Catherine Bell

Bell was born in London, England, the daughter of Mina, a personal assistant and nurse, and Peter Bell, an architect. Her mother was Iranian and her father English. Her parents divorced and she and her mother moved to Los Angeles, California when she was three years old. She became a naturalized citizen of the United States at the age of twelve.^{[citation needed]} A self-described "geek", Bell thrived in math and biology classes in school, and in junior high school once programmed a computer video game.

She acted in various television advertisements as a child. She attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with an interest in becoming either a biomedical engineer or a physician but dropped out to become a full-time model.

One of Bell's first modeling jobs was an extended assignment in Japan. When she returned to California, she studied acting at the Beverly Hills Playhouse with Milton Katselas. Her first television acting role was one line on the sitcom "Sugar and Spice" (1990).Her first appearance in a film was as a partially nude body double for Isabella Rossellini in Death Becomes Her (1992).

From 1997 to 2005, Bell starred as U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Sarah MacKenzie on the television series JAG as a practicing attorney in the U.S. Navy's Judge Advocate General's Corps. Her earlier TV work included an appearance in a late night adult series called "Hot line" which aired in the U.K. From 1994 to 1996. Bell was featured in "The Brunch Club" episode.

In 2003, the actress had a supporting role as a television news anchor in the comedy Bruce Almighty, which starred Jim Carrey. She reprised the role with a cameo in the 2007 sequel Evan Almighty.

Bell appeared in the Sci-Fi Channel miniseries The Triangle, presented in December 2005, playing an ocean engineer. In 2006, she was nominated in Saturn Award of Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films for Best Supporting Actress on Television (The Triangle).

In 2007, Bell starred in Lifetime's ensemble drama series Army Wives as Denise Sherwood, the wife of a US Army major, who is enduring physical abuse at the hands of her teenage son.