Early life

Strahovski was born in Werrington Downs, New South Wales, the daughter of Bożena and Piotr Strzechowski; her parents emigrated from Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland. Her father is an electronic engineer, and her mother is a lab technician. Strahovski began acting lessons at age 12 and spent her high school years attending Santa Sabina College, Strathfield. She graduated from University of Western Sydney's Theatre Nepean in 2003 and co-founded a small theater company.

Career

Strahovski started acting when she played Viola in a school production of Twelfth Night. She appeared in film and television roles in Australia, including a turn on satirical show Double the Fist and a part as Freya Lewis in the Australian drama series headLand. She has also appeared in Channel Nine's Sea Patrol.

She sent in her audition tape for the show Chuck while in the United States auditioning for roles in other shows, namely NBC's 2007 series Bionic Woman. She was contacted by the producers of Chuck the next day to come in and run lines with Zachary Levi. The producers called her back a week later letting her know she had been cast as Sarah Walker. Six months later, she moved to the United States. She adopted the more phonetic spelling of Strahovski as her stage name at this time, at producer Josh Schwartz's behest for the sake of easier pronunciation.

Strahovski speaks fluent Polish, and employed it in a brief exchange with a colleague in the Chuck episode "Chuck Versus the Wookiee" and again in the episodes "Chuck Versus the Three Words" and "Chuck Versus the Honeymooners". Although she portrays an American in the series, she briefly spoke in a "Hollywood" Australian accent in the episode "Chuck Versus the Ex".

Strahovski appears in Mass Effect Galaxy, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3 as the voice of Miranda Lawson. Strahovski had her face scanned and animated so she could portray Lawson in Mass Effect 2.

Strahovski voices Aya Brea in the English version of the Parasite Eve spinoff, The 3rd Birthday, which was released on March 2011 for the PlayStation Portable. She also appeared in a CollegeHumor sketch in April 2011, parodying the music styles of Katy Perry, Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, and Justin Bieber.

Strahovski appeared in the 2011 film Killer Elite, alongside Jason Statham, Clive Owen, and Robert De Niro. She also appeared in the 2012 comedy The Guilt Trip, opposite Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand.

In 2010, Strahovski received the Teen Choice Award for Choice Action TV Actress for Chuck, as well as a nomination for Spike Video Game Awards for Best Performance by a Human Female for Mass Effect 2. In 2011, Strahovski was nominated again for the Teen Choice Awards for Choice Action TV Actress. In 2011, Cosmopolitan Magazine (Australia) awarded Strahovski the Fun Fearless Female of the Year along with Favorite TV Actress.

In November 2011, she was cast as the female lead in I, Frankenstein (2014). In March 2012, she was featured in a new SoBe Life commercial. And in May 2012, Strahovski ranked #35 in Maxim Hot 100. In June 2012, Showtime announced Strahovski had joined the cast for the seventh season of Dexter in which she plays the role of Hannah McKay, a woman involved with an investigation following the death of her former lover, a spree killer whom she accompanied when she was a teenager. She reprised her role as Hannah McKay in the eighth season of Dexter.

In December 2012, she made her Broadway debut in a revival of Clifford Odets' Golden Boy, for which she won a Theatre World Award. Strahovski was honored along with Liam Hemsworth for their work in international roles with the 2012 Australians in Film Breakthrough Award.

In 2014, Strahovski joined Fox's TV series 24: Live Another Day cast as Kate Morgan, CIA agent. Later that year, she was cast as Rene Carpenter on ABC's Astronaut Wives Club.

She was featured in Maxim Hot 100 from 2009 to 2013.

Charity work

Strahovski is a supporter of PETA and appeared in an ad for their "Adopt, Don't Buy" campaign.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	Gone	Sondra
2008	Plex, TheThe Plex	Sarah
2009	Persons of Interest	Lara	Short film
2009	Canyon, TheThe Canyon	Lori
2010	I Love You Too	Alice
2010	Matching Jack	Veronica
2010	Lego: The Adventures of Clutch Powers	Peg Mooring	Voice
2011	Killer Elite	Anne
2012	Outback, TheThe Outback	Miranda	Voice
2012	The Guilt Trip	Jessica
2014	I, Frankenstein	Terra Wade
2016	Batman: Bad Blood	Kate Kane/Batwoman	Voice
2016	Manhattan Night	Caroline Crowley	Direct-to-VOD
2016	All I See Is You	Karen

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	Double the Fist	Suzie	Episode: "Fear Factory"
2005-2006	headLand	Freya Lewis	26 episodes
2007	Sea Patrol	Martina Royce	Episode: "Cometh the Hour"
2007-2012	Chuck	Sarah Walker	91 episodes Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Actress - Action TV Guide Award for Favorite Actress TV Guide Award for Favorite Couple Who Have Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Actress - Action
2012-2013	Dexter	Hannah McKay	17 episodes Saturn Award for Best Guest Starring Role on Television
2014	Louie	Blake	Episode: Season 4, Episode 2 "Model"
2014	24: Live Another Day	Kate Morgan	12 episodes
2015	The Astronaut Wives Club	Rene Carpenter	10 episodes
2015	Edge	Beth	Pilot

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009	Mass Effect Galaxy	Miranda Lawson	Voice
2010	Mass Effect 2	Miranda Lawson	Voice and likeness
2011	The 3rd Birthday	Aya Brea	Voice English dub
2012	Mass Effect 3	Miranda Lawson	Voice and likeness

Other appearances

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2011	Three Pop Stars, One Song	Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Ke$ha and Justin Bieber	Collegehumor YouTube video
2015	Princess Rap Battle	Daenerys Targaryen	YouTube video series; 1 episode

Further reading

• Bodey, Michael (2007-06-02). "Unknown Aussie lands TV lead in US". The Australian. Retrieved 2007-10-15.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]