Yvonne Strahovski

Yvonne Jaqueline Strzechowski[1][2] was born in the Sydney suburb of Werrington Downs, New South Wales, Australia[3] the daughter of Piotr and Bożena Strzechowski;[4] her parents had emigrated from Warsaw, Poland. Her father is an electronic engineer, and her mother is a lab technician.[5] The family lived in Werrington Downs until Yvonne was five, and then moved to Bass Hill, and later to the coastal suburb of Maroubra.[3]

Strahovski began acting lessons at age 12.[6] Straight after high school she went to the University of Western Sydney's Theatre Nepean, graduating with a degree in arts in performance[7] in 2003. She then worked professionally in theatre in Australia for three years before landing a role in the American TV series Chuck.[3]

Strahovski started acting at school when she played Viola in the school production of Twelfth Night.[8] She appeared in film and television roles in Australia, including a turn on satirical show Double the Fist and as Freya Lewis in the Australian drama series headLand. She has also appeared in Channel Nine's Sea Patrol.

Strahovski sent in her audition tape for the TV series Chuck while in the United States auditioning for roles in other shows, namely NBC's 2007 series Bionic Woman.[9] After running lines with Zachary Levi she was cast as Sarah Walker. Six months later, she moved to the United States.[10] Strahovski adopted the more phonetic spelling of Strahovski as her stage name in place of Strzechowski at this time.[11]

Strahovski at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con

Strahovski is fluent in Polish and English, and employed it in a brief exchange with a colleague in the Chuck episode "Chuck Versus the Wookiee" and again in the episodes "Chuck Versus the Three Words" and "Chuck Versus the Honeymooners". Although she portrays an American in the series, she briefly spoke in a "Hollywood" Australian accent in the episode "Chuck Versus the Ex".

Strahovski appears in Mass Effect Galaxy, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3 as the voice of Miranda Lawson. She had her face scanned and animated so she could portray Lawson in Mass Effect 2.

Strahovski voices Aya Brea in the English version of the Parasite Eve spinoff, The 3rd Birthday. She appeared in a CollegeHumor sketch in April 2011, parodying the music styles of Katy Perry, Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, and Justin Bieber.[12]

Strahovski appeared in the 2011 film Killer Elite, alongside Jason Statham, Clive Owen, and Robert De Niro.[13] She appeared in the 2012 comedy The Guilt Trip, opposite Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand.[14]

In 2010, Strahovski received the Teen Choice Award for Choice Action TV Actress for Chuck, as well as a nomination for Spike Video Game Awards for Best Performance by a Human Female for Mass Effect 2. In 2011, Strahovski was nominated again for the Teen Choice Awards for Choice Action TV Actress. In 2011, Cosmopolitan Magazine (Australia) named Strahovski the Fun Fearless Female of the Year, along with Favorite TV Actress.

Strahovski at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con

In November 2011, Strahovski was cast as the female lead in I, Frankenstein (2014).[15] In March 2012, she featured in a new SoBe Life commercial. In May 2012, Strahovski ranked No. 35 in Maxim Hot 100. In June 2012, Showtime announced Strahovski had joined the cast for the seventh season of Dexter portraying Hannah McKay, a woman involved with an investigation following the death of her former lover, a spree killer whom she accompanied when she was a teenager.[16] She reprised the role in the eighth season of Dexter.[17]

In December 2012, she made her Broadway debut in a revival of Clifford Odets' Golden Boy,[18][19] for which she won a Theatre World Award.[20] Strahovski was honored along with Liam Hemsworth for their work in international roles with the 2012 Australians in Film Breakthrough Award.[21]

In 2014, Strahovski joined Fox's TV series 24: Live Another Day cast as Kate Morgan, CIA agent.[22] Later that year, she was cast as Rene Carpenter on the ABC limited series The Astronaut Wives Club.[23] In 2016, she starred, along with Adrien Brody, as Caroline Crowley in the film noir Manhattan Night. She was featured in Maxim Hot 100 from 2009 to 2013.[24]

Since 2017, she has starred as Serena Joy Waterford in the acclaimed Hulu drama series The Handmaid's Tale. For her performance, Strahovski earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2018.[25] She also starred as Sofie Werner in the limited series Stateless (2020).[26]

At the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards in September 2017, Strahovski revealed that she had married Tim Loden (b. 1982), her partner of six years.[27] They have two sons: the first born October 2018,[28][29] and a second born December 2021.[29]

• Bodey, Michael (2 June 2007). "Unknown Aussie lands TV lead in US". The Australian. Archived from the original on 23 December 2007. Retrieved 15 October 2007.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yvonne Strahovski.

• Yvonne Strahovski at IMDb
• Yvonne Strahovski at AllMovie
• Yvonne Strahovski at TV Guide