Birthday: August 10
Hails From: Laverne, CA

The Discovery: Initially, Carlson auditioned for Aaron Spelling, but not for SUNSET BEACH. "Just over a year ago, Aaron said, 'I just saw this girl, but she's too young.' I think it was for 90210. 'Will you see if you have something for her?' " remembers BEACH Executive Producer Gary Tomlin. "So we asked her to do Terror Island."

Did You Know? Amy and Brad weren't supposed to survive the tsunami. "I thought, 'We should have some people on the boat who we can kill.' Two were Brad and Amy," reveals Tomlin. "Then, everyone responded to them, so we upgraded them to contract."

Steam Heat: When Carlson taped a Jacuzzi scene with Randy Spelling (Sean), stagehands tossed ice in the tub to up the steam quotient. "A few days later, I was like, 'How did I burn myself without knowing it?' she recalls. "I went to Randy's house and he was like, 'I have the same [thing].' We said, 'It must've been from the hot tub.'"

In a sink-or-swim business, Krissy Carlson (Amy) knows all the strokes-though her sinister character can barely doggy paddle. "Amy and I are complete opposites," declares the former lifeguard. "I don't think we have a thing in common. Well, we look a lot alike, actually. People think we're twins." Or each other. "One girl was like, 'Oh my God. You know Ben and Meg?' " Carlson recalls with a laugh. "She said, 'Tell them I say, 'Hi.'"

Amy has undergone a transformation since her introduction, and Carlson couldn't be happier. "I am so glad that Amy is more of a troublemaker," the actress enthuses. "When I first came on the show, she was sweet and kind of boring. Now' she has all different dimensions to her. Sometimes, you like her. Sometimes, you don't like her. And that's cool ... she takes things to extremes."

But while BEACH's Emily would do well to steer clear of Amy--who has shown she's not above sending mischievous e-mails or introducing blindness to keep Emily and Sean apart--Cristi Ellen Harris (Emily) has nothing but compliments for Carlson. "I actually met Krissy before working with her when I went to a friend's birthday party at a club," remembers Harris. "We totally hit it off. She's such a sweetheart, and she was one of the only people I could pull onto the dance floor. From that moment on, we were friends. Then we were put on the show as rivals! Now when we work together, we actually giggle between takes, especially if one of us has to be bitchy. We'll just start laughing afterward because we are so not that way." Concurs Carlson, "It's hard to keep a straight face sometimes!"

Growing up in Laverne, a Los Angeles suburb, Carlson always wanted to perform--though she never considered acting. "I wanted to be a dancer or singer," she says. "That was my dream, really, dancing." Like co-star Lisa Guerrero Coles (Francesca), Carlson found that cheerleading was a great way to express herself, and she performed for California State Northridge and the Los Angeles Angels, all the while hoping to become an L.A. Laker Girl. An acting class redirected her. "{I didn't want to get off the stage," recalls Carlson. "Cheerleading was out the door and acting was in."

Her first acting role was a dancer on BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. I got my heart ripped out by the vampire," Carlson chuckles. (It was the first non-commercial audition she'd ever gone on, which probably made her actor friends want to rip her heart out!) That was followed by six months as a recurring character on BEACH; now she's on-contract.

The single Carlson shares an apartment in the Valley--a good 45 minutes from her parents' home -- with a high school pal. But her roommate's busy with a boyfriend, so Carlson is considering a new hobby: playing the drums. "The problem is, I can't put a drum set in my apartment. My neighbors would kill me!" she exclaims. "I just think it would be so fun to learn how to play. I really love music, and I want to learn how to play some kind of instrument. When you're angry, you can beat out all of your frustration."

Of course, when things get tough, you can also lose yourself in the world of the soaps. Carlson (who watched BEACH before being cast) grew up watching BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL with her mother. "I really liked GENERAL HOSPITAL," she says, though she hastens to add, "I can't watch it because it's on at the same time we're on [in L.A.], and now I like our show better, of course."