Catherine Bell Biography And Filmography:

Catherine Bell is the daughter of a Scottish father and Iranian mother. Her parents divorced and she and her mother relocated to Los Angeles, California when she was four years old. She became a naturalized citizen of the United States at age thirteen. She worked in an assortment of television advertisements as a young girl. She attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a curiosity in biomedical engineering and aspirations of becoming a Doctor, but dropped out to start a modeling career. Her first modeling job was a long term project in Japan.

Her first arrival in a movie was as a body double for Isabella Rossellini in "Death Becomes Her" in 1992 where she enjoyed working alongside super star talent like Meryl Streep and Bruce Willis In 2003, she was hired for a supporting role in the comedy film "Bruce Almighty", which starred Jim Carrey, Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Aniston. Up until April 29, 2005, she also portrayed Marine Lt. Colonel Sarah McKenzie on the television series and military lawyer show "JAG".

Bell is fluent in Farsi  and English and  married Adam Beason in 1994 and the couple have a daughter, Gemma, who was born in 2003. The actress is a survivor of thyroid cancer and had to have her thyroid removed when she was only twenty years old. She has a surgical scar on her neck that is covered during productions.

Some of her early films include "Mother of the Bride" (1993 TV), "Men of War" (1994) with Dolph Lundgren, "Alien Nation: Body and Soul" (1995 TV), "Crash Drive" (1997), about the crew of the nuclear submarine USS Ulysses who rescues supposed victims of a boat disaster, but the victims. She rounded out her resume with "Cab to Canada" (1998 TV) with Maureen O'Hara, Fact-based story about a Pasadena cab driver (Jason Beghe) who picks up what he believes is a routine fare. The actress then appeared in the sci-fi thriller "The Time Shifters" (1999) with Martin Sheen. 

In September 2006, the Hollywood press wrote that she had been hired for the cast of Lifetime's ensemble drama pilot "Army Wives". In the show, Sally Pressman stars as a playful woman from the wrong part of town who marries a soldier, relocates her children to a military base and becomes friends with a assorted group of Army wives, played by Bell, Kim Delaney and Brigid Brannagh.

In a departure from the stubborn Lt. Col. Sarah Mackenzie she played on "JAG," on "Army Wives" she played the wife of a Major, a dedicated homemaker who is suffering from physical and mental abuse at the hands of her teenage son. She used her exposure and the show's recognition, especially with military supporters and wives, to expand her career into an assortment of magazine covers and roles in television movies, eventually grabbing her leading role as the focus of Jim Carrey's desire in the comedy "Bruce Almighty" (2003) with Jennifer Aniston, about a guy who complains about God too often who is given almighty powers to teach him how difficult it is to run the world. 

She then appeared in the television mini series "The Triangle" (2005) where a group of people haunted by their experiences within the Bermuda Triangle band together to confront its truths. She then was cast in another made for television movie "Still Small Voices" (2006), about a 911 operator who receives a ghostly call from a child murdered thirty years before and becomes obsessed with unraveling the crime. What she discovers shatters her. She then appeared in the family television movie "The Good Wives" (2008) about a mysterious woman who comes in to town and inhabits the local haunted mansion, making everyone wonder if she's a witch or "The Grey Lady". 

She has also had numerous guest appearances on TV shows including "Vanishing Son", "Friends", "The Naked Truth", "Hot Line", "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" with Kevin Sorbo, "Sin City Spectacular", "Threshold" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit".

The actress has been associated with Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard since 1990 and has achieved the position the Church of Scientology calls "The State Of Clear". She has been involved with Scientology for quite some time, as have some of her fellow celebrity friends Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley. 

She has supported Scientology's Hollywood Education and Literacy Project. In December 2005, she assisted in the promotion the grand opening of Scientology's controversial "Psychiatry: An Industry of Death", which tells of a possible conspiracy theory linking Adolf Hitler to the psychiatric profession.

In February 2006, she appeared in a Scientology music video called "United". Fox News reporter Roger Friedman said of the video, "Bell and other celebrities such as Jenna Elfman and Isaac Hayes were all sort of nodding in a trance and clapping".