is a Canadian actress who has been a staple of network television shows for years and has managed to slip in a few notable movie roles in between her seasons on major networks. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1978, Stana Katic got her career started in the early 2000s, first appearing in the direct-to-video movie Shut-Eye in 2003 as Angela. She then moved into a spate of television roles in 2004, including one-episode appearances in Alias, The Shield, JAG, and L.A. Dragnet. This led to more small TV and movie roles until her breakthrough in 2009.

In 2009, Stana Katic was named as Detective Kate Beckett in the cast of Castle, opposite Nathan Fillion as the titular Richard Castle. She stayed with the series until 2016 and still found time to have a flourishing movie career all the while. Since then, Katic has continued on an impressive path, dotting her more significant TV career with movie performances in various genres. , but there's also a warmth and gentleness that gives her easy chemistry with whoever she's working with.

Murder in a Small Town is a Canadian crime drama that stars Rossif Sutherland as Karl Alberg, a former Minneapolis detective who recently moved to Gibsons, British Columbia to serve as the Chief of Police. Hoping to find respite from policing in the big city in the quiet coastal town, Karl has to put all his policing skills to the test when bodies start washing up on the shore of his little town. Stana Katic plays Zoe Strachan in season 1, episode 3, "A Chill Rain".

Zoe is a 40-something woman who lives a solitary life on the outskirts of Gibsons, shirking attention and company for the quiet and serenity of the Canadian wilderness. However, when disturbed, she is not afraid to unleash on whoever has bothered her and is incredibly protective of her space. than she's shown before.

Stana Katic only has a small role in Quantum of Solace, but it's a critical one. She plays Corrine Veneau, a Canadian intelligence operative who appears at the end of the film. James Bond (Daniel Craig) tracks Vesper Lynd's (Eva Green) former "lover" Yusef Kabira (Simon Kassianides) to his apartment in Russia and confronts him about his role in seducing women for the Quantum organization and then blackmailing them, which is what happened to Vesper and is about to happen to Corrine, were it not for Bond.

Katic barely says anything in the scene, but her face acting is incredibly important. Shame, embarrassment, hurt, and anger all flow across in rapid succession, and her whisper of "thank you" to Bond as she leaves to alert her handlers is filled with gratitude and disappointment. It's a quiet performance and one that Katic manages to nail with just her eyes and flexing jaw.

Stana Katic plays Collette Stenger in three episodes of 24 season 5. Collette is an information broker who terrorist groups have used to gain intel. Wanted for the theft of German data files, Stenger is targeted by both the American and German governments, who send Theo Stoller (Henry Ian Cusick) to seduce Collette and deliver her to Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland). Once she's captured, Collette gives up her source under Bauer-style duress, aka a gun in her face.

It's a small role for Katic but an impressive one that was an early signal of her ability to play a wide range. She's dangerous, charming, and loving when it comes to Theo, and appropriately terrified and heartbroken when the ruse is revealed. Katic manages to get a season-long arc worth of emotions on the screen in only a handful of episodes.

Stana Katic has made a name for herself as a dependable voice actor in the DC Animated Universe, appearing in four of their direct-to-video movies. She's voiced several characters since 2013, when she voiced Lois Lane in Superman: Unbound, including Wonder Woman and Superwoman. The most notable of all her voice roles is as Wonder Woman, who she's voiced in three DC movies. Katic's commanding voice is perfectly suited to Princess Diana of Themyscira.

It's not just the legendary warrior princess who benefits from Katic's ability to modulate her voice and deliver intense and emotional performances without appearing on-screen. Katic has the hopefulness and "girl-scout"-quality needed for Superwoman, and the intense, charming qualities that make Lois Lane such a likable character. Notably, Katic also voiced Talia al Ghul in the video game, Batman: Arkham City​​​​​​.

The Librarian movies are a trilogy of made-for-TV films with similar tones to The Mummy franchise and the National Treasure franchise, and they are much better than they have any right to be. Despite some cheap special effects and noticeably low production values, the cast is always having quite a bit of fun and the stories are delightfully action-packed and well-written. The third film in the series, The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice, brings Stana Katic in as Simone Renoir to play opposite the titular librarian, Flynn Carsen (Noah Wyle).

In the third film, Noah has to protect a collection of artifacts from Vlad Dracula (Bruce Davison) and his vampires. Simone is a love interest of Noah's and a vampire desperate to end her imprisonment as an eternally living monster. It's a campy but extremely fun performance from Katic, who has excellent chemistry with Wyle. within the tone of the film.

In For Lovers Only, Stana Katic plays Sofia, a journalist and former model who happens to meet her former lover, Yves (Mark Polish), while on an assignment. Despite their jobs and the reasons they separated in the first place, the pair decide to spend time in Europe together, traveling from Normandy to St. Tropez on trains, in cars, and on motorcycles. It's a simple film on the surface but one that has many layers exploring love, pain, and regret.

Charming, sweet, and thought-provoking, . It's a rare role for Katic where she's not asked to participate in action or banter, and her quiet face gets to do most of the acting. Her chemistry with Polish is completely believable, and it's a satisfying kind of happiness that results from watching her fall back in love with her old flame.

Sister Cities is a 2016 television movie that premiered on Lifetime. The drama follows the four Baxter sisters: Austin Baxter (Jess Weixler), Carol Baxter Shaw (Stana Katic), Dallas Baxter (Michelle Trachtenberg), and Baltimore Baxter (Troian Bellisario), who have to come home after their mother, Mary Baxter (Jacki Weaver), drowns in her bathtub. Each daughter has a different father and, when confronted with their mother's death, have to work out their complicated family relationships.

Carolina "Carol" Baxter is the oldest of the sisters and a lawyer who is set on becoming a judge. However, her secret dependency on alcohol is threatening to derail her career. It's a real and moving portrait of sisterhood and the ties that bind a family, no matter how loose they feel. as well as her own demons threatening to engulf her.

A Call to Spy is a historical spy drama based on the lives of real British spies who helped the Allies during World War II. At the beginning of the war, a new spy agency is mobilized, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), which is tasked with recruiting and training women as spies. Leading this agency is Vera Atkins (Stana Katic) who recruits a one-legged American, Virginia Hall (Sarah Megan Thomas), and an Indian Muslim pacifist, Noor Inayat Khan (Radhika Apte), to help undermine the Nazis in France.

It's a compelling tale, filled with courage and heroics, and though there is a lack of urgency and tension, the engaging characters, acted fantastically by the cast, make it a fascinating insight into an untold piece of WWII history. Katic is commanding in her role but also shows a vulnerability that's necessary for someone who's running such a dangerous mission.

Stana Katic's biggest role bar Castle is Agent Emily Byrne in Absentia, an Amazon Prime Video original TV show that premiered in 2017 and lasted for three seasons. The series follows FBI special agent Byrne, who disappears while pursuing a notorious Boston serial killer. Six years later, she returns with no memory of what happened to her in the interim. When she comes back, her husband has remarried with the new wife helping to raise her son. What's worse, she's soon implicated in a new series of murders.

The mystery at the core of Absentia is less interesting than the setup and there are diminishing returns over the three seasons of the show. It also depends a little too much on classic procedural tropes to bring anything totally new to the genre. For all the issues the show has, . She's appropriately mystified as she learns more about her past, but also incredibly capable, making her easy to root for.

Detective, later Captain, Kate Beckett was Stana Katic's breakout role and the performance that most people will recognize her from. For eight seasons of Castle, NYC homicide detective Beckett and best-selling mystery novelist Richard Castle worked together to solve unusual crimes across the city. At the same time, through professional and personal troubles, the pair develop feelings for one another that eventually lead to a full-fledged romance.

Beckett is committed to her work and, as a result, has little social life outside of being a detective. , and her brash attitude plays well against Castle's more easy-going nature. Katic plays the character with a pain roiling underneath the surface, a result of her need to avenge her mother's murder, which happened before the series even started.