Tech. "I was really good with spatial orientations and math. I was interested in the arts as well and I was a dancer." She studied ballet at Tech, but did not get involved in DramaTech. "Doing theater is extremely time-consuming — all of the rehearsals — and I was already taking dance classes regularly. Tech is a difficult school," says Blake, who did a stint as a speechwriter for Georgia Gov. George Busbee after graduation. The name change and a career in entertainment came immediately after her reign as Miss Georgia. "I started hosting segments on 'Weekend Magazine' on the CBS affiliate in Atlanta," she says. But before her first segment aired, she says she was told "to get a different name. I thought Megan Blake was a solid name." Under her new persona, Blake got an Atlanta agent and at her first audition, she was cast as the girlfriend in the 1985 film "Invasion U.S.A." starring Chuck Norris.
"For the first audition, it was fantastic," she says. "My character is the one who discovers the bomb that Chuck Norris is looking for."
Film Festival in Tampa, Fla., and she co-wrote with the late producer Jay Bernstein "The Starmaker: The Secrets to Success in Hollywood."
She moved to Los Angeles to study acting and got a role in "Days of Our Lives," playing Hillary, secretary to Marlena (Deidre Hall), a character who becomes possessed by the devil. She also landed a role in "General Hospital" as Lillian, a flirtatious nurse.
Blake also appears in a soon-to-be released mockumentary "The Ballet Putzenskia." She plays a pushy ballet company publicist in the parody. "Everything is so serious it is way over the top," Blake says.
Blake's career grew to include substantial roles acting opposite Elizabeth Taylor, Mark Harmon, Randy Quaid, David Carradine, Suzanne Somers and Brooke Shields. She appears with Will Ferrell in "Talladega Nights" and has had roles in episodes of such hit TV shows as "Baywatch Nights," "Suddenly Susan," "Step by Step" and "Dawson's Creek." Blake, who appeared with Taylor in the television version of Tennessee Williams' "Sweet Bird of Youth," says the screen legend was "wonderful" to work with. "It was awe-inspiring. She is quiet and keeps to herself. You notice funny things when you meet someone that famous. She has tiny, petite feet. I thought, 'My goodness, her feet are so small."' Blake lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Kim Swartz, an entertainment attorney. She produced and starred in the independent film "The Cross," winner of the Audience Appreciation Award at the 2002 Tampa Bay
She is slated to star in a science fiction movie, "Eyeborgs," scheduled to begin filming this spring. "I play a television reporter who saves the world," Blake says. She has maintained ties with her hometown and last year she and her husband spoke at the Jacksonville Film Festival. It was there she linked up with Jacksonville's Emmy Award-winning PineRidge Film and Television Co, She is a co-host, contributing writer and producer on the "Animal Attractions" series that focuses on the relationship between people and their pets. "I love animals. I've had dogs and cats my whole life, so it was a natural fit," says Blake, who has six animals now, all of which she rescued, including a purebred Arabian horse she saved from slaughter 13 years ago. "I rescued a 3-year-old Arabian horse that had been so abused that he was dangerous," she says. "His growth was stunted. They couldn't keep him and
Megan Blake, aka Tammy Fulwider when she attended Tech, with Will Ferrell (far left) and (above, from left) John C. Re illy on the set of "Talladega Nights," Christina Ricci on the set of "The Opposite of Sex" and David Carradine in "The Puzzle in the Air."
they couldn't sell him, so a horse trader —- which meant slaughter — was coming to get him. So I took him. "He's right here in my Malibu backyard," she says. "He's wonderful. He's gorgeous. I named him Starfire. We've done endurance racing. "Horses are beautiful, poetic, sensitive animals," she says, adding that some people who don't know how to care for horses manhandle them. Blake also has a miniature horse as a companion to the Arabian because horses are herd animals. Her other animals consist of two dogs — a white mixed Lab amputee named Spirit and a border collie called Guardian — and two cats. One of the cats, Tout Suite, appears as "the travel kitty" on "Animal Attractions." It's aptly named. Blake says the cat has logged more than 60,000 miles with her. Blake says her career has allowed her to put her psychology degree to good use. "I've had the engineering aptitude with all of the math, and I've had the artistic interest," Blake says. "I guess I'm using both sides of my brain." G T
Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Spring 2007
41