Jessica Steen is a Canadian film and television actress, noted for her roles
in Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, Homefront, Earth 2, Armageddon,
Left Behind: World at War, NCIS, and Flashpoint.
Personal life Jessica Steen was born in Toronto,
Ontario, the daughter of Joanna Noyes, an actress, and Jan Steen, a director
and actor. She is of Dutch and Scottish ancestry.
Aside from her entertainment career, 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, among
others. She is a certified diver, and is skilled at several circus arts -
including stilt-walking, fire-twirling, and fire-eating.
Career At the age of eight, Steen was cast in
her first role in the Canadian children's television series, The
Sunrunners, co-starring with her mother. In the 1986 TV movie Young Again she
portrayed Tracy Gordon, the daughter of a character portrayed by Lindsay Wagner.
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, "Judgment", she was nominated for the Gemini Award
in the "Best Performance by a Lead Actress in a Continuing Dramatic Role"
category in 1988. In 1989, Steen broke onto the big screen with the movie
musical Sing. While in Toronto, she garnered roles on
Canadian series and American made-for-TV movies until 1991, when she elected to
move to New York City. Six weeks after arriving there, she was chosen to
replace an actress who was on maternity leave on the soap opera Loving. Her
portrayal of Patricia Alden Sowolsky Hartman McKenzie caught the attention of
ABC's casting department and led to her being cast in the 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.
The series lasted two seasons. In 1994, she was cast as Dr. Julia
Heller, a genetically enhanced doctor, in the NBC science fiction series Earth
2. While the show was canceled 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, Due South, and Touched by
an Angel. In 1994, she won the "Best Actress" Gemini Award, Canada's version
of Emmy Awards, for her portrayal of Nora in the TV movie, Small Gifts.
In 1997, she 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 by watching the closing arguments of Marcia
Clark during the O. J. Simpson trial. Her performance earned a rave review
from Roger Ebert on his syndicated show, Siskel & Ebert.
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer recommended her for the role of the shuttle pilot in
1998's Armageddon because he remembered her portrayal of Cpl. Jennifer 'Pilot'
Chase in Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future. In 2004 Steen played Dr.
Elizabeth Weir in "Lost City", the two-part finale of season 7 of Stargate
SG-1. In Stargate Atlantis the part was instead played by Torri Higginson. She
played lead roles in Slap Shot 2: Breaking the Ice and the Disney TV
movies Smart House and Principal Takes a Holiday.
She played Myra Teal in a 2002 episode of Monk. She played a recurring
character on the CBS crime drama NCIS, that of Special Agent Paula Cassidy,
from 2004-07. In the fall of 2007 she landed featured multi-episode roles on
two Canadian series, jPod and Heartland, both based on popular books of the same
names. In 2009, Steen appeared in six episodes
of the Canadian TV police drama Flashpoint as Strategic Response Unit
Specialist Donna Sabine, filling in for Julianna 'Jules' Callaghan, who was
shot. She is currently playing the same character during a 2011 episode where
she gets married and her husband is shot the same day. She reprised the role in
the final episode of the third season. In the fall of 2010 she was nominated
for a Gemini Award for the season two episodes.
She also played Sheriff's Deputy Kathleen Hudak in the Supernatural
season 1 episode "The Benders". Steen is currently filming her ninth
season of CBC's Heartland as Lisa Stillman, the wife of series patriarch,
Jack Bartlett. Filmography
References External links
Official website Jessica Steen at the Internet Movie
Database