting Senta into showbiz. At 6 months old, she modeled diapers for her first TV commercial. As a teen, she starred in the 1990 comedy classic #8220;Home Alone.#8221;

Now, Mikan is on the MTV series #8220;Faking It.#8221; She plays the principal at a high school where two best buds become mistaken for a lesbian couple. The series has been picked up for a third season, to begin sometime in March.

In the 26 years Mikan has lived in Los Angeles, she has become a one-woman cottage industry of quirky characters, comic relief and memorable cast members in movies and more than 40 TV shows, with recurring roles on #8220;Greek#8221; and the ABC soap opera #8220;General Hospital.#8221;

#8220;That was one of the hardest things I've ever done and one of the best things I've ever done, #8221; Mikan said of playing the eccentric Winnifred on #8220;General Hospital.#8221;

#8220;I would shoot up to 42 pages in one day. It was like boot camp. We'd get the script the night before. You'd memorize a ridiculous number of lines, scenes and intentions.

#8220;Then the next day you'd shoot it once or twice #8212; or three times if there was a major screw-up. It was one of the craziest experiences I have ever had.#8221;

That, and maybe the time she got to hang out for an afternoon with a legendary pop icon.

She was 18 and playing Macaulay Culkin's cousin in the sequel to the smash hit movie comedy #8220;Home Alone#8221; when Michael Jackson came to the set to meet Culkin.

#8220;He arrived in a white van to hang out for a while,#8221; Mikan remembered. #8220;He was so soft and sweet. He had the craziest personality on stage. It was the first time I really realized there's a difference between someone's stage persona and a real-life persona.#8221;

She soon began darting between Chicago, New York and Los Angeles doing photo shoots and TV gigs, prompting her to rely on tutors for her education.

Mikan skipped eighth grade and went straight to St. Francis High School for her freshman and sophomore years, then attended the Chicago Academy for the Arts.

At 16, she moved to Los Angeles #8212; by herself, she says #8212; and enrolled as a theater major at USC. Since then, she has become a rarity in the showbiz universe: an actress who never needed a day job.

She possesses an infectiously buoyant voice, pumped with animated words and an effervescent lilt. (#8220;Really?#8221; she said. #8220;When I hear myself, I think I sound like a chipmunk.#8221;)

She admitted that nobody on the set of #8220;Home Alone#8221; knew the Chris Columbus-directed comedy would become an annual holiday treasure.

#8220;We just thought it was a fun Christmas movie. It was a blast to do.#8221;

She particularly remembers the scene at O'Hare Airport where she and her fellow actors run through the American terminal to catch a flight, accidentally leaving behind Culkin's poor Kevin.

#8220;I think we took one entire week to shoot that 30-to-40-second sequence,#8221; Mikan said. #8220;I remember it was an incredibly choreographed ballet to get the family running down the center of the corridor with all the extras crossing in front to make it look like they hadn't cleared the path.

#8220;Several times people tripped or got caught up with each other. I don't think it really registers just how difficult it was to shoot that single sequence at O'Hare.#8221;

Mikan said she still loves Chicago. But she had to be pragmatic.

#8220;If I could earn a living in Chicago and it wasn't snowing, I'd be living there,#8221; she said. #8220;The thing I like best about the people from Chicago is that they're so friendly.

#8220;In L.A, it would be strange to start talking to someone at a restaurant. In Chicago, I can actually talk to a server and not be looked at like I have a second head.

#8220;When you're walking down a street in L.A. and you say 'hello' to someone, it takes a while for them to realize you don't want something from them. And you're not trying to rob them.#8221;

She found a Naperville husband #8212; in California

Senta Moses had no idea that when she crashed Joe Mikan's party in Burbank, California, she'd be meeting her future husband.

#8220;I was invited by a mutual friend to go to his house,#8221; the former Warrenville resident said. #8220;I met Joe and started talking, then we realized we were both from Chicago.#8221;

Joe, a supervising editor for reality TV shows, grew up in Naperville.

#8220;His identical twin brother went to a school dance with my best friend's sister,#8221; the actress said. #8220;We used to hang out in all the same places, yet we never met. It's ridiculous I'd have to go 2,200 miles away from Naperville and Warrenville to meet someone from home.#8221;

The couple married in July. Then she discovered that he loves Lou Malnati's pizza. She swears by Gino's East.

#8220;We're a house divided!#8221; she said. #8220;But he's a Bears fan and a Blackhawks fan and a Bulls fan and a Cubs fan. So I kinda feel like I hit the jackpot.#8221;

#8226; If you know suburbanites working in showbiz who might make a good story, contact Jamie Sotonoff and Dann Gire at jsotonoff@dailyherald.com and dgire@dailyherald.com.

Senta Moses Mikan Courtesy of Senta Moses Mikan
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