Poppy Montgomery Biography

Poppy Montgomery (born Poppy Petal Emma Elizabeth Deveraux Donahue; 19 June 1975) is an Australian actress. She is known for playing the role of FBI agent Samantha Spade on the CBS mystery drama Without a Trace and her latest television role as Det. Carrie Wells on the CBS police drama Unforgettable.

Early life

Montgomery was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, to Nicola (née Montgomery), an executive and market researcher, and Phil Donahue, a restaurateur. She is one of six children and her parents named her and her sisters (Rosie Thorn, Daisy Yellow, Lily Belle, and Marigold Sun) after flowers, and their brother after Jethro Tull.

Montgomery hated school, being expelled from six private academies before finally dropping out at the age of fifteen to pursue stage acting and to also travel around Bali with her boyfriend at the time. Montgomery emigrated to the United States at the age of eighteen, arriving in Florida to meet a boyfriend whom she had met when he was an exchange student. After five days, she realized that "[she] couldn't stand him" and then took a bus to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.

Career

When Montgomery arrived in Los Angeles, she stayed with two of her brother's friends while sending a head shot every day to Julia Roberts's former manager, Bob McGowan, until he signed her. She appeared in several television bit parts through the late-1990s, including NYPD Blue. Her first big break was when she won the role of Marilyn Monroe in the 2001 CBS mini-series Blonde, based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates. The next role she was offered was a starring role as Samantha Spade on the CBS mystery drama Without a Trace, where she was picked out of over one hundred actresses. The series centered around a missing persons unit of the FBI. On being offered the part, she later said, "They (the producers) called me up and said, 'Will you do it?' I said, 'Um' and they said, 'Anthony LaPaglia is in it' and I said, 'sure'. It was that simple." Montgomery portrayed Samantha Spade from when the show began on 26 September 2002 for seven seasons until it ended on 19 May 2009

In April 2011, Montgomery completed filming a television biographical film Magic Beyond Words, playing Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling. In September 2011, she began to star in the TV series Unforgettable, a police procedural drama where she plays Carrie Wells, a former Syracuse NYPD homicide detective with perfect recall as a result from having hyperthymesia, who is convinced to rejoin the department by her ex-boyfriend, after leaving because of her sister's murder. She uses her unusually detailed memory to solve crimes. Until the debut of ABC's new family-oriented, late-arriving, Sunday night fairy-tale drama Once Upon a Time, CBS had been airing promos that Unforgettable was the #1 new drama of the 2011"12 season. According to the prime-time Nielsen television ratings released through November 6, 2011, season-to-date, Unforgettable has averaged 13.9 million viewers. For a snapshot rating, on Tuesday 1 November 2011, the series was first in its regular time slot, with 11.3 million viewers and ranked #24 overall for the week.

Montgomery posed in a series of provocative photographs on Maxim's web site in their Girls of Maxim feature.

Personal life

Montgomery met actor Adam Kaufman, in 2005 in Mexico while working on the independent film Between and in 2010, they worked together again in the TV movie Lying to be Perfect. Kaufman began a recurring role on Without a Trace, making his first appearance in March 2007 with season 5: episode 19 titled "At Rest", playing Brian Donovan, Spade's love interest for the rest of the series. In June 2007, Montgomery announced her pregnancy with Kaufman, which was written into the sixth season. On 23 December 2007, Montgomery gave birth to their son Jackson Phillip Deveraux Montgomery Kaufman in Los Angeles. It was reported on 10 October 2011, through Life & Style, that Montgomery and Kaufman broke up due to the distance between them when working.

Since late 2011, Montgomery has been in a relationship with Shawn Sanford, director of lifestyle marketing for Microsoft, whom she met at an event in Puerto Rico. On 22 April 2013, she gave birth to their daughter Violet Grace Deveraux Sanford.

Montgomery holds an Dual citizenship for the U.S. and Australia. Montgomery moved from Los Angeles to New York City in 2013.

Filmography

Film and television roles

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Silk Stalkings	Angel	U.S. TV series; 2-part episode: "Natural Selection"
	Tammy and the T-Rex	Party Girl #1
1995	Jake Lassiter: Justice on the Bayou	Cindy	TV movie
	Devil in a Blue Dress	Barbara's Sister
1996	'	Marilyn 'Lee' Cross	TV movie
	Peacock Blues		TV short
	Party of Five	Allison	U.S. TV series; episode: "Poor Substitutes"
	NYPD Blue	Lisa	U.S. TV series; episode: "Burnin' Love"
	Relativity	Jennifer Lukens	U.S. TV series, recurring role (7 episodes)
1997	Desert's Edge	Mary	TV short
1998	Dead Man on Campus	Rachel
1999	'	Dr. Sarah Coleman	TV movie
1999	'	Caroline Tate
	Life	Older Mae Rose Abernathy
2000	Men Named Milo, Women Named Greta	Barri Noodleman	Short film
	'	Elizabeth Waclawek	U.S. TV series; recurring role (3 episodes)
2001	Blonde	Norma Jean Baker / Marilyn Monroe	TV miniseries
	Going to California	Penelope	Episode: "Hurricane Al: A Tale of Key Largo"
2002	Glory Days	Ellie Sparks	U.S. TV series, recurring role (9 episodes)
2002"09	Without a Trace	Samantha Spade	U.S. TV series; series regular (160 episodes)
2004	Raising Waylon	Julia Bellows	TV special
	'	Allison
2005	Between	Nadine Roberts
	Murder in the Hamptons	Generosa Rand	TV movie
	Snow Wonder	Paula	TV movie
2010	True Blue	Katherine Miller	TV pilot
	Lying to Be Perfect	Nola Devlin	TV movie
2011	Magic Beyond Words	J. K. Rowling	TV movie
2011" present	Unforgettable	Carrie Wells	U.S. TV series; lead role