Jennifer Morrison (born 12 April 1979; age 45) is the actress who played Winona Kirk in Star Trek. Some of her lines from this film were later used in Star Trek Into Darkness.
She is best known for her role as Dr. Allison Cameron on House (2004–2012) and for her leading role as Emma Swan on Once Upon a Time (2011–2018).
As part of the Star Trek cast, Morrison received a Boston Society of Film Critics Award in the category Best Ensemble Cast in 2009.
Personal life[]
Morrison was born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Arlington Heights, Illinois. From 1993 through 1997, she attended Prospect High School in Mount Prospect, Illinois, where her father was a music teacher and the high school band director. Her mother was a private clarinet tutor. She went on to major in Theater at Loyola University in Chicago, graduating in 2000. After studying with the Chicago-based, Tony Award-winning Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Morrison moved to Los Angeles to pursue a professional acting career.
Morrison and her House co-star, Jesse Spencer, were engaged to be married in December 2006. In August 2007, however, the engagement was called off. Morrison later dated actor Amaury Nolasco and Once Upon a Time co-star Sebastian Stan. She married actor Gerardo Celasco in 2022.
Career[]
Early career[]
Morrison began her career in front of the camera when she was a child, modeling for print advertisements and appearing in commercials. Just before she began attending high school, Morrison made her film debut in the 1994 Paramount Pictures drama Intersection as the daughter of the main characters, played by Richard Gere and Sharon Stone.
Her next film appearance came in Miracle on 34th Street (1994, featuring William Windom). A few years later, Morrison returned to film to portray the ghost of a young girl in the Stir of Echoes (1999).
She had her first starring role in Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000, featuring Anson Mount). She subsequently worked with Clint Howard in 100 Women (2002, featuring Jimmie F. Skaggs) and The Sure Hand of God (2004, co-starred Gordon Clapp and Daniel Roebuck. She also made two movies with Stephen Root: Grind (2003, co-starring Christopher McDonald) and Surviving Christmas (2004).
In addition to her film credits, Morrison made a few guest appearances on such television shows as The Chronicle (2001, with Cliff DeYoung), Touched by an Angel (2001), and Dawson's Creek (2001-2002). She also appeared in an episode of the Lifetime drama Any Day Now in 2002 along with Geoffrey Blake and Cristine Rose as well as John P. Connolly and Olivia Hack.
House and concurrent work[]
In 2004, Morrison was cast as Dr. Cameron on House. Executive produced by Bryan Singer (who also directed two episodes of the first season), House premiered in November 2004 and ended in May 2012. Morrison's character on House was written out of the show in 2009; her final episode as a regular cast member featured a guest appearance by Jolene Blalock. Morrison made return appearances on House late in the 2009-2010 season and in the series finale in 2012. In 2009, she received a Screen Actor's Guild Award nomination in the category Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series for her work on House
Outside of House, Morrison appeared in Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) which, like Star Trek, featured costumes designed by Michael Kaplan. She also co-starred in Big Stan (2007), along with Henry Gibson and Richard Riehle. During the summer of 2006, Morrison worked with her House co-star and one-time fiance Jesse Spencer on Flourish, which Morrison also produced. Morrison also served as associate producer on the first season of Glee between 2009 and 2010.
After leaving House and following her work on Star Trek, Morrison co-starred with Tom Hardy in Warrior (2011). Her other films include Knife Fight (2012) and Some Girl(s) (2013). She can also be seen opposite Jude Ciccolella in the thriller Event 15 (2013) and Alex & the List (2018, with Bob Gunton and Michael Nouri).
During the 2010-2011 television season, Morrison played the recurring role of Zoey Pierson on CBS' How I Met Your Mother. From 2011 to 2018, she played the leading role of Emma Swan, the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming on Once Upon a Time. Others who appeared on this series included Raphael Sbarge, Oded Fehr, Alan Dale, Lee Arenberg, Tony Amendola, and Merrin Dungey.
She also appeared in films such as Amityville: The Awakening (2017, with Kurtwood Smith), Superfly (2018), The Report (2019), and Bombshell (2019, with Malcolm McDowell, Stephen Root, Mark Moses, Kevin Dorff, Marc Evan Jackson, Alice Eve, Spencer Garrett, Tony Plana, and Allan Graf).
Since 2019, Morrison has played the recurring role of Cassidy Sharp in NBC's This Is Us.