Jorja Fox

Fox was born in New York City to Montreal-born parents Edward and Marilyn Fox and is of French-Canadian, Belgian and Irish descent. She was raised on a narrow barrier island in Melbourne Beach, Florida. She has an older brother, Jeff. She describes herself as being overweight while growing up, with a prominent gap between her teeth. By her 20s, she observed that neither her wisdom teeth nor braces had appreciably helped, and Fox said "forget it." After attending Melbourne High School for two years, she began a modeling career after winning a local contest. She subsequently enrolled as a drama student at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York City, under the tutelage of actor William Hickey.Fox had minor roles in films and television series, including the opening scene of a 1993 episode of the NBC legal drama Law & Order. Fox's big break was a recurring role in the third, fourth and fifth seasons (1996–99) of the NBC medical drama ER. She played Dr. Maggie Doyle, a lesbian, no-nonsense and vegetarian emergency intern. Fox appeared in "The Puppy Episode: Part 2", the April 30, 1997 episode of the sitcom Ellen, in which that series' main character (Ellen DeGeneres) came out as gay. From 1999 to 2000, she had a recurring role as Secret Service Agent Gina Toscano in the first and second seasons of the NBC political drama The West Wing. Fox has appeared in the films Velocity Trap and Food for the Heart and she also briefly appeared in Christopher Nolan's cult film Memento, playing the main character's wife in flashback footage.