Andrea Roth on AllMovie

Every actor or actress with a substantial degree of public recognition can attest to a big break; for Andrea Roth, that break arrived in the form of Rescue Me (2004), a smash-hit seriocomedy on the FX channel where the actress played Janet Gavin, the estranged ex-wife of brash, acid-mouthed firefighter Tommy (Denis Leary). It marked one of the first roles to secure the Canadian actress' national reputation, but -- in actuality -- only the tail end of a series of parts that stretched back to 1981. Roth debuted auspiciously, that year, with the role of Amy in the Australian sports drama The Club, directed by Bruce Beresford and scripted by David Williamson (Don's Party).

Many projects followed over the next three decades, but more often than not, Roth appeared to be stuck in a rut and saddled with exploitative pap -- such as the made-for-television Canadian thriller Psychic, the 1998 big-screen feature Burn, and the 2002 gorefest Sasquatch. Rescue Me unquestionably lifted Roth's reputation by several notches and oriented her toward more respected material. In 2007, Roth also appeared in the Jet Li action vehicle War, about a federal agent unwittingly caught in a turf war between the yakuza and a violent triad. In the years to follow, Roth would find continued success on the small screen, starring on the series Ringer.