Yvonne Strahovski

Strahovski was born Yvonne Jaqueline^[2] Strzechowski on 30 July 1982^[1] in Werrington Downs, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.^[3] She is the only child of Bożena, a lab technician, and Peter^[4] Strzechowski, an electronic engineer.^[5] Her parents are Polish emigrants^[6] from Tomaszów Mazowiecki.^[7]

The family moved to the suburb of Bass Hill when Strahovski was five years old; later, they moved to the coastal suburb of Maroubra. Strahovski began acting lessons at the age of 12. Straight after high school, she went to the University of Western Sydney's^[8] Theatre Nepean, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in performance in 2003. Strahovski then worked professionally in theatre in Australia for three years before landing a role in the American television series Chuck.^[3][9]

Strahovski started acting at school when she played Viola in the school production of Twelfth Night.^[10] 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.^[11] She was cast as Sarah Walker after running lines with Zachary Levi. She relocated to the United States six months later.^[12] Strahovski adopted the more phonetic spelling of Strahovski as her stage name in place of Strzechowski at this time.^[13]

In addition to English, Strahovski is fluent in Polish, 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.^[14]

Strahovski appeared in the 2011 film Killer Elite, alongside Jason Statham, Clive Owen, and Robert De Niro.^[15] She appeared in the 2012 comedy The Guilt Trip, opposite Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand.^[16]

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.

In November 2011, Strahovski was cast as the female lead in I, Frankenstein (2014).^[17] 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.^[18] She reprised the role in the eighth season of Dexter.^[19]

In December 2012, she made her Broadway debut in a revival of Clifford Odets' Golden Boy,^[20][21] for which she won a Theatre World Award.^[22] Strahovski was honored along with Liam Hemsworth for their work in international roles with the 2012 Australians in Film Breakthrough Award.^[23]

In 2014, Strahovski joined Fox's TV series 24: Live Another Day cast as Kate Morgan, CIA agent.^[24] Later that year, she was cast as Rene Carpenter on the ABC limited series The Astronaut Wives Club.^[25] 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.^[26]

Strahovski starred as Serena Joy Waterford in all six seasons of the acclaimed Hulu drama series The Handmaid's Tale, which ran from 2017 to 2025. For her performance, she earned Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2018 and 2021.^[27][28] She also starred as Sofie Werner in the limited series Stateless (2020).^[29]

At the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2017, Strahovski revealed that she had married Tim Loden, her partner of six years.^[30] The couple have three sons, born in 2018, 2021 and 2023.^[31][32][33]

• List of Australian film actors