Personal life

Van Straten was born in Racine, Wisconsin. During childhood, she played sports, rode horses, and fired shot guns. She graduated from The Prairie School in Racine. Van Straten studied fine arts at Washington University in St. Louis as well as in Boston and New York (Parsons The New School for Design) in her youth, but decided to become an actress and moved to Los Angeles, where she has been living since she began acting in 1994. She continues to draw and paint. Her works include commissioned portraits. Van Straten carries out conservation work to improve the treatment of animals. She lives with many rescued animals at her home in Los Angeles. She is of German descent.

Acting career

In 1995, van Straten had her first regular role in a television series, as Maggie Reynolds on The Crew. Other recurring roles include Geneva Renault in Total Security, Candy Cooper in That's Life, Rebecca Colfax in Dirty Sexy Money, and Belinda Slypich in Hidden Hills. Perhaps her best known film role was in Dancing at the Blue Iguana in 2000. Van Straten played a porn star appearing as the featured act at a Los Angeles strip club and performed an extended nude dance. In 2001, she starred in the award-winning short film Room 302, and in 2004 she had a minor role in the film 50 First Dates, which starred Adam Sandler. In the animated series Justice League, she supplied the voice of the superhero Mera.

She has also made a number of guest appearances in several television shows, including LA Law, Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, Dark Angel, Two and a Half Men, Star Trek: Enterprise, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Desperate Housewives, and George Lopez. She famously appeared in a Seinfeld episode (The Bizarro Jerry) as Gillian, Jerry's girlfriend with "man hands".

From 2008 to its conclusion in 2014, van Straten played the vampire Pamela Swynford De Beaufort on the HBO fantasy drama series True Blood. On December 8, 2009, TV Guide confirmed she had been promoted from recurring status to a series regular. In 2011, van Straten was cast in the fantasy television series Once Upon a Time as the evil fairy Maleficent (the wicked fairy godmother, using the name from Disney's Sleeping Beauty), the rival of the Evil Queen of Snow White.

Activism

In 2011, van Straten teamed with the Animal Legal Defense Fund in the fight to free Tony, a 10-year-old Siberian-Bengal tiger who has spent every day and night of the last decade at the Tiger Truck Stop in Grosse Tete, Louisiana. She has also worked with Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to promote cosmetics that are not tested on animals.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	Galaxis	Commander
1995	Glory Daze	Dina
1997	Romy and Michele's High School Reunion	Kelly
1998	My Little Havana	Carmen	Short film
2000	Dancing at the Blue Iguana	Nico
2001	Hollywood Palms	Kathleen
2001	Room 302	Karen	Short film
2004	50 First Dates	Female Firefighter
2004	Living with Lou	Jean	Short film
2005	Life of the Party	Caroline
2011	Subject: I Love You	Sarah Drake
2012	Gotten	Mother	Video short
2012	The Story of Luke	Cindy
2014	Teen Lust	Mary

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	L.A. Law	Miss English	Episode: "McKenzie, Brackman, Barnum & Bailey"
1994	Columbo	Suzie Endicott	Episode: "Undercover"
1994	Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman	Mrs. Loomis	Episode: "The Prankster"
1994	Silk Stalkings	Heather St. Clair	Episode: "Red Flag"
1995	Cybill	Kirsten	Episode: "The Curse of Zoey"
1995	Pointman	Ellie	Episodes: "That's Amore", "Father Connie" and "Business and Pleasure"
1995-96	The Crew	Maggie Reynolds	Main role (21 episodes)
1996	Seinfeld	Gillian	Episode: "The Bizarro Jerry"
1997	Everybody Loves Raymond	Lisa	Episode: "The Car"
1997	Men Behaving Badly	Robin	Episode: "I Am What I Am"
1997	Total Security	Geneva Renault	Main role (13 episodes)
1998	Fantasy Island	Tamara Stevens	Episode: "Estrogen"
1998	Chicago Hope	Melody Cacaci	Episode: "Viagra-Vated Assault"
2000	Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye	Katy Scott	TV film
2000	Dark Angel	Lydia Meyerson	Episode: "Pilot"
2000-01	That's Life	Candy Cooper	Recurring role (12 episodes)
2001	Dharma & Greg	Stephanie	Episode: "Dharma Does Dallas"
2001	Just Shoot Me!	Allie	Episodes: "At Long Last Allie" and "Finch in the Dogg House"
2001	Justice League	Mera / Various (voice)	Episode: "The Enemy Below: Parts 1 & 2"
2002	Boomtown	Prostitute	Episode: "Pilot"
2002	Hidden Hills	Belinda Slypich	Recurring role (10 episodes)
2003	Gary the Rat	Unknown (voice)	Episode: "Manrattan"
2003	Two and a Half Men	Laura	Episodes: "Pilot" and "Most Chicks Won't Eat Veal: Original Pilot"
2003	Justice League	Mera (voice)	Episode: "The Terror Beyond: Parts 1 & 2"
2004	Dr. Vegas	Portia	Episode: "Pilot"
2004	Commando Nanny	Lizzie Winter	TV series
2004	Quintuplets	Ms. Kilcoyne	Episode: "Teacher's Pet"
2004	Crossing Jordan	Molly Greene	Episode: "Fire in the Sky"
2005	Crazy	Unknown	TV film
2005	JAG	Megan Ransford	Episode: "Automatic for the People"
2005	Star Trek: Enterprise	Lt. Laneth	Episode: "Divergence"
2005	Less than Perfect	Kaye Buchinski	Episode: "Casey V. Kronsky"
2005	Close to Home	Shannon Cooke	Episode: "Suburban Prostitution"
2005	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Kenli Johnson	Episode: "Secrets & Flies"
2005	Boston Legal	Tori Pines	Episode: "The Ass Fat Jungle"
2006	Pink Collar	Eve	TV film
2006	Crossing Jordan	Molly Greene	Episode: "Death Toll"
2006	Desperate Housewives	Veronica	Episode: "Could I Leave You?"
2006	Cold Case	Paula '04/'06	Episode: "The War at Home"
2007	George Lopez	Cris Watson	Episode: "George Joins the Neighborhood Wha-tcha and Raises the Vigil-ante"
2007	Dirty Sexy Money	Rebecca Colfax	Episodes: "The Lions" and "The Italian Banker"
2007	Bones	Janelle Stinson	Episode: "Boy in the Time Capsule"
2008	Emily's Reasons Why Not	Bethany	Episode: "Why Not to Cheat on Your Best Friend"
2008-14	True Blood	Pamela Swynford De Beaufort	Recurring role, season 1-2; Main role, season 3-7 (59 episodes)
2009	House Rules	Kathy McAdams	TV film
2009	Private Practice	Susanna	Episode: "Pushing the Limits"
2009	Three Rivers	Val O'Leary	Episode: "Where We Lie"
2010	Justified	Shirley Kelso	Episode: "Riverbrook"
2010	A Drop of True Blood	Pamela Swynford De Beaufort	Episode: "Eric & Pam"
2010-13	The Secret Life of the American Teenager	Didi Stone	Recurring role (11 episodes)
2011	The Soup	Pam the Intern	Episode: "8.25"
2011-present	Once Upon a Time	Maleficent	Season 1 (2 episodes) and season 4 (8 episodes)
2013	Once Upon a Time in Wonderland	Maleficent (voice)	Episode: "Forget Me Not"

[ Source: Wikipedia ]