Tricia Helfer Biography

Tricia Janine Helfer (born April 11, 1974) is a Canadian model and actress. She is best known for playing the humanoid Cylon Number Six in Ronald D. Moore's re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series.

Early life

Helfer was born in the rural community of Donalda in Stettler County, Alberta. She was raised by Dennis and Elaine Helfer on the family's grain farm with her sister Tammy, and was discovered by modeling agency scout Kelly Streit at age 17 while standing in line at a local movie theatre. Helfer is of German, English, Swedish and Norwegian descent.

Career

Fashion modeling

In 1992, she won Ford Models' Supermodel of the World Contest and was subsequently signed to Elite Model Management and later to Trump Model Management. Helfer retired from fashion modeling in 2002 and states that all her shoots since then are related to projects or product endorsements. She has appeared in ad campaigns for Ralph Lauren, Versace, Chanel, and Giorgio Armani. Helfer has walked for top fashion shows such as Carolina Herrera, Christian Dior, Claude Montana, Givenchy, John Galliano, and Dolce & Gabbana. Helfer has appeared on the covers of Flare, Amica, ELLE, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, and Vogue, among others. She also regularly appeared in photo shoots by Maxim magazine, was the magazine's wall calendar girl for 2005, and was ranked #57 on the Maxim's Hot 100 Women of 2007. Additionally, she was the covergirl for the February 2007 issue of Playboy.

Acting

Helfer hosted a Canadian television fashion program, Canada's Next Top Model. She relocated to Los Angeles in 2002 to pursue a full-time film career. Her first acting assignment was a co-starring role as Sarah on the television series Jeremiah. She later played a model, Ashleigh James, in the May 16, 2002 CSI episode, "The Hunger Artist". In 2002, she played "Eva" in the independent film White Rush. In 2003, she played Number Six on Battlestar Galactica. In 2004, she portrayed Farrah Fawcett in the telemovie The Unauthorized Story of 'Charlie's Angels'. Concurrent with her role in Battlestar Galactica, Helfer began producing and hosting Canada's Next Top Model on May 31, 2006. She appeared in Spiral and The Green Chain later the same year.

In October 2006, it was announced that Helfer would not return to host the second season of Canada's Next Top Model so she could concentrate on Battlestar Galactica. Helfer also played a major role in Electronic Arts Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, as the high-level Nod general Kilian Qatar, along with her Battlestar Galactica co-star, actress Grace Park. She also starred in the episode "Roadkill" on the second season of Supernatural.

Helfer had a recurring role on CBS' Two and a Half Men. She played Gail, best friend of Charlie's (Charlie Sheen) fiancé Chelsea (Jennifer Bini Taylor). When Chelsea finds out that her friend is recovering from a breakup, she says she should do so at Charlie's house. Shortly after Chelsea and Charlie begin a trial separation, Gail begins a sexual relationship with Charlie.

Battlestar Galactica

In 2003, the television series Battlestar Galactica was used as the basis for a three hour miniseries on the Sci Fi channel. The project was written and produced by Ronald D. Moore and directed by Michael Rymer. Helfer played the role of Number Six, a humanoid Cylon operative. She continued that role as a regular cast member in the TV series, which completed its fourth and final season on March 20, 2009. Due to the special nature of the Number Six character " there are many "copies" of Number Six with distinct personalities " Helfer has, in effect, played numerous roles on the series. In 2009, she reprised her role as Number Six in Battlestar Galactica: The Plan " a television movie that tells the story of the series from the Cylons' point of view.

Awards:

• Leo Awards, Best Lead Performance By A Female in a Dramatic Series, Tricia Helfer ("Pegasus")

Nominations:

• Scream Awards, Breakout Performance, Tricia Helfer as Number Six
• Scream Awards, Best Television Actress, Tricia Helfer

Other appearances

In August 2008, Helfer appeared on the stage of NVISION 08, an event sponsored by NVIDIA, where she discussed her role in Battlestar Galactica as well as the use of computer graphics on the show. Helfer appeared as Chuck's Season 2 secret agent "handler" in the NBC series Chuck, and as Michael Westen's Season 2 nemesis in the USA Network series Burn Notice as "Carla." Helfer appears as herself in Old 97's music video for "Dance with Me". In the video, she is sought through an exclusive nightclub, via fantasy, by an imaginative fan.

She guest starred in "Resonance," the second episode of Warehouse 13 as FBI Agent Bonnie Belski on Syfy. She appeared as a special guest star in the pilot episode of Fox's 2009 mid-season series Human Target, in which she plays the key female role. She has played several prominent video game roles in recent years; including Kilian Quatar in Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, Veronica Dare in Halo 3: ODST and EDI, the ship-borne artificial intelligence aboard the Normandy SR-2 in Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3. She also voices Sarah Kerrigan in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty as well as the expansion sets Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm and Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void. Helfer plays the voice of Black Cat in The Spectacular Spider-Man and she reprises the role in Spider-Man: Web of Shadows and Ultimate Spider-Man.

Helfer has joined the cast of Jerry Bruckheimer's TNT drama, Dark Blue, as FBI Special Agent Alex Rice. The show was cancelled in November 2010 because of its very low ratings. In October 2010, she made a guest appearance on Lie to Me. In 2011, she starred in The Black Keys' music video for "Howlin' for You". She also made a guest appearance as a villain in No Ordinary Family (2011), and a scheming law partner in Franklin & Bash (2011). In 2011, Helfer starred as Morgana, a necromancer, in the TV series pilot 17th Precinct from Ron Moore with Galactica's co-stars James Callis and Jamie Bamber.

In October 2011, she got the lead role in the TV Pilot Scent of the Missing playing Susannah, a K-9 Search and Rescue Volunteer. In November 2011, she appeared in the Hallmark TV Movie Mistletoe Over Manhattan. For 2012, she signed for the recurring role of Alex Clark in the new NBC TV Series The Firm, based on the John Grisham novel. On May 16, 2012, she appeared in the two-part finale of season 7 of the CBS series Criminal Minds, in which she led a team of bank-robbing serial killers. She guest starred in the second season of the Jane Espenson scripted romantic comedy web series, Husbands. In 2013 she´ll be the main character in ABC´s Killer Women, which will be a remake of Argentinian drama Mujeres Asesinas, with producer Sofia Vergara.

Personal life

She is married to Johnathan Marshall, a lawyer whom she met at a mutual friend's birthday party.

She has four artificial discs in her back and two in her neck, resulting from an incident in which a piece of luggage was dropped on her head while sitting on a commercial airliner, and two in her lower back from mishaps while doing her own stunts.

She co-founded the charity web site "Acting Outlaws" with Katee Sackhoff, which is open for donations for different causes and charity events. She is also involved in different charity events, from animal rescue to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Filmography

Films

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2000	Eventual Wife	Inga	Short film
2003	White Rush	Eva
2004	Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Charlie's Angels	Farrah Fawcett	TV movie
2006	The Genius Club	Ally Simon
2006	Memory	Stephanie Jacobs
2007	Spiral	Sasha
2007	The Green Chain	Leila Cole
2007	Walk All Over Me	Celene
2007	Battlestar Galactica: Razor	Number Six	TV movie
2008	Inseparable	Rae Wicks
2009	Green Lantern: First Flight	Boodikka
2009	Battlestar Galactica: The Plan	Number Six	TV movie
2009	Hidden Crimes	Julia Carver	TV movie
2009	Open House	Lila
2010	A Beginner's Guide to Endings	Miranda
2011	Bloodwork	Dr. Wilcox
2011	Mistletoe over Manhattan	Lucy Martel	TV Movie
2011	PostHuman	Kali (voice role)	Short film
2012	The Forger	Sasha
2012	Scent of the Missing	Susannah	TV movie, post-production
2012	Scribble	Sigrid Hagenguth	Post-production
2012	37	Christina	Post-production

Television

Year	Program	Role	Notes
2002	Jeremiah	Sarah	Episode: "The Long Road: Part 1"
2002	CSI	Ashleigh James	Episode: "The Hunger Artist"
2003	Battlestar Galactica	Number Six	Mini-series
2006	The Collector	Janis Eisner	Episode: "The V.J."
2006	Canada's Next Top Model	Host, Judge	Cycle 1
2007	Them	Naomi Tyler Moore	TV pilot
2007	Supernatural	Molly McNamara	Episode - "Roadkill"
2009	The Dealership	Rachel Carson	TV pilot
2007"2009	Burn Notice	Carla	8 episodes
2008"2009	The Spectacular Spider-Man	Felicia Hardy/Black Cat (voice role)	Episodes: "Persona", "Accomplices", "Opening Night"
2004"2009	Battlestar Galactica	Number Six	Main cast
2009	Chuck	Alex Forrest	Episode: "Chuck Versus the Broken Heart"
2009	Warehouse 13	Bonnie Belski	Episode: "Resonance"
2010	The Super Hero Squad Show	Sif (voice role)	Episode: "O, Brother!"
2010	Human Target	Stephanie Dobbs	Episode: "Pilot"
2010	Dark Blue	Alex Rice	10 episodes
2010	Lie to Me	Naomi Russell	Episode: "Double Blind"
2010	The Whole Truth	Bitsie Katz	Episode: "Liars"
2011	No Ordinary Family	Sophie Adler	Episode: "No Ordinary Love"
2011	Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated	Amanda Smyth/Aphrodite (voice role)	Episode: "Where Walks Aphrodite"
2011	Franklin & Bash	Brett Caiman	Episode: "Go Tell It on the Mountain"
2009"2011	Two and a Half Men	Gail	Episodes: "Gorp. Fnark. Schmegle.", "Ixnay on the Oggie Day", "Nice to Meet You, Walden Schmidt"
2011	17th Precinct	Morgana Kurlansky	TV pilot
2012	The Firm	Alex Clark	Recurring cast
2012	Criminal Minds	Izzy Rogers	Episodes: "Hit", "Run"
2012	Husbands	Pillow Girl #2	Episodes: "Appropriate Is Not the Word", "The Straightening"
2012	Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome	Cylon Prototype	Episode: "Pilot"
2012-2013	Tron: Uprising	The Grid (voice role)	Main cast
2013	Killer Women	Molly Parker	Main character
2013	Community	Lauren	Episode: "Conventions of Space and Time"
2013	Ultimate Spider-Man	Felicia Hardy/Black Cat

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars	Kilian Qatar
2007	Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath	Kilian Qatar
2008	Spider-Man: Web of Shadows	Felicia Hardy/Black Cat
2009	Halo 3: ODST	Captain Veronica Dare
2010	Mass Effect 2	EDI.
2010	StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty	Sarah Kerrigan
2012	Mass Effect 3	EDI
2013	StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm	Sarah Kerrigan

Music videos

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2011	Howlin' for You	Alexa Wolff