Kristin Bauer and husband Abri van Straten

As Pam, the vampire co-owner of Bon Temps’ Fangtasia bar on HBO’s "True Blood," Kristin Bauer is hell on high heels. But when she kicks off her sky-high pumps and peels off the false lashes, her Wisconsin roots come shining through.

Bauer, who says she was somewhat typecast throughout her acting career as either sitcom girlfriends or tragic hookers, is relishing her role as Pam, the golden goddess of bloodsucking glam.

"God, I love her," Bauer says. "This season, she’s going through a lot … she’s tough, she’s funny and she does have a vulnerable side when it comes to her maker (the powerful Nordic vampire Eric Northman, played by Alexander Skarsgard) and she does get to physically fight. It’s a really deep character."

Complex characters are the signature of "True Blood’s" creator and executive producer, Alan Ball, who was also the creative force behind HBO’s critically acclaimed series, "Six Feet Under." The characters in "True Blood," Bauer says, "have contradictions and dichotomies just like people in real life. Nothing is a cliché, ever."

Because "True Blood" airs on HBO, and not on commercial television, Bauer says its writers are given the freedom to develop characters and create plot lines that arc over the entire season. "I realize that networks just can’t afford to do that, probably, but HBO does things very differently. They ask more of themselves and also know the audience will appreciate it more," she says. "It’s respectful and more fun for everybody all around."

Bauer says the time allotted to shoot each episode allows each person to bring depth to their work, both on- and off-camera. Costumer designer Audrey Fisher, for example, "builds" every one of Pam’s vampy styles with meticulous attention to detail. It’s not unusual, Bauer says, to have five fittings for just one outfit.

"I can’t even believe how lucky I am," she says. "Every episode, every script, every day on the set I feel like that."

Fans are responding with true devotion: "The following of the show is huge, so I try to actually remember to shower before I leave the house."

Bauer landed the role of Pam through an audition, one of many she has had throughout her acting career. The audition process, she says, allows an actress about four minutes to land a part. Her resume includes a litany of guest star gigs on some of television’s most popular sitcoms, including her comedy classic portrayal of "Man Hands" on "Seinfeld." In that episode, Bauer was cast as Jerry Seinfeld’s girlfriend, who was afflicted with a pair of masculine hands, making Seinfeld recoil in horror.

"That’s one of my claims to fame," she says, "That show is so, so brilliant."

She played George Segal’s wife, Allie, on "Just Shoot Me," and Ray Romano’s high school girlfriend on "Everybody Loves Raymond." She also appeared in the pilot of "Two and a Half Men" as Charlie Sheen’s love interest.

"(Sheen) was so sweet and so lovely and so sober when I knew him,"Bauer says.

She started her show business career doing makeup and odd jobs for a number of Hollywood productions, "and somehow, I can’t even remember, I ended up in front of the camera." She took acting classes, got herself an agent and "worked really hard" to stay there.

But Bauer did not start out to be an actress. Growing up in Racine as the youngest of four children, she remembers childhood days filled with horses and dogs and the freedom to explore her world.

"I felt like I came in the front door from school and ran out the back door," she recalls. "My mom had a huge school bell on a post out in the back and she’d ring it when it was time for dinner, and I could hear it from all over the neighborhood. We had dinner together at the same time every night, and that was lovely."

Bauer says she chose to go to art school by process of elimination, because she just wasn’t interested in anything else. She attended Parsons School for Design, Washington University in St. Louis and went on to a fine arts school in Boston.

"I ended up in L.A. because I was sick of the rain on the East Coast, and now, ironically, I miss it," she says. Once in Los Angeles, she adds, "it’s almost impossible to avoid the business."

Acting consumed almost all of her focus for 17 years, but at some point, Bauer says, she picked up her sketch pad and returned to her first love. She paints realistic still lifes and portraits in oils. Art, she says, brings balance to her life.

"It’s almost a meditation, because it’s completely solo," she says. "Acting is a wonderful collaboration, but with painting, you’re on your own. There’s no time for me when I’m painting. I can look up and four hours have gone by and it felt like maybe an hour. It’s very Zen for me, very calming."

In August 2009, Bauer married South African singer/songwriter Abri van Straten, former member of the Lemmings, after a technology-aided romance. She first heard his voice on a CD borrowed from a friend, listened to his recordings on iTunes "way too many times" and decided to look him up on the Internet: "So I saw what he looked like and I thought, ‘Holey Moley, I’m tracking that down.’" She sent him an e-mail on MySpace asking him out and, since his band was in Los Angeles on tour, van Straten was available.

The couple enjoyed a down-to-earth, Wisconsin-themed wedding ceremony.

"Our wedding meal was corn-on-the-cob, beans and brats, pie and beer," Bauer recalls. "We didn’t have anything fru-fru."

They returned to Wisconsin in April to participate in the Grand Slam Charity Jam at Potawatomi Casino. Her fame, Bauer says, allows her to support the charities close to her heart, including animal rescue organizations and environmental causes.

"All a celebrity can do is show up and wave your arms and say, ‘Look over here, look what’s happening.’ It gives me such a great outlet to help the true heroes who work on this stuff 70 hours a week," she says.

Bauer and van Straten share their home with two rescue dogs, a Rottweiler mix named Asher and a Labrador mix named Ozmond, and two rescue kittens, Samuel and Abigail.

Bauer says she hopes to be an actress for the rest of her life, with a parallel career as a fine artist. At the moment, she is working on a series of still life paintings in anticipation of a gallery show. She is also writing a book, which she describes as "funny fiction."

"And who knows if I’m going to finish it and it’ll be readable, but I’m going to try. Being an actor, being a painter, being a writer, it all sounds very romantic," she says. "But it’s all baby steps, so I’m trying to be good about those baby steps."

Baby steps, maybe, but who else but Bauer could turn a baby step into a giant leap wearing strappy red satin stilettos?

To view Kristin Bauer’s paintings, visit her website at kristinbauer.com. m