Celebrity crush: Michelle Ryan

Today's entry features a British actress who -- if she'd been allowed to use her own accent in her breakthrough role on the Bionic Woman remake -- would be a huge international star right now, I'm convinced. She was only hot on that show -- the accent takes her sex appeal to thermonuclear levels.

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Name: Michelle Ryan (images | Web site | Twitter)
Hometown: The Enfield neighborhood of London, England, according to her Wikipedia profile.
Best Known For: Michelle is best known to American audiences for her starring role in the short-lived 2007 remake of Bionic Woman, which was ill-conceived. She had charisma, but she was outmatched by fellow celebrity crush Katee Sackhoff -- or at least didn't get the same meaty writing as the Battlestar Galactica star in her guest turn as a prior, meaner bionic woman -- and the producers' seeming indecision about what they wanted the show to be (perhaps a case of going to air too soon) did her no favors. Oops.

Other works that American audiences might have seen include the David Tennant-fronted Doctor Who special "Planet of the Dead," where I first heard her natural British accent and realized that Bionic Woman could have been a hit if she'd just been allowed to not sound American. She also did a few episodes of the British import Merlin in 2008.
Humble Beginnings: Michelle started doing stage acting at 10, Wikipedia notes. Works in the U.K. include a few years on the soap EastEnders, starting before she was 18. (I'm only listing works from age 18-up in the credits below.) Before Bionic Woman, she co-starred alongside British character actor James Nesbitt in Jekyll, a modern-day rendition of the the Jekyll and Hyde story that deserved more than one series, and in a made-for-TV adaptation of Mansfield Park alongside fellow crush (and former Doctor Who co-star) Billie Piper.

Not the Obligatory Edgy Stuff: She's not the Michelle Ryan married to an American athletic figure who might or might not have been in a foot fetish sex video that circulated Teh Intarwebz. (Not bothering to link it, but Googling her might yield some NSFW results of someone else entirely as a result.)
Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: The failure of Bionic Woman wasn't her fault, really. She turned in a quite entertaining turn on Doctor Who, showing that in addition to a sexy voice and a va-va-voom figure, she also has enough charisma to go toe-to-toe with David Tennant.

Here's hoping that we will see more from her in coming years. She -- like fellow Brit and fellow celebrity crush Lucy Griffiths, whom she resembles more than a little bit -- just needs to find the right vehicle to bring her back to prominence.

TV and Web video credits: Mister Eleven (2009 mini-series) (Amazon | iTunes) * Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead (Amazon | iTunes) * Doctor Who Confidential: Planet of the Dead (Amazon | iTunes) * Merlin, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * Bionic Woman (2007) (Amazon | iTunes) * Jekyll (2007) (Amazon | iTunes) * Marple: By the Pricking of My Thumbs (Amazon | iTunes) * EastEnders: Slaters in Detention (Amazon | iTunes)
Film and TV-movie credits: Cockneys vs. Zombies (Amazon | iTunes) * Cleanskin (Amazon | iTunes) * Love's Kitchen (Amazon | iTunes) * Girl Walks into a Bar (Amazon | iTunes) * Huge (Amazon | iTunes) * 4.3.2.1. (Amazon | iTunes) * One Night in Emergency (2010 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * Flick (2008) (Amazon | iTunes) * Mansfield Park (2007 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * Comic Relief 2007: The Big One (Amazon | iTunes) * I Want Candy (Amazon | iTunes) * Cashback (2006 feature-length film) (Amazon | iTunes) * Cashback (2004 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * Comic Relief 2003: The Big Hair Do (Amazon | iTunes)