Sophia Anna Bush (born July 8, 1982) is an American actress. She starred as Brooke Davis in the teen drama series One Tree Hill (2003–2012), and as Erin Lindsay in the police procedural drama series Chicago P.D. (2014–2017). She was a producer for and starred in the lead role of Dr. Samantha "Sam" Griffith in the medical drama Good Sam (2022).
Bush has also appeared in films, including John Tucker Must Die (2006), The Hitcher (2007), The Narrows (2008), Chalet Girl (2011), Marshall (2017), Acts of Violence (2018), and Incredibles 2 (2018). She is also known for her philanthropy work and social activism, including her work for the Time's Up movement and DoSomething.org. Bush co-hosted the Drama Queens podcast along with her former One Tree Hill co-stars, Hilarie Burton, Bethany Joy Lenz and Robert Buckley.
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Early life and education
Bush was born in Pasadena, California, the only child of Maureen Searson and Charles William Bush. Her mother manages a photography studio and her father is an advertising and beauty photographer. On her father's side, she is a great-grandniece of Hudson Allison, who died in the sinking of the Titanic with his wife and daughter; Bush's paternal grandmother, Margaret Jean Bush (née Allison), was the daughter of Hudson's brother, Percy Allison.
In 2000, she graduated from Westridge School for Girls in Pasadena, where she was a member of the volleyball team. At Westridge, she was required to participate in the theater arts program. Bush said, "Part of my school's requirement was to do a play. I was really irritated because I wanted to play volleyball and I had to go and do this play. But there was a moment after the performance when I realized I had gone and been somebody else. I thought, 'If I could do this for the rest of my life, I am set.' It was like love at first sight." At age 17, Bush was named the Tournament of Roses Parade Queen in 1999. At the time she planned to major in both theater and psychology at Tulane University in New Orleans.
Career
Bush made her first film appearance in the 2002 film National Lampoon's Van Wilder opposite Ryan Reynolds. Then she made appearances in several television shows, including Nip/Tuck, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Point of Origin, an HBO film. In 2002, Bush was cast as Kate Brewster in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, though she was replaced by Claire Danes after a week of filming. Jonathan Mostow, the director of the film said that he had replaced her as he felt she was too young for the role, but praised her talent as an actress.
In 2003, Bush was cast as Brooke Davis in the WB television series One Tree Hill. After Bush gained mainstream fame, she became a spokesperson for high-profile brands and posed on the cover of several mainstream magazines, including Entertainment Weekly, Lucky, Maxim, Glamour, InStyle, and Zooey Magazine. She has had several endorsement deals, one of which was with Ocean Pacific sportswear. Bush and her One Tree Hill co-stars were endorsers for MasterCard, Kmart, Chevy Cobalt and Cingular Wireless. She directed three episodes of the series, including the penultimate episode of the ninth and final season.
In July 2006, Bush co-starred in the 20th Century Fox comedy film John Tucker Must Die, directed by Betty Thomas, opposite Brittany Snow and Jesse Metcalfe. The film was a commercial success, grossing over $60 million worldwide. Also in 2006, she starred in Buena Vista Pictures' supernatural thriller Stay Alive alongside Jon Foster, Frankie Muniz, and Adam Goldberg. The film, the first to be released by Hollywood Pictures in five years, opened at number three in the U.S. box office. She played Grace Andrews in the 2007 remake of the classic horror film The Hitcher, starring opposite Sean Bean. In 2008, Bush co-starred alongside Kevin Zegers and Vincent D'Onofrio in François Velle's independent film The Narrows, playing Kathy Popovich. Based on Tim McLoughlin's novel Heart of the Old Country, the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2008. Three years later, she co-starred in the British romantic comedy film Chalet Girl, which was released in February 2011.
In February 2012, Bush was reported as having joined the cast of the upcoming CBS sitcom Partners. Premiering on September 24, 2012, the series ran for a single season until November, when it was announced that the series had been canceled after six episodes. The remaining seven episodes of the series' initial thirteen-episode order remain unaired in the United States, though they were later aired by various international outlets. In 2013, Bush starred in Passion Pit's "Carried Away" music video, which debuted on February 14. That same year, she was cast in a main role in the television pilot Hatfields & McCoys, but the project failed to be picked up to series.
Personal life
Bush was engaged to her One Tree Hill co-star Chad Michael Murray in May 2004, and they married on April 16, 2005, in Santa Monica, California. After five months of marriage, the pair announced their separation in September 2005. In February 2006, Bush filed papers for an annulment, citing fraud. Bush's petition was denied, and she and Murray were instead granted a divorce in December 2006. Bush later said that it "devastate[d]" her to "have been reduced to a Hollywood statistic—another joke marriage". In a January 2014 episode of Watch What Happens: Live, she described the pair as "two stupid kids who had no business being in a relationship in the first place".
From 2006 to 2007, Bush dated her Stay Alive co-star Jon Foster. They remained friends after splitting. From 2008 to 2009, Bush dated her One Tree Hill co-star James Lafferty. She also dated actor Austin Nichols, confirming in May 2010 that they had been dating on and off for four years. Nichols took the role of Julian Baker on One Tree Hill to be with Bush, who ended their relationship in 2012. From 2013 to 2014, Bush dated Dan Fredinburg, a program manager for Google. Bush cited the strains of their long-distance relationship as the cause of separation. She stayed friends with Fredinburg afterward, and noted that his death on Mount Everest in 2015 significantly impacted her.
From 2014 to 2016, Bush dated her Chicago P.D. co-star, actor Jesse Lee Soffer. In 2020, she began dating businessman Grant Hughes and in August 2021 announced their engagement via Instagram. They were married on June 11, 2022, at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma. On August 4, 2023, Bush filed for divorce after 13 months of marriage. In April 2024, Bush confirmed her relationship with former professional soccer player Ashlyn Harris and came out as queer in an article in Glamour that she wrote.
Activism
Bush is a part of fundraisers such as __ Cancer, Run for the Gulf, and Global Green Gulf Relief and has been involved in political issues including her support for Barack Obama's candidacy for president in the 2008 election. In February 2008, she made several appearances in Texas in support of the Obama campaign in the Democratic presidential primary election. Bush was joined in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Waco by fellow actor Adam Rodríguez. Touring mostly college campuses, they urged young voters to get involved politically.
In April 2009, along with stars Sarah Chalke, Jason Lewis, Alicia Silverstone, Jane Lynch, and Lance Bass, Bush appeared in the Funny or Die video "A Gaythering Storm", which parodied a National Organization for Marriage video objecting to same-sex marriage. Bush is a staunch supporter of gay rights and, in May 2009, she showed up at a rally in protest of Proposition 8. She carried a sign stating, "I DO support the freedom to marry", and a shirt which had the words "Legalize Gay" across it. In an interview in January 2012, Bush said about the 2012 Republican candidates: "I will not vote for a candidate who thinks you can 'pray away the gay,' I will not vote for a candidate who thinks that he has more rights to my uterus than I do, I will not vote for a candidate who thinks that it's okay to dump toxic waste in the ocean. I'm afraid for our country that people like this could even be thought of as the president. I live in a country where I believe all men are created equal, not just wealthy white guys. I believe all men, all women, regardless of race, gender, socioeconomic background, you deserve the same rights." In June 2016, the Human Rights Campaign released a video in tribute to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting; in the video, Bush and others told the stories of the people killed there.
Bush set up a fundraiser intended to help people living in the area of the Gulf of Mexico affected by the environmental disaster of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on April 20, 2010. The actress has visited Louisiana and testified in interviews of the horror she felt when she visited those places. The fundraiser is on the Internet through crowdsourcing website Crowdrise.com. The actress, to support the fundraiser, announced that she would be running a half marathon that following November, despite having asthma and a year-old knee injury. Bush has additionally teamed up with Do Something to raise more environmental awareness among teens. She was chosen as the spokesperson to endorse the launch of eMission, a Facebook game with the social mission to engage America's youth in fighting climate change created through the joint efforts of Do Something and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Energy Star program.
I Am a Voter
In 2018, Bush helped found a non-partisan movement with Mandana Dayani that aims to create a cultural shift around voting and civic engagement by unifying around a central truth: democracy works best when we all participate. I Am a Voter has partnered with Disney, NBA, NFL, McDonald's, Stuart Weitzman, and Bumble. Their campaign to boost voter registration included participants Debra Messing, Eric McCormack, Sean Hayes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert Downey Jr., Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, Bush, Hilarie Burton, and Bethany Joy Lenz. According to I Am a Voter, the effort generated over one billion digital impressions and 250 media articles upon launch.
Public image
Bush's appearance has often been the subject of media attention. She was ranked No. 3 on Femme Fatales: The 50 Sexiest Women of 2004 and named No. 15 on Much Music's 20 Hottest Women of 2004. In April 2007, she ranked No. 90 in the British popular men's magazine FHM, in their countdown of 100 Sexiest Women of 2007. Subsequently, she ranked No. 89 in the U.S. edition of the same magazine. In May 2007, Bush ranked No. 24 in the Maxim Hot 100 List of 2007. She also appeared on the cover of the November 2006 edition of Maxim with her One Tree Hill co-stars Hilarie Burton and Danneel Harris. She ranked No. 30 on Maxim's "Hot 100" of 2014 list. She was featured in People's "Beautiful at Every Age" and "Most Beautiful" lists for several years.
Bush has been featured in several fashion blogs and magazines including CosmoGirl, Health, Lucky, Zooey, Saturday Night, Teen People, and Bello.
