Jessica Steen
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Jessica Steen (born December 19, 1965 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian movie and television actress, noted for her roles in Homefront, Earth 2, Armageddon, NCIS and CSI.
[edit] Biography
Of Dutch and Scottish ancestry.
At age 8, she was cast in her first role, alongside her actress mother, in the Canadian children's television series, The Sunrunners. Her father Jan Steen was at the time a film director and her mother, Joanna Noyes, is an acclaimed stage and voice actor; this parentage, unsurprisingly, led to Steen being bitten by the so-called "acting bug".
In 1986's TV movie Young Again she portrayed Tracy Gordon, the daughter of a character portrayed by Lindsay Wagner, who was coincidentally a childhood idol of Steen's.
In 1987, she was the only female regular on the syndicated series Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, which lasted one year, For her performance in the Captain Power episode, "Judgement", she was nominated for the Gemini Award in the "Best Performance by a Lead Actress in a Continuing Dramatic Role" category in 1988.
Residing in Toronto, she garnered roles on Canadian series and American made-for-TV movies until 1989, when she elected to move to New York.
A five-week stint in 1991 on the soap opera Loving, playing Patricia Alden Sowolsky Hartman McKenzie, led to her being cast in the ABC series Homefront. Set in a small Cleveland suburb, immediately after World War II, Homefront was critically acclaimed for its writing, ensemble cast, and historical insights. Steen's character, Linda Metcalf, epitomized the growing changes and tensions in post-war America. Metcalf's late fiance leaves her for a European war bride, and she loses her steady factory job to a returning serviceman; she then becomes a union organizer and working writer, at a time when women were discouraged from working outside the home.
In 1994, she won the "Best Actress" Gemini Award, Canada's Emmy, for her portrayal of Nora in the TV movie, Small Gifts, her self-proclaimed favorite role so far.
She became further well-known through her portrayal of Dr. Julia Heller, a genetically enhanced doctor, in the NBC science fiction series Earth 2. While the show was cancelled in 1995, the attention brought by the show allowed Steen to land guest appearances on other series, including The Outer Limits, ER, Murder One, The Pretender, The Practice, Monk and Touched by an Angel, to name a few.
In 1997, Jessica was cast as District Attorney Elizabeth Gardner in the movie Trial & Error, working with Jeff Daniels and Michael Richards, to whom she gave his first screen kiss. She prepared for the role with the help of a friend who was going through law school and watching the closing arguments of Marcia Clark during the O.J. Simpson trial. Her portrayal of a small town lawyer without resorting to cliches resulted in a rave review from Roger Ebert on his syndicated show.
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer himself recommended her for the role of the shuttle pilot in 1998's Armageddon because he fondly remembered her portrayal of Cpl. Jennifer 'Pilot' Chase in Captain Power And The Soldiers Of The Future.
Jessica also plays a recurring character in the CBS crime drama NCIS, that of Special Agent Paula Cassidy.
Outside of acting, Steen is an environmentalist and animal rights supporter. She supports David Suzuki, The World Society for the Protection of Animals and the Western Canadian Wilderness Committee, amongst others.
Jessica is a certified diver. She is also skilled at several circus arts - including stilt-walking and fire-twirling.
