Natasha Henstridge

Natasha T. Henstridge (born August 15, 1974) is a Canadian actress and former fashion model. In 1995, she came to prominence with her debut movie role as the genetically engineered human-alien hybrid Sil in the science-fiction thriller Species, then the human-alien hybrid Eve in Species II, and Species III. Other notable on-screen roles include The Whole Nine Yards, The Whole Ten Yards, It Had To Be You, Ghosts of Mars, She Spies, the TV series Eli Stone, and the Canadian TV mini-series Would Be Kings, for which she won the Gemini Award for best actress. Her most recent regular role is as Dawn Chamberlain in the TV series The Secret Circle. --- Henstridge was born in Springdale, Newfoundland, the daughter of Helen Henstridge, a homemaker, and Brian Henstridge, a construction manager and business owner. Her maternal grandparents were from the Mi'kmaq Nation. She was raised in Fort McMurray, Alberta, with her younger brother, Shane. At the age of 14, Henstridge entered the Casablanca Modeling Agency's "Look of the Year" contest and was chosen first runner-up. The following year, she went to Paris to pursue her modeling ambitions. At 15, she was featured on her first magazine cover, the French edition of Cosmopolitan. Several more magazine covers followed and Henstridge went on to do television commercials for products such as Olay, Old Spice, and Lady Stetson. Her modeling career established, Henstridge moved on to a career in movies. --- In her 1995 film debut Species, Henstridge played Sil, a genetically engineered alien/human hybrid created from a message received by SETI, who breaks free from the captivity of a laboratory. Pursued by a team of experts who band together to stop her before she multiplies, Sil embarks on a killing spree while also discovering her powerful instinct to mate. Species was an instant hit, making $113 million (USD) at the box office. Notable for its sexual content, the film won Henstridge the MTV Movie award for "best kiss" for a scene in which her character, while kissing an aggressive would-be suitor, impales his head with her tongue. In 1998, she played Eve, a more ambiguous genetic duplicate of Sil, in Species II, which was a failure at the box office. A few smaller independent movies followed, including Bela Donna and Dog Park, with varied box office returns. Henstridge starred opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme in the action/adventure movie Maximum Risk. She also starred in the 2000 film The Whole Nine Yards and its 2004 sequel The Whole Ten Yards. Despite having some reservations about the science fiction genre, she signed up for John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars (2001) in the lead role. The film was not well-received, with a 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In 2004, she briefly appeared as Eve in Species III. --- Henstridge was married to actor Damian Chapa from 1995 to 1996. She has two sons by actor Liam Waite, who was her companion for several years: Tristan River, born October 1998, and Asher Sky, born September 2001. Henstridge was in a relationship with Darius Campbell, a Scottish singer-songwriter, stage actor, and author, since 2004. They became engaged but broke it off in early 2010, to eventually be married on Valentine's Day, 2011. The couple filed for divorce in July 2013.