Celebrity crush: Stana Katic

Today's profile features a Canadian beauty who co-stars on the mystery/romantic dramedy Castle alongside Nathan Fillion. Amazon and iTunes links follow. Any affiliate payments earned from your purchase or rental will help pay the hosting fees for my podcasts, so please consider clicking.

Name: Stana Katic (images | Web site | Twitter)
Hometown: This particular member of the insidious army of beautiful women from our Strange and Savage Neighbo(u)rs to the North hails from the city of Hamilton, Ontario, according to her Wikipedia profile. Her father is Serbian, her mother Croatian, both immigrants from what was then Yugoslavia. The family later moved to Illinois to throw suspicion off their secretly Canadian daughter so she might one day become president -- wait, wrong loony conspiracy theory. Though they DID move to Illinois.

Best Known For: Far and away, Stana's main claim to fame is Castle, where she has for three seasons played Det. Kate Beckett, muse to mystery author Rick Castle (Fillion). Other works have often fallen in genre television -- with appearances on Heroes, Alias, The Unit, and 24, playing Morgenstern in the film based on Will Eisner's legendary superhero The Spirit, and voicing Talia al Ghul in the forthcoming video game Batman: Arkham City. She even has "Bond girl" cred, playing Corrine Veneau in Quantum of Solace. This year's film releases include The Double, alongside fellow celebrity crush Odette Yustman.

She's also known as "not Mischa Barton," according to at least a couple of photos that popped up in my image search for this entry. And thank the stars for that.
Humble Beginnings: Other works less likely to land her at a comic book convention include appearances on Brothers and Sisters and ER, plus the indie film Feast of Love (which saw her steaming up the screen with Selma Blair). But her résumé is largely filled with appearances on cop-style shows and (possibly direct-to-video) gangster and crime movies even before 24, Heroes and finally Castle. When you look like a femme fatale...

Corseted up for the third Noah Wyle
The Librarian TV-movie.

Obligatory Edgy Stuff: She speaks English, Serbo-Croatian, Slovene, French, and Italian. Truly, the evil Canadians have sent one of their best down here, and all may already be lost though our nation is slow to react.
Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: Besides her femme fatale good looks, Katic is a nuanced actress who is capable of holding her own against the unstoppable force of smirk that is Nathan Fillion. Her "overnight success" is long overdue.
Film and TV-movie credits: The Double (Amazon | iTunes) * For Lovers Only (Amazon | iTunes) * Truth About Kerry (Amazon | iTunes) * The Spirit (Amazon | iTunes) * The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice (Amazon | iTunes) * Quantum of Solace (Amazon | iTunes) * Stiletto (Amazon | iTunes) * Feast of Love (Amazon | iTunes) * Dragon Dynasty (Amazon | iTunes) * Pit Fighter (Amazon | iTunes) * Shut-Eye (Amazon | iTunes) * Acid Freaks (Amazon | iTunes)

Voice work: Batman: Arkham City (Amazon)
TV and Web series credits: Castle, season 3 (Amazon | iTunes) * Castle, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * Castle: Cast and Creators Live at the Paley Center (Amazon | iTunes) * Castle, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * Would Be Kings (Amazon | iTunes) * The Unit, season 3: "Binary Explosion" (Amazon | iTunes) * C.S.I.: Miami, season 6: "Deep Freeze" (Amazon | iTunes) * Heroes, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * Brothers and Sisters, season 1: "Patriarchy (pilot)" (Amazon | iTunes) * 24, season 5 (Amazon | iTunes) * ER, season 12: "Wake Up (episode 5)" (Amazon | iTunes) * ER, season 12: "Blame It on the Rain (episode 4)" (Amazon | iTunes) * The Closer, season 1: "The Big Picture" (Amazon | iTunes) * JAG, season 10: "This Just in From Baghdad" (Amazon | iTunes) * The Shield, season 3 (Amazon | iTunes) * L.A. Dragnet, season 2: "Retribution" (Amazon | iTunes) * Alias, season 3: "Facade" (Amazon | iTunes) * The Handler: "Bleak House" (Amazon | iTunes)