What The Cast Of Coyote Ugly Looks Like Today

More than 25 years later, cult classic 2000s dramedy "Coyote Ugly" has remained a beloved staple in pop culture for legions of fans. Although some actors like January Jones missed the mark on big auditions for the film, the stars of the song-studded film have gone on to have widespread careers, from dazzling audiences on the big screen to focusing on activism when they're not on set. Some have taken to their musical theatre roots, while others have focused on their families rather than the spotlight. Together, the cast created an unforgettable film beloved by many. And, to that many's delight, reports of a potential "Coyote Ugly" sequel began circulating in 2025. "There's a lot of cooks in the kitchen right now, but things are moving around," star Piper Perabo told The Hollywood Reporter that year. "... I will say that people that were integral to making it are in communication about how to do something more."

We know the cast of "Yellowstone" is even more stunning in real life, but star Piper Perabo has been captivating audiences since her breakout role as aspiring songstress Violet Sanford in "Coyote Ugly." The actor's follow-up to the 2000 hit was as the oldest sister, Nora Baker, in the 2003 remake of "Cheaper by the Dozen," but over the years, Perabo has found continued fame on television. Many of her roles have focused on strong-willed women, something that Perabo says she actively seeks out. "I'm always drawn to female heroes and they don't come up that often a lot of times," she shared in an interview with The Passionistas Project.

For five seasons, she starred as CIA agent Annie Walker on the USA series "Covert Affairs" opposite Christopher Gorham and Peter Gallagher. Her work on the show garnered her an Emmy nomination in 2010 for Best Actress – Television Series, Drama. She continued her TV work with recurring roles in shows including the Matthew Perry-starring sitcom "Go On" and the supernatural horror series "Penny Dreadful: City of Angels." In 2021, the actor joined the cast of the popular Paramount series "Yellowstone" as environmental activist Summer Higgins, who goes toe-to-toe with Kevin Costner's John Dutton.

After starring as love interest Kevin O'Donnell in "Coyote Ugly," Adam Garcia found work primarily as a musical theatre performer. He became one of the first actors to originate the role of Fiyero in "Wicked," starring in the West End production opposite original Elphaba Idina Menzel, from 2006 to 2007. Other major roles he's played over the years include leads in shows like "Kiss Me, Kate" and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang." His background in dancing paid off. He's been a judge on the Australian version of "Dancing with the Stars," and competed on the UK's "The Masked Dancer,", where he ultimately placed second. "I've always really enjoyed and been fascinated by creating characters and stories and perhaps that's what translates for an audience, that passion and interest," he shared with Revamp Magazine in 2025.

Aside from his stage work, he has made several other notable TV and film appearances post "Coyote Ugly," including "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" and "Death on the Nile." But most important to him, Garcia has even made time to be a family man, and welcomed two children with his wife Nathalia Chubin – something he says is his most important role. "I'm totally dedicated to her and to my family, and that's the most important thing for me," he told Bang Showbiz (Yahoo! News). "I wake up as a husband and as a father, I don't wake up as an actor."

Maria Bello made waves as bar owner Lil in "Coyote Ugly" before going on to ride a rollercoaster of a career in Hollywood. Embracing the opposite trajectory of co-star Piper Perabo, Bello started out in television before pivoting to film in the late 1990s. After "Coyote Ugly," she starred in films including "A History of Violence" and "The Jane Austen Book Club." Not all of those films were winners – she did end up replacing the original star, Rachel Weisz, in the widely panned "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor." When she returned to TV, it was in a major role as Jacqueline "Jack" Sloane on "NCIS." She starred in the series opposite Mark Harmon for a total of 73 episodes.

The moment that changed everything for the "NCIS" star occurred in 2013 when she penned a piece for The New York Times that detailed her coming out and how she lived with a blended family of her, her ex-boyfriend, their child, and Bello's then-girlfriend. While her love life has continued to experience ups and downs — she filed for divorce from Dominique Crenn after one year in 2025 — she holds onto as many positives as she can for the good of her family. "It's so complicated for a family to shift around and the truth is, life is fluid, relationships are fluid, they are not static," she shared with NPR's "Fresh Air." "I'm not saying it's easy for us ... We communicate as much as we can."

As bubbly bartender Cammie, Polish actor Izabella Miko became a fan favorite in "Coyote Ugly." Following the film's release, she continued to appear in movies, shows, and music videos, including two from rock band The Killers, "Mr. Brightside" and "Miss Atomic Bomb." The former ballerina also stepped into the dancing shoes of Julia Styles in the sequel to another 2000s gem, "Save the Last Dance." She has continued to tap into her movement roots in film and on television, including "Step Up: All In" and the South Korean dance film "Make Your Move." But no matter the role, Miko is determined to continue challenging herself. "I had to be very smart because I didn't want to be put in a box of the dumb blonde," she explained on "The Big Deal." "I did not want to do a lot of the same roles. So I was choosing, but I knew I still had to gain experience and learn the craft."

Now we know what Miko looks like today, which is almost exactly the same! The blonde beauty has aged gracefully as she's pivoted her career to include environmental rights. She started her own nonprofit foundation, EkoMiko, and helped share information about green living and lifestyle. "A big part of it is making people aware so they can be conscious about their choices, so they know to look at how something is packaged, where it came from, and where it's going to end up," she explained to Vegetarian Times.

The downfall and comeback of Tyra Banks is well-documented, but prior to that, the former Victoria's Secret model starred as bartender Zoe in "Coyote Ugly." Later, the entertainer added many roles to her resume — and not all were on screen! Under her own production company, she produced and hosted both "America's Next Top Model" and "The Tyra Banks Show," both of which became iconic series within the pop culture zeitgeist of the 2000s and 2010s. She's also written a novel, started her own beauty company, taught a personal branding course at Stanford University, and even launched her own ice cream product. Her entrepreneurial nature is something she takes seriously and leans on when she looks to her future. "I want to be a really strong leader,” she once told Glamour. "I look at Walt Disney, Oprah, Richard Branson, and how they lead a team, how they inspire a team, because you can't do it by yourself."

But not all of her ventures have come without controversy. There are many moments from "America's Next Top Model" that no one will forget, many of which have been revealed as insensitive in assault allegations from behind the scenes. Banks herself has addressed the controversy by keeping things real. "We fought and we struggled and we made it happen," she said of the show during the 2025 ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Awards (via E! Online). "Did we get it right? Hell no. I said some dumb [expletive]."

Bridget Moynahan, former model and sister of fellow actor Michelle Moynahan, portrayed bartender Rachel in "Coyote Ugly," marking her first major film appearance. After the film's success, the brunette beauty appeared in several high-profile films with A-list co-stars during the 2000s, including "The Sum of All Fears" opposite Ben Affleck, "I, Robot" opposite Will Smith, and "The Recruit" opposite Colin Farrell and Al Pacino. She also made a memorable appearance in both "John Wick" and "John Wick 2" as the title character's beloved wife.

By the 2010s, Moynahan was a mom (she shares son Jack with legendary NFL quarterback Tom Brady) and made the switch to television. She starred as Erin Reagan in the CBS drama series "Blue Bloods" alongside Tom Selleck and Donnie Wahlberg from 2010 through 2024. She even saw her first television role, as Big's wife, Natasha, on "SATC," come back to life through a cameo in the series spin-off "And Just Like That." Whether she's starring on the big screen or small, the actor is glad that the industry has expanded in a positive way. "When I got into the business, it was very separated," she told Glamour. "If you were doing movies, you didn't really do TV. And vice-versa. It was just kind of like everybody had their space. Now there's no judgment about going from one medium to another. That fluidity has really opened the doors for a lot of people."

Before she made waves as Shauna on buzzy Showtime series "Yellowjackets," Melanie Lynskey was a supporting character staple in the 2000s. After appearing in "Coyote Ugly" as Violet's friend Gloria, Lynskey starred alongside Reese Witherspoon in "Sweet Home Alabama" and opposite Charlie Sheen in the series "Two and a Half Men." Throughout her career, the actor has balanced both film and television work simultaneously. Her roles in films like "Up In The Air," "The Informant," and "Leaves of Grass" received critical acclaim.

She finally made the leap to leading roles in the 2010s, with many of those roles returning to television. From HBO's "Togetherness" to Hulu's "Candy," she cemented herself. But her performance in "Yellowjackets" as a housewife with dark secrets is what earned her multiple Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in 2022 and 2023. Around the same time, she earned another Emmy nomination, this time as Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series, for her role as Kathleen Coghlan in "The Last of Us."

Aside from her work, Lynskey became a wife (to fellow actor Jason Ritter) and a mom while her career continued to flourish. While she says she continues to struggle to find balance between work and life (don't we all?), she still has admiration for her chosen career path. "To me, [being a character actor is] an interesting career; somebody who's just changing it up and doing a lot of different things," she shared with "Shut Up Evan."

Legendary actor John Goodman was already famous before his role as father figure Bill in "Coyote Ugly." His career continued to flourish in both film and television. His career is among the most varied in Hollywood; from creating unforgettable characters in animated classics "The Emperor's New Groove" and "Monsters Inc.," to balancing dramatic roles in "The West Wing" and "Inside Llewyn Davis," he's inhabited a seemingly limitless spectrum of characters over the years. He's even tried his hand at horror in "10 Cloverfield Lane," and historical dramas in "Argo" and "Trumbo."

But what he is most known for, arguably, is his comedy chops. A member of the "Saturday Night Live" Five Timers Club, an honor reserved for those who have hosted the show five times or more, his roles in shows like "The Righteous Gemstones" have reinforced his stance as a comedy king. He returned to those same comedy roots for seven seasons in the 2018 series "The Conners." The show is a spin-off of the classic 90's sitcom "Roseanne," where he portrayed family patriarch Jim Conner. Though Goodman has been nominated for countless awards for his work, he still maintains that getting to do the job he has is the real reward. "​​We just plug along and feed the machine, and we're lucky we get to do something that we love for a living," he told The Hollywood Reporter.

Though she had a brief cameo as herself at the end of "Coyote Ugly," LeAnn Rimes is best known for singing the film's de facto theme song, "Can't Fight the Moonlight." Rhymes was already a Grammy Award-winning artist when she got on the bar with the other Coyotes to sing the dance-pop anthem, but afterwards, her career didn't experience as big of a rise as many would have thought.

While she continued to release music after splitting with her original record label, she failed to produce hits at the level she did during the 1990s. Simultaneously, she began investing more and more in her acting career. In 2009, she starred in the Lifetime movie "Northern Lights" based on Nora Roberts' 2004 novel of the same name. While on set, she and co-star Eddie Cibrian began an affair that later catapulted their names across tabloids. Both entertainers were married to other people at the time, and despite their whirlwind attraction, each filed for divorce and ended up getting married a few years later. Almost fifteen years later, Rimes has reflected on the history of her romance with Cibrian, but underscores that despite the mistakes made, she needed to focus on her own happiness. "I've been on both sides of that coin — I've been cheated on, too, so I know that feeling," she revealed in an interview with Flow Space. "I was a target that was just easily projected upon. And once I realized that, things got a lot easier."