Age: 28
Residence: Vancouver
Representation: The Gersh Agency (Beverly Hills)
Buzz: Leading lady in Global’s ratings hit Rookie Blue

There was a moment while playing Rookie Blue character Andy McNally when Missy Peregrym had to ask herself, “Why am I saying her lines in real life?”

The Montreal-born, Vancouver-raised actress sees several parallels between herself and her cop character that she never discovered until she was right in the middle of a scene. “When I see something with potential, I really like to build it up and make it the best it can be – and I feel Andy is like that.”

But that’s not all she’s feeling. Peregrym talks about feeling lucky and blessed about her role as leading lady in the new Global cop procedural that’s become quite the Canadian success story. She’s recently been on ABC’s Reaper and did a few eps of Heroes, but this is her first lead role in which she gets under the skin of a character and explore her back story – which also included four months of intensive training. “It’s exciting to go to work and read another script and say, ‘What else am I learning about Andy?'”

When Peregrym met the team behind Rookie Blue, she immediately took to them. “In TV, there are a lot of people who have an opinion and a vision for the show and they get lost because they’re not on the same page. This time,” she says, “People were finishing each other’s sentences, they knew where they wanted the series to go. I was sold and it’s all I wanted to do so badly.”

But that wasn’t always the case for Peregrym, who didn’t start her acting career until just after high school. Having dabbled in modeling, her agency at the time had launched an acting division and she was encouraged to try out for commercials. “I remember auditioning and I couldn’t stop laughing or take myself seriously,” she recalls, “I said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m wasting your time,’ and just walked out. My mom was so mad at me!”

Even now, she says she’s only starting to feel comfortable with her chosen career path, as she realizes how much her interest in human behavior and decision-making has helped her with acting. “It makes it so easy to dissect a character, but I didn’t realize it was a skill,” she says. “I thought it was just something I did naturally. The more I get to know myself, the more I see why I enjoy what I do.”