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Jorja-An Fox (July 7, 1968, in New York, New York), is an American actress. She is best known for starring in three successful television dramas: ER, The West Wing and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Attractive brunette actress Jorja Fox got her start with a brief modeling career before landing roles in some of television's most popular and critically acclaimed series including "ER" and "The West Wing" (both NBC) and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (CBS). Born in New York City and raised in Melbourne Beach, Florida, Fox returned to her birthplace at age sixteen to being modeling after winning a local contest in Florida. With a whirlwind career that took her to Milan, she retired from modeling at the ripe age of eighteen and began honing her acting skills, studying with veteran character actor William Hickey at New York's Lee Strasberg Institute and making her acting debut in the 1989 independent feature "The Kill-Off". In 2003, she was ranked #80 in Stuff magazine's list of the 103 sexiest women. She is annually nominated for PETA's "World's Sexiest Vegetarian". Fox is the youngest child of Canadian Montrealian-born parents, and was raised on a narrow barrier island in Melbourne Beach, Florida. She describes herself as being overweight while growing up, with a prominent gap between her teeth. By her twenties, neither her wisdom teeth nor braces had appreciably helped, and Fox said "forget it.", After attending Melbourne High School for two years, she began a modeling career after winning a local contest. Subsequently she enrolled as a drama student at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York, under the tutelage of actor William Hickey. Fox began the 1990s with roles in TV productions including the specials "Summer Stories: The Mall", an installment of "ABC Afterschool Specials" and "Dead Drunk: The Kevin Tunell Story", one of HBO's "Lifestories: Families in Crisis". A 1993 episode of "Law & Order" (NBC) marked Fox's transition to primetime series, where she would land a regular role as an investigator for the Chicago police on ABC's "Missing Persons" (1993-94). In 1996, Fox began her portrayal of Dr. Maggie Doyle, a gun-toting vegetarian lesbian who was in residency at the "ER" (NBC). A recurring character from 1996 through 1999, Doyle had some powerful scenes and storylines in the course of her run, and Fox handled her character with a combination of grace, reserve and vulnerability. Known to a wide audience for her portrayal of Maggie, Fox was featured in the groundbreaking 1997 "coming out" episode of ABC's "Ellen". After appearing in several minor films and TV series, including a 1993 episode of Law & Order, Fox entered the limelight in 1996 when she joined the hit NBC television series ER, as the no-nonsense vegetarian and lesbian medical intern Dr. Maggie Doyle (credited as "Jorjan Fox"). Playing up that fame, Fox appeared on the coming out episode of Ellen ("The Puppy Episode Part 2", 30 April 1997). In 1999, she was cast as Secret Service Agent Gina Toscano on NBC's series The West Wing, where she starred for one season. Fox has appeared in the films Velocity Trap, Food for the Heart and she also appeared briefly in Memento, playing Guy Pearce's wife. In 1999, Fox began a recurring role on the acclaimed NBC drama "The West Wing" playing Gina Tuscano, the Secret Service agent in charge of protecting the daughter (Elisabeth Moss) of the President of the United States (Martin Sheen). Leaving in 2000 to work full-time on "CSI", Fox and Tuscano could feasibly return to "The West Wing" thanks to an open-ended exit, but the success of "CSI" would seem to make such insurance unnecessary. Following the cases of the Las Vegas Police forensics team, the series captured an audience fascinated with the show's use of science and thrilled by the included drama. Here Fox played Sara Sidle, an inexperienced but hard-working and determined investigator hand-picked by William Petersen's Gil Grissom for the forensics team. Though television has hosted her greatest successes to date, Fox has appeared in several films since her debut. A supporting role as Alan Arkin's love interest in the unimpressive comedy "The Jerky Boys" was one of three of the actress' big screen appearances in 1995, including black comedy "Dead Funny" and the romance "Alchemy". In 1997, in addition to a featured role in the NBC miniseries "House of Frankenstein 1997", Fox added to the less-seen but far more critically acclaimed independent feature "How to Make the Cruelest Month". A starring role in "The Hungry Bachelor's Club" came in 1999, and in 2001 she would be remembered as the murdered wife of a man suffering from anterograde amnesia (Guy Pearce) in the inventive and critically lauded feature "Memento". In 2000, she became one of the characters of the CBS series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, in which she portrayed a Las Vegas forensic scientist named Sara Sidle. She has announced that the show's current 2007-2008 season will be her last. On 2007-11-15, the episode "Goodbye and Good Luck," marked the character's final regular appearance in an episode of CSI. She is the co-founder of Honeypot Productions, an independent avant-garde theatre company in Los Angeles. The company has produced five original plays, four of them written by Fox. The fourth play, Lovely Stanley, is a comedic romp about the women's bowling circuit. Her friend and HoneyPot co-founder Heather Reid wrote Dear Bernard, which Fox helped produce. Fox is also a musician: she plays guitar (badly, she says) and recently purchased a drum kit. She also sings and writes songs, most notably the song "Lullabye" for the movie Traveling Companion, as well as the song "Satellite" which she published on her official web site. Jorja and CSI co-star Marg Helgenberger sang "Stand by Me" as a duet for What a Pair 4!!, an annual charity event to raise money for breast cancer research. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her dog Ali and two cats, Rumplestiltskin and Sid Poitier. Fox is a supporter of the Human Rights Campaign and being a dedicated vegetarian since the age of 20 has worked with PETA to help promote vegetarianism. She and CSI co-star George Eads received some bad publicity in 2004 when they were fired. Fox had allegedly failed to submit a letter to CBS confirming that she would be on time for shooting. The disputes were resolved in just over a week, and the two were rehired by CBS; however, neither actor's salary was raised, although other cast members did receive raises. It was also reported that of the two, Fox was approached first to resume her contract with CSI - but she refused until Eads was rehired as well. On April 18, 2007, TV Guide began reporting that Fox may not be returning for the eighth season of CSI, having not yet signed a new contract. The season finale turned out to be a cliffhanger involving her character, Sara Sidle. The New York Post reported that Fox did not show up to film the finale because of ongoing issues over her employment. Neither CBS nor Jorja's agent have confirmed the allegations. In September 2007, after rumors emerged about Fox's departure from the show, an online forum called "Your Tax Dollars At Work", that has about 15,000 members, started a campaign to keep Sara Sidle on CSI, the campaign (called Dollars for Sense) includes mailing the show's producers a dollar so as to keep Fox on the show. With the help of donations, the campaign also organized plane flyovers, on Tuesdays and Thursdays of October's two first weeks, over the Universal Studios, in California, where CSI is filmed. The banners read"Keep Jorja Fox on CBS". On October 15, 2007, Fox told Entertainment Weekly that she left CSI, saying that she wanted a break "from the commitment of a weekly television series." At her request, the money collected during the "Dollars for Sense" campaign will be donated to National CASA, an organization dedicated to aiding foster children. Since leaving CSI, Jorja Fox produced the musical Stay Forever: The Life and Music of Dusty Springfield, about the musician Dusty Springfield. Her name is pronounced as "Georgia." She is most often credited as Jorja Fox, but has also been credited as "Jorjan Fox." Emily Procter, one of Fox's friends and a co-star in Forever Fabulous, calls her "Horha", how Jorja would be pronounced in Spanish, as a nickname. Has a purse named after her by the Montréal company Matt & Nat, which designs Vegan purses. |
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