Natasha Henstridge was born August 15, 1974, in Springdale, Newfoundland,
Canada, to a housewife mother and a biker/contractor father. After growing
up in a trailer park in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, Natasha took off to
Paris at the age of 14 to pursue a modeling career. By the time she was 15,
Natasha had become a model for Oil of Olay, Lady Stetson and Old Spice, appearing
in ads and commercials for the beauty products and fragrances. She also graced
the cover of French Cosmopolitan, as well as various international fashion
magazines.
While modeling in France gave Natasha the recognition she deserved as a beautiful
woman, she quickly became bored by her job and did not feel that she was being
challenged enough. She sought something more exciting and presented herself
with a new creative challenge: acting. Blurring the lines between acting and
modeling, Natasha's first role was in the science fiction feature film, Species.
The role of Sil, the alien in a woman's body trying to get pregnant in order
to reproduce her alien species, still demanded a beautiful face and figure,
both of which Natasha possessed. She was chosen among over 100 other hopefuls,
and although she was one of the less experienced women to audition, she succeeded
in portraying her seductive yet evil character.
Natasha won an MTV Award for Best Kiss, which she shared with her Species
co-star. While Species was physically demanding, it was not enough of a role
to consider Natasha a burgeoning actress. But more roles began to follow her
feature film debut. She was cast in Maximum Risk with Jean-Claude Van Damme,
Adrenaline: Fear The Rush, and appeared in an episode of Homeboys in Outer
Space in 1996. True to the sci-fi theme, Natasha appeared in an episode of
The Outer Limits in 1997.
A year later, she provided her voice for an episode of South Park before
the film roles began piling up along with her list of admirers. She starred
in the sequel to Species in 1998, and appeared in Bela Donna, Dog Park, Standoff,
Kill You Twice, and It Had To Be You, that same year. This year Natasha co-starred
with Matthew Perry and Bruce Willis in the comedy, The Whole Nine Yards. As
Cynthia Tudeski, Natasha was believable as the wife of a mass murderer, while
showing off her model assets. She also starred in the made-for-TV movie, Jason
and the Argonauts.
Joining other models-turned-actresses such as Cameron Diaz and Rene Russo,
Natasha has surely met her challenge of succeeding in another career. She
has recently finished working on Second Skin, Kevin of the North and A Better
Way to Die, and has starring roles lined up in The Judith Exner Story and
Ghosts of Mars, in a role Courtney Love was originally set to play. Don't
worry, you won't have to wait that long to see Natasha on film; her next film,
Bounce, co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck, is set for release in
October. Presently living in Los Angeles, the actress that topped Femmes Fatales
magazine's "Sci-Fi's Sexy 50" list is also the mother of Tristan River Waite,
her son with fiance Liam Waite.
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