A Field Guide To Meg Chambers Steedle

How are we handling the fact that Paz de la Huerta is no longer on "Boardwalk Empire"? That's mighty kind of you to ask. Actually, we think things are going to be just fine, especially now that Meg Chambers Steedle has wiggled her sweet frame onto the show. We have a new babe to obsess over, and we're going to do it the right way, starting with this Field Guide.

Meg Chambers Steedle was born in North Carolina (around the mid to late '80s, we estimate) to a pair of dentists. Meg had a bit of a rough time growing up because her family moved a few times when she was young; this was an especially big issue when she moved to a new place while in the third grade. "I struggled a lot with feeling out of place and I acted out a lot," she tells Nylon. "I remember I used to kick guys in the balls… I was just a mess." Her folks wanted her to find an outlet for her feelings, so they pushed her to audition for a high school production of "The Sound of Music." Meg landed a role as one of the Von Trapp clan, and from then on, she was completely hooked on acting:

I just felt a part of something. My director is now still my mentor today. It just felt like a family to me, to be cool with the older kids, that sense of belonging… and also there was singing involved. Throughout school I kept doing it and would have fun roles here and decided to go to college for it. I remember my best friend from school went to NYU and I wasn't sure that I wanted new theater school so I went to a liberal arts school and ended up at Northwestern.

She graduated from Northwestern University's School of Communications in 2008 and then started doing regional theater around Chicago. While she was visiting her boyfriend in Los Angeles, she got a call from her agent who told her she had an audition with "Boardwalk Empire." Meg notes, "I grew up on the Jersey shore, I grew up going out [to Atlantic City], so it's been one of those shows I had my eye on." At first, HBO said they were taking the character in a different direction, but after a few months, they called back and asked her to come in again. Terence Winter, the creator of the show, said, "We had her in to read a few times for the role, but the role was sort of a tall order. We wanted somebody who was beautiful, who could sing and dance, and who brought a young, fresh, different type of energy. Meg was the complete package." Indeed, she is. Meg got the role of Billie Kent, Nucky's new love interest/a Broadway actress who represents the first bloom of flapper girls on "Boardwalk Empire," and she's been loving the heck out of her new job.

As you'll notice from her IMDb page, Meg doesn't have too many acting gigs under her belt--in fact, her only professional screen experience comes from an episode of ABC's "Body of Proof" in which she played a student lacrosse player who kills a teammate--but Terence Winter doesn't care and neither do we. Of course, there's always some minor controversy surrounding a relatively new starlet taking her clothes off on camera, but Meg doesn't mind and neither do her folks ("They expected it to happen," Meg says, "I just don't think they expected it so soon") so we shan't worry our heads about it. She admits that she was worried her character would follow in the footsteps of Lucy Danziger (Paz de la Huerta) who was "naked all the time," but Billie is nothing like Lucy.

And Meg is like no other girl on TV right now. We know we've only seen her in one episode of "Boardwalk Empire," but we know she's destined for greatness. We're not the only ones who feel this way, either! Google the girl's name and you'll see that dozens of entertainment journals have taken a liking to this young lady. We're not saying Meg will end up with an Emmy by next year (we're not not saying that, too), we're simply saying that it's going to be a buttload of fun watching her work.

And be sure to check out:
· Meg Chamber Steedle's Twitter (twitter.com)
· Her Facebook Fan Page (facebook.com)
· And an interview she did with Nylon (nylonmag.com)