Jewel Staite facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jewel Staite
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Staite at the 2013 Phoenix Comicon
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| Born |
Jewel Belair Staite
June 2, 1982 White Rock, British Columbia, Canada
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| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1991–present |
| Spouse(s) |
Matt Anderson
(m. 2003; div. 2011)Charlie Ritchie
(m. 2016) |
| Children | 1 |
Jewel Belair Staite (born June 2, 1982) is a Canadian actress. She is famous for playing the cheerful mechanic Kaylee Frye in the science-fiction TV show Firefly and the movie Serenity.
Many people also know her as Dr. Jennifer Keller from the sci-fi series Stargate Atlantis. Over her long career, she has appeared in many other shows. These include Space Cases, Flash Forward, The L.A. Complex, and The Killing. Since 2021, she has starred in the Canadian TV show Family Law.
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Early Life and First Steps in Acting
Jewel Staite was born in White Rock, British Columbia, Canada. She was the youngest of seven children. She has said her family background includes British, Irish, French Canadian, and Iroquois heritage.
Staite started her career when she was very young. She worked as a model and began acting at the age of six. To improve her skills, she studied at the Vancouver Film School and performed at the Vancouver Youth Theatre.
Career in Television and Film
First Roles as a Young Actress
Staite's first major roles were in TV movies. In 1993, she was in Liar, Liar, which was shown on CBC in Canada and CBS in the United States. She also acted in the ABC movie The Only Way Out.
In 1995, she had an important guest role in the popular science-fiction show The X-Files. She appeared in the episode titled "Oubliette".
Starring in Sci-Fi and Family Shows
After appearing in Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Staite got her first main role in a TV series. She played Catalina, the ship's engineer, in the Nickelodeon sci-fi show Space Cases in 1996.
Right after that, she co-starred with actor Ben Foster in the Disney Channel series Flash Forward. She played one of the main characters, Rebecca "Becca" Fisher.
In 2000, Staite was a main character in the drama series Higher Ground. She also did voice acting for cartoons like Mummies Alive! and Sabrina: The Animated Series.
Fame with Firefly and Stargate Atlantis
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In 2002, Staite was cast as Kaylee Frye in the TV series Firefly. The show was loved by fans but was cancelled after one season. She returned to play Kaylee in the 2005 movie Serenity, which continued the story. She even wrote a chapter for a book about the show called Finding Serenity.
Later, Staite joined another popular science-fiction universe. She played Dr. Jennifer Keller in Stargate Atlantis. She started as a recurring character but became part of the main cast in the final season. Interestingly, she had already appeared on the show once before. She played a different character, a young Wraith named Ellia, in the episode "Instinct".
Recent Work
Staite has continued to act in many different TV shows. In 2010, she was in the movie Mothman and guest-starred on the show Warehouse 13. In 2011, she appeared in an episode of Supernatural.
In 2012, she was a main character in The L.A. Complex, where she played a struggling actress named Raquel Westbrook. From 2013 to 2014, she had a recurring role in the crime drama The Killing.
Since 2021, Staite has been starring as Abigail Bianchi in the Canadian legal drama Family Law.
Personal Life
Jewel Staite was married to actor Matt Anderson from 2003 to 2011. In 2015, she got engaged to Charlie Ritchie. Later that year, they had a son. Staite and Ritchie were married on July 23, 2016.
