Former child star Anna Chlumsky was inspired to return to acting by a psychic.

The actress, who appeared alongside a young MACaulay Culkin in My Girl, took a hiatus from her career in 1999 to attend the University of Chicago in Illinois.

After graduating in 2002, she worked as an editorial assistant for a HarperCollins science fiction-fantasy imprint, but a chance meeting with a fortune teller in New York helped guide her back to Hollywood.

She says, "I was still really sad, and not knowing why and, like, crying on my lunch break. We know now that it was because I needed to pursue acting again, but at the time I was like, 'I don't know what's wrong with me'.

"I was walking back to work and there was a psychic who actually ended up recognising me... and she said, 'You still want to be in the business and you're not done', and I paid for her to read my palm on my lunch break. I was just so mad that I paid that money for things that I could have answered myself, but, through a bunch of self analysis that evening, I was like, 'I really need answers and I think this is the answer'."

Chlumsky is now a series regular on Tv comedy Veep.