Sarah York ("Shelly") isn't actually the name she uses professionally now. That was a pseudonym created especially for the Evil Dead film. When she was first contacted about appearing in the film, she went by the name you'll find on all her other credits, Theresa Tilly. (Her name at birth was Theresa Mary Catherine Seyferth.)

Sam Raimi and friends found her by way of The Attic Theatre -- the off-off-off-Broadway venue of suburban Detroit. She says the reason she landed the role "was that I had partially chewed off my right hand before I got there. So, it was no problem to finish it off during the audition. They wanted me to also chew off my left hand, but then I wouldn't be able to drive, so, I said no."

She also performed nightly at the famed Roostertail Lounge in Detroit, as a back-up dancer for the Vegas singer Paul Lichricio and His Many Moods. (She was a "Mood.") She had been dating a magician and often assisted him with certain illusions, like The Sawed-in-Half Lady, so she figured scattering her body parts on the cabin floor for the movie would be a piece of cake.

It wasn't, of course. "The idea of being nailed into a floor with my head separated from my body by the floor and also not being able to see because of the 'Tupperware lid' lenses made it tortuous," she says. "Underneath the cabin was pretty scary. I didn't know if a rat or snake would come through and bite me. Did I mention it was freezing? I did feel better about it when Rob agreed to be my right leg and Bruce my left, I forget who my arm was. I was tempted to file a class action suit!"

But she survived, and went on to work the comedy clubs in the Midwest, studying improv at Second City in Chicago. While there, she landed the starring role in a TV pilot with Steve Allen. The show never got picked up but it motivated her to head for LA, where she continued her acting career while raising her family.

She has been heard as the promo voice for many primetime TV shows, including Temptation Island, Ally McBeal, Dark Angel, The Sopranos, and others, not to mention many TV commercials. Recently she appeared in Debutante, directed by Mollie Jones. She plays the mother of Selma Blair, whose love interest was Josh Hartnett. The movie won notoriety at the Los Angeles Film Festival and was aired on PBS.

She is featured in a soon-to-be-released film called Prototype, a science fiction adventure from a new Argentinian director, as well as To the End of the Night, an indie film directed by Bennett Graubner. She is also honored to have been the announcer for the 10th Annual Espy Awards, where Serena and Snoop Dog made a big fuss over her "lady-dom."

As for The Evil Dead, she says, "Who knew a dismemberment could be so much fun?"

For even more about Theresa, see her new website at Theresa Tilly.com.