Yvonne Strahovski
Strahovski at WonderCon 2009
Born	Yvonne Strzechowski 30 July 1982 (1982-07-30) (age 27) Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2004–present

Yvonne Strahovski (née Strzechowski on 30 July 1982) is an Australian actress. Born in Australia to Polish immigrant parents, Strahovski speaks Polish and English. After graduating from University of Western Sydney she acted in three Australian television shows. She then auditioned for and won the role Sarah Walker in the American television series Chuck. Her film career includes both Australian and American movies.

Early life

Strahovski was born in Maroubra, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, as Yvonne Strzechowski to Polish parents who had emigrated from Warsaw. She adopted the more phonetic spelling of Strahovski as her stage name at Chuck producer Josh Schwartz's behest for the sake of easier pronunciation. Strahovski's father is an electronics engineer, and her mother works as a lab technician. Yvonne started acting when she played Viola in a school production of Twelfth Night.

Yvonne spent her high school years attending Santa Sabina College, Strathfield. She graduated of University of Western Sydney's Theatre Nepean in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts in Performance and received straight A's in her subjects.

Career

Strahovski first started her career in Australia appearing in film and TV roles, including a turn on satirical show Double the Fist and a part in Aussie drama series headLand. She has also appeared in the show Sea Patrol that airs on Channel Nine.

She sent in her audition tape for the show Chuck while in the United States auditioning for roles in other shows, namely NBC's 2007 series Bionic Woman. She sent in an audition tape while waiting to hear from the other two jobs. She was contacted by the producers of Chuck the next day to come in to "run lines" with Zachary Levi. The producers called her back a week later letting her know she had been cast as Sarah Walker. Six months later, she moved to the United States.

Strahovski speaks fluent Polish and employed it in a brief exchange with a colleague in the Chuck episode "Chuck Versus the Wookiee" and again during the character's return in "Chuck Versus the Three Words". Although she portrays an American in the series, she briefly spoke in her real Australian accent in the episode "Chuck Versus The Ex". Her audition footage, which is included in the DVD set Chuck: The Complete First Season, can be seen on YouTube.

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

In 2009, Strahovski was rated #94 on Maxim's 2009 Hot 100 Women of the World. In 2010, Strahovski moved up seventeen spots to #77.

Personal life

Strahovski's parents emigrated to Australia from Warsaw, Poland. Strahovski moved to Los Angeles in 2007, although she has returned to Australia to work. She has acknowledged that one of the more difficult aspects of relocating to the U.S. is living there without the support of family and friends. After her acting success, her parents moved to the USA to be near her. All of Strahovski's remaining relatives reside in Poland.

Filmography

Films

Television

Video Games

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Yvonne Strahovski

• Yvonne Strahovski at the Internet Movie Database
• Yvonne Strahovski at Allmovie
• Yvonne Strahovski at TV Guide
• Yvonne Strahovski at TV.com
• Bio at the official NBC site for Chuck
• TVGuide.com interview
• "Chuck" audition on YouTube
• Yvonne Strahovski on the cover of Saturday Night Magazine (April 2010)