Natalie Zea on AllMovie

The lithe and graceful Lone Star actress Natalie Zea attended Monahans High School in her hometown of Pasadena, TX, in the early '90s, graduating in 1993. In pursuit of a dramatic career, Zea subsequently moved to the Big Apple, where she enrolled in the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, and built a solid foundation as a theatrical player in such off-Broadway productions as Chekhov's The Three Sisters and William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

After graduation, Zea shifted focus; honing in almost exclusively on filmed work, she appeared in innumerable student and low-budget productions, and partially supported herself with work on television commercials, promoting such brands as Lucky Strike, Dove, Hellman's, and Snickers. A low-budget film collaboration with fellow actors John Glover and Gloria Reuben, Macbeth in Manhattan (1999), followed, along with a two-year stint as Gwen Hotchkiss on the daytime drama Passions. Zea also made her way into prime time, with guest work on such series as CSI, Two and a Half Men, and Without a Trace, as well as a recurring part on The Shield, as Lauren Riley. Then, in the mid- to late 2000s, Zea locked down two regular small-screen roles with ABC: Trish Agermeyer on the short-lived "financial intrigue" series Eyes (co-starring Tim Daly) and filthy rich divorcée Karen Darling on the weekly prime-time soap Dirty Sexy Money.