by: Laura Prudom

Jaime Ray Newman

Jaime Ray Newman didn't quite follow the trend when it came to moving to Los Angeles to follow her dreams. It was Newman's family that settled here while she was at Northwestern University studying English Literature, and Newman didn't give a thought to join them until after graduation. Her breakthrough role on General Hospital followed soon after, but it is the bewitching Kat Gardener on ABC's Eastwick that has given Newman the chance to explore the most empowering and malicious aspects of femininity, "I fall in love with every character I play," the actress admits. In her spare time, the Detroit native fronts a band called School Boy Crush and is currently scripting a movie. "I travel a lot, I have a lot of family in the Middle East, so there's a movie that I'm writing right now," she explains, also citing a movie she'll be shooting over Eastwick's April hiatus, titled Eggscape. "I'm a total workaholic, I love this pace," she laughs, eyes bright and wide despite the hectic schedule.

Navi Rawat

Originally double-majoring in British and American literature, Navi Rawat never could've dreamed that her breakthrough role would come from a show dedicated to solving crimes with math on Numb3rs. "The crime stuff is very high concept, very high level math and I'm the real opposite of a math person!" she laments with a laugh, "but I've grown to respect it and have learned to appreciate it through doing the show." A graduate of NYU's Tisch School of Arts, Rawat admits that acting was a natural progression for her: "I was into performing, I liked dancing- I danced for a long time and singing, acting out, I was always very theatrical as a child." If all goes to plan, Rawat will soon be juggling two shows; in addition to her regular role on Numb3rs, Rawat hopes to reprise her guest role on FlashForward, provided the networks can negotiate her schedule. She recently completed an independent movie titled Ocean of Pearls and indulges in her dual passions for photography and travel in her spare time, often auctioning her artwork to benefit the One Heart charity.

Cote De Pablo

Being the only woman in a man's world can be daunting, but Cote De Pablo takes it in her stride. As Ziva David on NCIS, Chilean-born De Pablo is used to kicking ass in combat boots, reflecting that she was, "always a tomboy growing up. But after doing NCIS I'm a complete girly girl. I just want to escape this whole combat boot military thing and I would like to wear my hair down and curly and I like to wear lipstick and heels." Being a part of the number one show on US primetime with 21 million viewers and six consecutive weeks at the top of the ratings, doesn't give De Pablo much downtime. Singing used to be her main passion, but "[acting] has consumed my time. Singing is always there, though, it's just a muscle you have to exercise-hopefully I'll get back into that discipline of doing it regularly with a band and singing Judy Garland stuff."

Lisa Edelstein

After selecting the most slinky, sexy little number on the rack, the Brooklyn-based actress fired up the room by leaping around the set in heart-stopping stilettos; a far cry from her role as straight-laced Dr. Cuddy on House. "When I was living in New York full time, many times I left my apartment and I'd be walking down the street and catch my reflection and have to literally turn around and go back home and change my clothes - it can be very embarrassing!" Her first role consisted of carrying a sign across the stage at her brother's sleep away camp play when she was four, and the actress still remembers the exhilaration of performing. A staunch advocate of women's and gay rights, Edelstein recently appeared in a one-day performance of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later to benefit the Matthew Shepard foundation, and has previously authored and produced a play in response to the AIDS crisis.

Lauren Vélez

As Lieutenant Maria LaGuerta on Showtime's bloodthirsty mainstay Dexter, Lauren Vélez is a force to be reckoned with, ruling the Miami Homicide Department with an iron fist. In person, however, Vélez is nothing like her brooding alter-ego, lighting up our shoot with her effervescent nature and killer dance moves. Performing was always in Vélez's blood; her mother was a singer in Puerto Rico and the actress credits her with imbuing her eight children with a love of the arts. "It takes nothing for me to get up and dance," Vélez insists, "when you're one of eight you either go out or in, you're either an extrovert or an introvert. For a long time I thought I was introverted - turns out I was wrong!" Her next project has been close to Vélez's heart for a number of years; the rags to riches to rags story of Guadalupe Victoria Yoli, the Cuban singer known as La Lupe, which Vélez is currently adapting into a feature film.

Rutina Wesley

Troubled Tara Thornton holds the emotional center of HBO's smash hit True Blood, which is thanks, in large part, to Rutina Wesley's nuanced and vulnerable performance. Born in Las Vegas to a showgirl mother and a professional tap dancer father, Wesley was always destined to see her name in lights. Wesley discovered her passion for acting after her first role in a play at the age of seven, "I just loved being on stage," she admits, "my dad wanted me to be tapping, but I'm a storyteller, I feel like I'm a vessel through which characters come through. There are so many stories out there to be told and you can tell them through dance, through song and through acting; acting gives me a chance to do all of those things at once." After such an emotionally grueling season, Wesley intends to take it easy before True Blood resumes filming, but you can catch her voice on an upcoming episode of The Cleveland Show, playing Yvette, Donna's best friend.

Emily Procter

Emily Procter is a true southern belle, a guise that hides her well when she's playing pranks on her CSI: Miami co-stars. "I've been playing a practical joke on Jonathan Togo [who plays Ryan Wolfe] for the last two months," she confides with a giggle. "I got these novelty bumper stickers from North Carolina - they say horrible things like, ‘I'm only speeding because I have to poop' and stuff, and I've been putting them on his car weekly for months. He has no idea who's doing it; it's slowly driving him crazy!" Procter originally studied Spanish in college and anchored at a local news station; the dream of acting never crossed her mind until a bad half-hour of TV came on the station's feed, and with the knowledge that she certainly couldn't be any worse, Procter headed to L.A. and never looked back.

Katee SackHoff

Best-known for her ass-kicking, gender-bending role of Starbuck on the new Battlestar Galactica, Katee Sackhoff is perhaps not the first person you'd expect to be baking a cake on her time off. "It's my boyfriend's birthday," she confides, explaining her plans for after our shoot, "he's a big fan of carrot cake, and I'm a big fan of baking... and eating it, so that's what I'm doing today!" Her latest role sees her on 24, with her character conservatively described as "a computer analyst who has a past." Fans who are jonesing for a Sackhoff fix before 24's January premiere can rest easy though, she guest stars as herself on the November 23rd episode of The Big Bang Theory, playing a figment of Wallowitz's imagination. Not bad for an Oregon-born athlete who got her big break when she was too tall to play Kirsten Dunst's body double in Fifteen and Pregnant and was awarded a role instead - who says good things have to come in small packages?

Jessalyn Gilsig

It's good to be bad; just ask Jessalyn Gilsig. As Terri Schuester on Glee, Montréal-born Gilsig isn't making any friends - she's too busy faking a pregnancy to keep her oblivious husband from straying, or drugging high-schoolers with decongestants while posing as the school nurse. Many actresses would balk at playing such a twisted sister, but Gilsig welcomes the challenge, "Growing up, you want to be an actress because you want to transform, and then you do a lot of roles where you're not necessarily transforming. [Terri] is a role where I really feel that I've been asked to try and understand the psyche of a person who makes choices I would never make, and that's really fun." In addition to causing trouble on Glee, Gilsig can next be spotted in the independent feature Fifty-Nothing, released next year.

PHOTOGRAPHED BY HELLIN KAY
STYLED BY JODI LEESLEY
HAIR BY STEPHANIE POHL
MAKE-UP BY RIKU CAMPO
SHOT AT SMASHBOX STUDIOS, CULVER CITY