Rachel Cronin

British Columbia native Rachel Cronin got her start with locally-lensed productions, and hit the big time, moving to to the USA and starring on the breakout NBC hit "Ed" beginning in 2000. A petite, honey blonde, Cronin made the most of her attractive and expressive features, using her wide eyes to especially good effect, easily conveying wonder, shock and terror without speaking. Her horror-evincing skills would be put to use with guest roles in the Showtime/Sci-Fi Channel TV series "Poltergeist: The Legacy" (1997) and "The Outer Limits" (1998). A role as a medical technician in the particularly ghastly USA Network cockroach-starring feature "They Nest" saw her through 2000, the year which marked her network regular series debut. "Ed" was Cronin's breakthrough, and she played the timid and odd bowling alley employee Shirley with the right measure of quirkiness and restraint, making her at once a likable but baffling character. Though the move to the States for "Ed" stilled her one-woman show (she planned to debut her nine-character monologue production "Different Drummer" at the Vancouver Fringe Festival), she had big hopes for the big city, where small productions like hers hit the stage every night. Making an entry into film, Cronin was featured in the independent drama "Spook" (lensed 2000), a production centered in her native Vancouver.