Jorja-An Fox (born July 7, 1968 in New York, New York) is an American actress.
Her name is pronounced like "
Georgia".
Jorja Fox was raised on a narrow barrier island in Melbourne Beach, Florida, the youngest child of Montreal-born immigrant parents. After attending Melbourne High School for two years, she won a modeling contest and moved to her birthplace of New York to pursue an acting career. Enjoying moderate success for independent films, Fox entered the limelight in 1996 when she appeared on the hit NBC television series, ER, as a recurring character, the no-nonsense medical intern Maggie Doyle. This character was eventually revealed to be a lesbian; playing up that fame, Fox appeared (uncredited) on the infamous coming out episode of Ellen ("The Puppy Episode Part 2", 30 April 1997).
Fox went on to film the movies Velocity Trap and Food for the Heart. In 1999, she was cast as the recurring character of the Secret Service Agent Gina Toscano on NBC's series The West Wing. Fox also appeared briefly in the movie Memento, which starred Guy Pearce and Carrie-Anne Moss.
A dedicated vegetarian, she is currently doing a contest promotion with PETA to promote vegetarianism. The admittedly squeamish Fox stars on the popular American crime drama television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as the troubled investigator Sara Sidle (who is a vegetarian too). Fox resides in Los Angeles.
Fox is the co-founder of Honeypot Productions, an independent avant-garde theatre company in Los Angeles. The theatre company has produced five original productions and she has starred in four, written three, and directed one of them. Friend and HoneyPot co-founder Heather Reid wrote Dear Bernard, which premiered in L.A. in the fall of 2004, and is scheduled to premiere in London in July of 2005; Fox is one of the producers. Fox is also a musician: she plays guitar (badly, she says) and recently purchased a drum kit. She also sings and writes songs, most notably the song "Lullabye" for the movie Traveling Companion, as well as the song "Satellite" which she published on her official web site.
She and CSI co-star George Eads received some bad publicity in 2004 when they were fired, allegedly over contract disputes. Eads was reported to be hours late for work on the first day of filming for the fifth season, and Fox had allegedly failed to submit a letter to CBS confirming that she would be on time for shooting. The disputes were resolved in just over a week, and the two were rehired by CBS; however, neither actor's salary (reportedly US$100,000 per episode) was raised like the rest of their co-workers. It was also reported that of the two, Fox was approached first to resume her contract with CSI - but she refused until Eads was rehired as well.
