Yvonne Strahovsky

Australian actress and model Yvonne Strahovsky plays Sarah Walker on the sci-fi comedy "CHUCK. Strahovski was born in Maroubra, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, as Yvonne Strzechowski to Polish parents who had emigrated from Warsaw. Yvonne describes herself as being a tomboy while growing up. Strahovski's father is an electronics engineer, and her mother works as a lab technician. Upon graduating from the renowned Theatre Nepean in Sydney, Australia in 2003, she quickly established herself as a newcomer worth watching. Strahovski first started her career in Australia appearing in film and TV roles, including a turn on satirical show Double the Fist and a part in Aussie drama series headLand. She adopted the more phonetic spelling of Strahovski as her stage name at Chuck producer Josh Schwartz's behest for the sake of easier pronunciation. She sent in her audition tape for the show Chuck while in the United States auditioning for roles in other shows, including the short-lived reboot The Bionic Woman. Yvonne speaks fluent Polish and employed it in a brief exchange with a colleague in the Chuck episode "Chuck Versus the Wookiee" and again during the character's return in "Chuck Versus the Three Words". Strahovski portrays Miranda Lawson in the video game Mass Effect 2.

"(Chuck) was the first pilot season I had done. I was actually auditioning from Australia, in Sydney, putting auditions on tape and sending them over as QuickTime [files]. Chuck was one of the [shows] I sent to, and they called me to say, "Come have a meeting with us." So I met with [executive producer/director] McG and [series creators] Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak, and they gave me the job."