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Victoria Pratt Profile |
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Birth Date: December 18, 1970
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Birth Place: Chesley, Ontario, Canada
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Birth Name: Victoria Ainsle Pratt
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Height: 5'6"
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Biography |
When Victoria Pratt was born on December 18, 1970 in
Chesley, Ontario, the residents of the tiny Canadian town
had no way of knowing that they had a future Amazon Queen
with a blue belt and swift legs in their midst.
Something of a tomboy in her youth, Victoria nurtured her
athletic side and became an accomplished runner by the time
she entered Toronto's York University one year ahead of the
rest of her class. While there she ran on, competing in the
Commonwealth Games while consistently making the Dean's
list. She graduated summa cum laude with a degree in
kinesiology.
She turned down a scholarship for a master's program in
physiotherapy to begin working in the university's athletic
performance testing facility and co-author a book on
fitness. The latter project led her to ask her former
professor Robert Kennedy, the publisher of such fitness
magazines as Oxygen and MuscleMag, for some pictures of
athletes for the book. Instead, the camera was turned on
Victoria when Kennedy convinced her to give fitness modeling
a try, and then encouraged her to take acting lessons.
After posing for still cameras for some time, Pratt
committed herself to acting lessons for two years. After
completion, she got an agent and landed her first job as
co-host of Go For It, a Discovery Channel series about
non-traditional outdoor sports. Around the same time she had
a successful first audition for an acting role, and landed a
guest spot in the John Woo television series, Once a Thief.
She was so good that they quickly made her a regular.
In 1998, she was on a plane to the Philippines to visit some
friends on the set of their film, Legacy. During her flight,
she was asked to replace an actress who had just dropped
out, and was whisked away to wardrobe upon debarking.
Suddenly, she was face to face with lead actor David
Hasselhoff.
After the cancellation of Once a Thief, Pratt moved to Los
Angeles. She soon won the first of many sci-fi roles she was
perfectly suited for, as Cyane, Queen of the Amazons, on
Xena: Warrior Princess. Though she appeared in only two
episodes, her part was memorable. Around the same time she
appeared in the pilot of an Aaron Spelling pilot called
Forbidden Island that was never picked up. Both of these
projects brought her to New Zealand for filming.
Being Canadian, Pratt leapt at the chance to audition for
the sequel to the Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas-led classic,
Strange Brew. She even turned down a lead role in the sci-fi
series, Cleopatra 2525 in order to film the movie. But when
financing of the film fell through, she returned to the
producers of the USA series just in time to hang on to her
role. Cleopatra 2525 had a strong start in 2000, but was
cancelled nonetheless.
In 2001, Victoria Pratt played a cowgirl alongside Meat Loaf
and Kristin Davis in an HBO film called Blacktop, but her
part was cut out of the story. It was shot in Vancouver, and
while there Pratt made an appearance in the action sci-fi
series, First Wave.
Vancouver proved to be lucky for Victoria, as it was there
that she found out that a part in a Marvel series was being
written specially for her. The role was that of Shalimar
Fox, a tough girl with both human and animal DNA, and the
show was called Mutant X. So far, it's proving to be the
reliable job she has always deserved.
Mutant X is filmed in Toronto, and while there, Pratt won a
role in an independent film called The Mallory Effect,
starring model Josie Maran. For weeks she applied her
athletic endurance to a grueling schedule that took her back
and forth between daytime shoots in Toronto and nighttime
shoots in Montreal for The Mallory Effect. The hard work has
paid off: The show is still successful and the film was
selected for the opening night gala slot at the 2002
Sundance Film Festival.
Though Victoria claims she wants to open an Oyster Bar when
she's older, you can count on seeing a lot more of her in
the years to come. |
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Other
Information |
Attended York University in Toronto. Has a degree in
Kinesiology
Is left handed
Grew up in a small town of Chesley, Ontario, Canada
Canadian Track & Field Championship 1990 Medal Winner. |
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