Jorja Fox Biography

Birth Name : Jorja-An Fox

Date of Birth : 7 July 1968, New York City, New York, USA

Height : 5' 9" (1.75 m)

Occupation : Actress, musician, songwriter

Born Jorja-An Fox on July 7, 1968, in New York, NY, but raised in Melbourne Beach, FL, Fox moved back to Manhattan in her teens and began a modeling career after winning a local modeling contest, then subsequently enrolled as a drama student at the Lee Strasberg Institute, where she studied acting under the aegis of legendary actor William_Hickey (Prizzi's_Honor, Forget_Paris). Fox's early roles were minor and somewhat forgettable, though she debuted onscreen under the tutelage one of the finest American indie filmmakers -- Maggie_Greenwald -- in that director's well-received film noir debut The Kill-Off (1991). She followed it up with an equally dark turn, as Fate 3 (alongside future West_Wing co-star Allison_Janney), in John_Feldman's little-seen black comedy thriller Dead_Funny (1995), and joined mentor Hickey and Alan_Arkin for the best-forgotten Jerky_Boys (1995) -- a loud, rude and obnoxious farce about a couple of prank phone callers. The film bombed with critics and the public, and disappeared instantly..

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.