Michelle Ryan Biography

Prior to her role as the new Bionic Woman, U.K. audiences were familiar with British actress Michelle Ryan thanks to her five-year run (2000-2005) as Zoe Slater on the long-running BBC soap opera EastEnders. After she left that series, a role in Sean Ellis' moderately successful indie comedy Cashback (2006), as Suzy, the ex-girlfriend of Ben (Sean Biggerstaff) gained her some notice on the festival circuit, and U.K. audiences saw more of her on the modern-day Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde retelling Jekyll. It wasn't until her resuscitation of Jaime Sommers in the late-2007 NBC revamp of the 1970s adventure drama The Bionic Woman, however, that Ryan achieved significant international notice. Unfortunately, the series stumbled after initially drawing an impressive audience, and once the production was halted due to the writers' strike -- after only eight episodes had aired -- the show failed to be renewed. That same year, Ryan also appeared in the features Flick and I Want Candy. The former is a British horror picture about a psychotic, rampaging 1950s rock & roll rebel, the latter, a smarmy sex comedy about a couple of college students who get in over their heads when attempting to produce a porno film with a sleazy starlet (Carmen Electra) as their lead. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi