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 Andrea,
although born in Ohio, spent most of her
'formative' years in Australia. She grew up one of
four children raised in a very strict Catholic
household. Her father apparently was a hotel
manager, so the family traveled around quiet a bit.
Her parents divorced when she was in her teens, and
mom hauled the kids back to the US, settling in
Florida. Andrea graduated from high school at the
tender age of 16, and moved to New York City. There
she was discovered by the powerful agent, Irene
Marie, and began a successful modeling career.
During those years she also hit the road and spent
sometime traveling this blue globe of ours. In her
'spare' time from modeling she had a number of
interesting jobs, such as, a parts runner and cook
for a gold mine in Northern California, sailing and
fishing in the Caribbean, Jamaica, and Grenada. Her
other adventures took her to Tunisia, Morocco,
Algeria, Rio and most of Europe. Settling down
again in New York, she pursued acting under the
tutelage of Uta Hagen, at the Herbert Bergdorf
Studios and at the Strasberg Studio, before she was
accepted into the prestigious Actors Studio. While
at the Actors Studio, a compliment from Arthur
Millers' daughter (Andrea had been performing a
scene from "After the Fall") gave her the
confidence to start going to auditions. Then she
headed to Hollywood!
Her first
audition landed her the lead in the quirky sci-fi
movie DOIN' TIME ON PLANET EARTH (although she did
do a couple of things before Doin' Time, so I don't
know if saying she landed her first role on her
very first audition is accurate!). From there she
has kept on going, starting with small roles in
WALL STREET and DELIRIOUS, and then landing as a
series regular on FALCON CREST as Genele Erickson.
As 'bad' girl Genele, she earned a Soap Opera
Digest award nomination for her performance. Andrea
bounced around TV, doing guest roles here and
there, before landing the role as telepath Talia
Winters, in the sci-fi series BABYLON 5. While on
B5, she married fellow cast member Jerry Doyle. She
has a son, Alec (born in 1992), from a brief
relationship. Leaving after two seasons on B5,
Andrea jumped over to JAG for a recurring role as
Commander Allison Krennick. In the mists of that
show shuffling from one station to another, Andrea
didn't. Luckily for us all, David Milch, creator of
NYPD Blue was looking for another actress to add to
his assemble cast. Andrea got her feet wet in some
episodes of season four, and then moved up to
regular cast status starting in season
five.
Not only is she a
regular cast member of NYPD Blue, but she has
starred in several other features, A GUN, A CAR, A
BLONDE which premiered at the 1997 Slamdance
Festival in Park City, Utah. Last year, Andrea
guest-starred on the hit HBO series, ARLI$$, and
completed filming a starring role in the feature,
THE LOST VALLEY. She has also done some production
work and is developing several film
features.
For her role as
Detective Jill Kirkendall she did a little 'hands
on' research and hit the streets of New York City.
Andrea spent 14 hours a day, for a week, in a squad
car and precincts. She even got to work with one of
the detectives who worked on both the, Son of Sam
and Zodiac murder cases. What is Kirkendall like,
well I differ to Mr. Sipenwall for his excellent
character summary, "The emotional rock to partner
Diane Russell's tower of Jell-O, Kirkendall is the
most competent and confident cop in the precinct
not named Sipowicz or Simone (and often tops them
both)." Okay, now with Simone gone, I do think that
'tower of Jell-O' is a bit harsh for Russell, she's
hardened up a bit. Because of her distinctive
throaty voice, Andrea also has a successful
voice-over career, which continues today. Recently
she did a port for the Braun Thermoscan
thermometer.
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