Natasha Henstridge

Born in Springdale, Newfoundland, Natasha Henstridge actually spent most of her youth in Fort McMurray, Alberta, in western Canada. A natural beauty, it was only a matter of time before she realized that people would pay her to have her photo taken.

At the age of 14 Natasha Henstridge left home to begin her modeling career in the highly-competitive Paris fashion world. She landed her first cover on French Cosmopolitan when she was only 15 and has since graced the covers of many international fashion magazines. She also appeared in commercials for such products as Lady Stetson, Oil of Olay, H&M and Old Spice.

However, she found the work boring and wanted to be challenged creatively. "I think the acting bug hit when I was a kid, and then I got caught in this model thing. Which was great for me, but you lose a lot of your character because it's all about your look." Like many models before her, she decided to give acting a try.

Henstridge's first film Species was a rather silly movie which capitalized on her looks. But the sci-fi thriller was a big hit at the box office as flocks of B-movie fans rushed to the theater to watch Henstridge play a seductive alien named Sil with the desperate desire to mate and kill.

Her second film was a disappointment for Henstridge. Maximum Risk, which starred Jean-Claude Van Damme, was "difficult," she says, partly because she discovered that the Muscles From Brussels cared more about the business of film than he did about acting. "And if you're working with someone like that, you don't care as much," she admits. "It's like, 'Enjoy Toronto and go get some food!'"

But her first roles were basically 'babe' characters which earned her a lot of notoriety, but not much critical respect. In response, Natasha Henstridge has begun taking roles in independent films to help build up her acting credibility. The verdict is still out on how well this will work - but performances in Dog Park and The Whole Nine Yards should certainly help her growing career. "It's taken a while to get people to trust me to do romantic comedy, but those are the last two things I've done . . . and not a bit of clothes shed. If that goes well, I think that's the direction I'd like to go in."

She continued her work in the romantic genre with Bounce (2000) starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck, followed by the cop thriller A Better Way to Die (2000) and John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars (2001). She has also hosted The Learning Channel's series Mostly True Stories and played a starring role in the NBC action series She Spies as a convict who is paroled in order to work for a federal investigation agency.