Lexa Doig Biography

Lexa Doig (born Alexandra Lecciones Doig on June 8, 1973) is a Canadian TV and movie actress. She portrayed the title role in the Canadian-American science fiction-adventure television series Andromeda that premiered on October 2, 2000 and concluded on May 13, 2005, after 5 seasons that included 110 episodes. She also portrayed the female lead role of Rowan in the science fiction-horror movie Jason X (2002), the 10th installment of the Friday the 13th film series.

Career

Doig first carved her niche in the entertainment industry at age 16, when she began accepting adverts and other modelling jobs from a talent agent whom she met while completing a modelling training course. The initial media exposure led to her co-hosting the Canadian game show Video & Arcade Top 10 with friend Gordon Michael Woolvett on YTV, from 1991 to 2006. While auditioning for television and film roles, she worked on theatre productions of Romeo and Juliet and Arsenic and Old Lace.

Her first television acting role was as "Second Girl" on The Hidden Room in 1993. Her first recurring role was in the TV seriesTekWar in 1994 where she portrayed the role of Cowgirl. Her first movie role was in the film Jungleground in 1995.

Doig got her first big break with a starring role in the movie No Alibi in 2000, opposite Dean Cain and Eric Roberts. She also landed the title role in Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's sci-fi TV series Andromeda where she portrayed the Andromeda Ascendant ship's computer in three dimensions "? as the ship's powerful AI (artificial intelligence) on the system's screen, as the AI's hologram, and as Rommie, the android avatar of the AI.

In 2002, she played the female lead role of "Dr. Rowan LaFontaine" in the horror film Jason X, the 10th installment of Friday the 13th film series. In a recurring role as Dr. Carolyn Lam, Doig also appeared in 11 episodes of the ninth and tenth seasons of Stargate SG-1 between 2005-2007.

In 2010, Doig appeared in 6 episodes in the remake of V as the alien physician Dr. Leah Pearlman. In 2012, she began playing the role of Liber8 terrorist Sonya Valentine in the Canadian science fiction TV series Continuum.

Personal life

Lexa Doig was born Alexandra Lecciones Doig in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on June 8, 1973. Nicknamed "Spark," she is the younger child of Gloria B. Lecciones and David W. Doig. Her mother is a Filipino Registered Nurse who originally came from Dumaguete City, Philippines, and her father is a Canadian engineer of Scottish and Irish descent who was a petroleum Executive Officer in Toronto.

As a child, Doig studied rhythmic gymnastics and, as a teenager, she studied American Sign Language. At the age of six, natural creativity and artistic talent displayed early budding when she wrote and directed her first school play, "Strawberry Shortcake," giving the lead role to her best friend. She developed a strong interest in acting and became inspired to become an actor at age 9 after she watched a theatre production of Porgy and Bess, an opera by George Gershwin. Since then, she participated in as many church and school stage plays as she could do during her growing years. While completing compulsory secondary education at Don Mills Collegiate Institute, she also enrolled in a vocational modelling programme where she was immediately offered representation by a talent agent, which she accepted. She was immediately booked in various modelling projects that opened doors to bigger opportunities. She chose to drop out from her final year in high school to pursue an acting career as occupation. Incidentally, Doig is a cousin of American martial artist-stunt performers Rey-Phillip Santos and Rowland Santos.

Lexa Doig dated actor Michael Shanks after they met on the set of Andromeda, where the former starred and the latter guest-starred in the 2001 episode "Star Crossed." The two married on August 2, 2003, and they continued to work in the 2003 episode "Day of Judgment, Day of Wrath" of the same TV series. Doig and Shanks were castmates in the final two seasons of Stargate SG-1. The couple have two children: a daughter, Mia Tabitha Shanks (born September 13, 2004), and a son, Samuel David Shanks (born March 19, 2006). Their family currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia with Michael's elder daughter, Tatiana (born in 1998 from his relationship with Vaitiare Bandera, a castmate on the first three seasons of Stargate SG-1), and two family cats.

Doig and Shanks together are actively involved as charity fundraising partners for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada. Recently, the two actors also worked together in the action thriller Tactical Force (2011), with Doig portraying a female LAPD SWAT officer and Shanks playing the role of a Russian mob leader. Fans follow Doig as "LexaShmexa" at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

Doig divides her time between Vancouver, where she works, and Toronto, where she grew up. She enjoys reading, rollerblading, and playing role-playing video games and Dungeons & Dragons, in her spare time.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1993	The Hidden Room	Second Girl
1994	TekWar: TekLords	Cowgirl
	TekWar	Cowgirl
1995	Jungleground	Spider
1997	While My Pretty One Sleeps	Tse Tse
1998	CI5: The New Professionals	Tina Backus
1999	Teen Sorcery	Mercedes
	Ready or Not	Receptionist
2000	Code Name Phoenix	Conchita Flores
	Andromeda	Andromeda Ascendant/Rommie
	No Alibi	Camille
	Earth: Final Conflict	Joan Price
	Traders	M.J. Sullivan
2001	The Tracker	Kim Chang
2002	The Chris Isaak Show	Detective Lucy Ramirez	TV series, 1 episode
	Jason X	Rowan LaFontaine
2004	Human Cargo	Rachel Sanders
2005	Killer Instinct	Hospital Doctor
	The 4400	Wendy Paulson
	Stargate SG-1	Dr. Carolyn Lam
2007	Eureka	Dr. Anne Young
	Second Sight	Jenny Morris
2008	Ba'al: The Storm God	Pena
	The Green Film	The Star
2009	Fireball	Ava
	Supernatural	Risa	5.04 "The End"
	V	Dr. Leah Pearlman
2010	Smallville	Dr. Christina Lamall	10.06 "Harvest"
2011	Tactical Force	Officer Jannard
2012	Arctic Air	Petra Hossa
	Continuum	Sonya Valentine
	Primeval: New World	Mara Fridkin