Early life

Morrison was born in Chicago and raised in Arlington Heights, Illinois. She is the oldest of three children with a sister, Julia, who is a singer-songwriter and music therapist, and a brother, Daniel, who is a high school band director. Her father, David L. Morrison, is a retired music teacher who was named teacher of the year by the Illinois State Board of Education in 2003. Morrison's mother, Judy, is also a retired music teacher.

Morrison attended South Middle School then graduated from Prospect High School in 1997 where her parents worked. Morrison was friends with writer Ian Brennan. She was an All-State clarinet player in the school's marching band, sang in the choir and was a cheerleader in the school pep squad. She attended Loyola University Chicago where she majored in Theatre and minored in English, graduating in 2000. She studied at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film and television.

Career

Morrison started her career as a child model, appearing in print advertisements for JCPenney and Montgomery Ward and commercials for Rice Krispies and Mondo. In May 1992, she was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated for Kids with basketball star Michael Jordan.

She made her feature film debut at the age of fourteen as the daughter of Richard Gere and Sharon Stone in the 1994 film Intersection, and later appeared as Samantha in A Stir of Echoes with Kevin Bacon in 1999. Her first leading role came in the 2000 film Urban Legends: Final Cut, and she has since gone on to appear in films including Grind with Adam Brody, Surviving Christmas with Ben Affleck and James Gandolfini, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in 2003, 2004 and 2005, respectively.

She has worked on several hit television series, including Touched by an Angel, Dawson's Creek and Once Upon a Time.

In 2004, Morrison won the role of immunologist Dr. Allison Cameron on House in a team consisting of her, Dr. Robert Chase, an intensivist, played by Australian actor Jesse Spencer, Dr. Eric Foreman, a neurologist, played by Omar Epps and Dr. Gregory House, a board-certified diagnostician with a double specialty in infectious disease and nephrology, played by English actor Hugh Laurie. She played this role for the whole duration of the series, from 2004 to 2012. Morrison's character left in 2009 in an episode called Teamwork, but returned in the 2010 episode Lockdown. Cameron's story concluded at this point. Morrison returned alongside fellow actors Sela Ward, Kal Penn, Olivia Wilde, Amber Tamblyn and Anne Dudek for the series finale Everybody Dies in 2012.

In 2006, she starred in and produced the independent film Flourish. Morrison is also one of the producers that found Glee during its early draft and brought it to attention of writer Ryan Murphy, who with Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, adapted it into a television series. Morrison did not stay involved creatively, but is credited as an associated producer on the first season for her involvement in finding it and helping it get into the right hands.

In 2007, Morrison appeared as Kirce James in the computer game Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, a character who frequently interacts with the player during the course of the GDI campaign.

Her film projects that year included Big Stan alongside Rob Schneider, and The Murder of Princess Diana, a television movie based on the book of the same name by Noel Botham. Produced by Lifetime and Working Title Television, Morrison portrays an American journalist, Rachel, who witnesses the car crash which took the life of Diana, Princess of Wales.

In 2009, Morrison returned to the big screen, appearing in the opening scene of J. J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot as James T. Kirk's mother, Winona. After her contract on House was not renewed, it was announced on December 13, 2009, that Morrison had won the role of Kate Keller, Helen Keller's mother, in the Broadway-bound revival of The Miracle Worker.

In the fall of 2010, Morrison appeared as a guest-star in the fourth episode of NBC's Chase. She played the role of Faith, a single mother-turned-fugitive, who embarks on a bloody killing spree across Texas with her daughter in tow. She then joined the cast of CBS's How I Met Your Mother as recurring character Zoey Pierson, a mischievous architecture nerd and love interest of main character Ted Mosby, and "the biggest female character we've maybe ever added to the show in Ted's life", according to executive producer Craig Thomas.

In 2011, Morrison co-starred alongside Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy and Nick Nolte in Warrior, a film about two estranged brothers who enter a mixed martial arts tournament and are forced to confront their struggling relationship with each other and with their father. Morrison plays the wife of Edgerton's character, struggling to keep her family together.

Since October 2011, Morrison has had a starring role in ABC's Once Upon a Time. She plays the role of Emma Swan, a bail bonds collector who turns out to be the missing daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming.

In April 2016, Morrison launched her own film production company, Apartment 3C Productions, named after the apartment she shared with her friends during her time at Loyola. She will direct her first feature film, Sun Dogs, under this label during the summer of 2016.

Personal life

Morrison started dating her House co-star Jesse Spencer in July 2004. Spencer proposed to Morrison on December 23, 2006, at the Eiffel Tower and the two had planned to marry later in 2007. In August 2007 Morrison and Spencer called off their engagement. Morrison dated actor Amaury Nolasco from 2008 to 2011. Morrison dated her Once Upon a Time co-star Sebastian Stan from May 2012 to August 2013.

Filmography

Film

As actress

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Intersection	Meaghan Eastman
1994	Miracle on 34th Street	Denice
1999	Stir of Echoes	Samantha Kozac
2000	Urban Legends: Final Cut	Amy Mayfield
2001	Zeros, TheThe Zeros	Joyce
2002	Design	Sonya Mallow
2002	Big Shot: Confessions of a Campus Bookie	Callie
2002	Nantucket	Alicia
2002	100 Women	Annie
2003	Grind	Jamie
2004	Mall Cop	Chris
2004	Sure Hand of God, TheThe Sure Hand of God	Lily Bowser
2004	Surviving Christmas	Missy Vanglider
2004	Lift	Sarah	Short film
2005	Mr. & Mrs. Smith	Jade
2006	The Script	Christie	Short film
2006	Flourish	Gabrielle Winters	Also producer
2007	The Murder of Princess Diana	Rachel Visco	Nominated—OFTA Television Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture or Miniseries (2007)
2007	Big Stan	Mindy
2009	Star Trek	Winona Kirk	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Ensemble by a Cast (2009) Denver Film Critics Society for Best Acting Ensemble (2009)
2009	Table for Three	Leslie Green
2011	Bringing Ashley Home	Ashley Phillips	PRISM Award for Performance in a TV Movie or Miniseries (2012)
2011	Warrior	Tess Conlon
2012	Stars in Shorts	Agent Rachel Mintz	Segment: "Prodigal"
2012	Knife Fight	Angela
2012	Some Girl(s)	Sam
2013	Alpha Alert	Lt. White	Originally titled Event 15
2014	The List	Katherine Stern
2015	To Dust Return	Sharon Reynolds	Short film; World premiere at San Diego Comic-Con 2015
2015	Mattresside	Angelica	Short film; in post-production
2016	The Darkness	Joy Carter	Post-production
2016	Albion: The Enchanted Stallion	The Abbess

As director

Year	Title	Notes
2015	Warning Labels	Short film Nominated—Tribeca Film Festival for Best Narrative Short (2015)

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	The Chronicle	Gwen	Episode: "Let Sleeping Dogs Fry"
2001	Touched by an Angel	Melissa	Episode: "Most Likely to Succeed"
2001-02	Dawson's Creek	Melanie Shay Thompson	2 episodes
2002	Any Day Now	Mandy Singer	Episode: "In Too Deep"
2002	The Random Years	Megan	Episode: "Pilot"
2004-10, 12	House	Dr. Allison Cameron	130 episodes Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (2009)
2009	Super Hero Squad Show, TheThe Super Hero Squad Show	Wasp	3 episodes; voice
2010	Chase	Faith Maples	Episode: "Paranoia"
2011	Five	Sheila	Segment: "Charlotte"
2010-11, 2014	How I Met Your Mother	Zoey Pierson	Season 6 (recurring; 12 episodes) Season 9 (guest; 1 episode)
2011-present	Once Upon a Time	Emma Swan	Lead role Nominated—People's Choice Award for Favorite On-Screen Chemistry (with Colin O'Donoghue) (2014) Nominated—Kids' Choice Award for Favorite TV Actress (2015) Nominated—People's Choice Award for Favorite Fantasy/Sci-Fi TV Actress (2015) Nominated—Teen Choice Awards for Choice TV Actress: Fantasy/Sci-Fi (2015) Nominated—Teen Choice Awards for Choice TV: Liplock (with Colin O'Donoghue) (2015) Nominated—Peoples Choice Award for Favorite Fantasy/Sci-Fi TV Actress (2016) Nominated—Kids' Choice Award for Favorite TV Actress (2016)

Music videos

Year	Title	Artist	Notes
2002	"Too Bad About Your Girl"	The Donnas
2003	"Shut Up"	Nick Lachey
2005	"Dark Blue"	Jack's Mannequin
2015	"What I Want"	Will Butler
2015	"Demon Days (Do It All Again)"	Wild Wild Horses	Also director

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars	Kirce James

[ Source: Wikipedia ]