Actress Kari Matchett was born on March 25, 1970 in Spalding, Saskatchewan, Canada. She grew up in Alberta, Canada and was educated at the prestigious National Theater School in Montreal, before taking up further studies. She later concentrated on Chekhov at the Moscow Theater School in Russia. She has also attended Red Deer College, getting her start in summer stock. For three years, she performed on stage at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario.
In Canada, Kari Matchett landed her first major role on The Rez, a television series that aired in 1996. She followed this up with appearances in Forever Knight, Undue Influence, and the series Ready or Not. In 1997, she was cast in the Damian Lee-directed thriller Papertrail. Matchett became familiar to television audiences when she was cast as Colleen Blessed, president of a hockey team, on the series, Power Play. She knew nothing about hockey at the time, and relied on her husband, director T.W. Pea!$#!#e, to help her out. Before the series ended in 2000, Matchett obtained several guest spots on television shows like Viper, Once a Thief, Poltergeist: The Legacy, and Earth: Final Conflict. She was later seen in the romantic comedy Apartment Hunting, acting alongside Andrew Tarbet. She was also a key member of the repertory cast of the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery, where she had a recurring role as Lily Rowan. Other roles of hers are in A Colder Kind of Death, All Souls, Angel Eyes and Men with Brooms, which she became noted for. In 2002, she starred in three films, namely the television movie The Glow, the romantic comedy 19 Months, and the sci-fi thriller Cypher starring Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu. She also played the lesbian love interest of the main character in the short-lived but acclaimed show Wonderfalls, and followed this up with the role of a detective in Blue Murder. This earned her a Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Guest Role in a Dramatic Series in 2001.
In 2005, Kari Matchett was given a starring part on ABC’s sci-fi series Invasion. She has also appeared on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Shark and Wild Card. In 2007, she joined the cast of the series 24, as the vice presidential chief of staff, Lisa Miller. That year, Matchett joined the cast of the TNT series Heartland, portraying the character Kate Armstrong. She later took on a role in the series ER, and became a guest on the hit ABC show Ugly Betty.
(Photo courtesy of TNT)