Elisha Cuthbert Biography

Elisha Ann Cuthbert was born on November 30, 1982, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, to an automotive design engineer, Kevin, and his wife, Patricia, a housewife. She grew up with two younger siblings: brother, Jonathan, and sister, Lee-Ann, in the Greenfield Park, a borough in Longueuil, Quebec, and as a result can speak French fluently.

She was a member of Girl Guides of Canada and completed her school graduation from Centennial Regional High School in 2000. At the age of 17, she moved from Toronto, Ontario, to Los Angeles, California, with a deadline of six weeks to start a career in acting, and bagged a role in 24 in the fifth week.

Elisha Cuthbert was only nine years old when she began modeling for children's clothing and footwear. In 1996, she first appeared on television as an extra on the Canadian horror anthology series Are You Afraid of the Dark? and was subsequently offered a recurring role on it.

Along with Jay Baruchel, she co-hosted the episode, Hollywood FX, of the Canadian educational series Popular Mechanics for Kids in 1997, and was offered to host another episode in 1999. While travelling around the globe as a correspondent for the award-winning show, she was noticed by then-US First Lady Hillary Clinton, who invited her to the White House.

Working in the Canadian film industry during her early career, she appeared in the family drama Dancing on the Moon (1997) and the disaster thriller Airspeed (1998) before co-starring in Believe (1999) with Ricky Mabe. In 2001, she won a ‘Gemini Award' for her performance in the television film Lucky Girl.

After relocating to Hollywood, she portrayed the role of Kim Bauer on Fox's 24, which established her image as a sex-icon that was further reinforced by the various magazine covers that followed immediately after. She portrayed the main role for three seasons before leaving to focus on her film career, but returned to the series several times as a guest-star and also provided her voice in 24: The Game.

In 2003, she played a small role in the comedy film Old School and was part of the ensemble cast of the Christmas-themed romantic comedy Love Actually, which was a huge box office success. Her first big break came when she was cast in the role of Danielle, an ex–porn star who falls in love with a straight-A student, in the romantic comedy The Girl Next Door.

While Elisha Cuthbert initially had reservations about playing the role, after being convinced by director Luke Greenfield, she researched the role by reading biographies of adult actresses and also met with some of them. She eventually earned two 'MTV Movie Awards' nominations for 'Best Kiss' and 'Best Breakthrough Performance' for the movie and was praised for her capable comic acting.

She next appeared alongside Paris Hilton and Chad Michael Murray in the 2005 film House of Wax, a remake of the 1953 horror film, in which she played the role of Carly Jones. The film failed to impress critics despite financial success.

In 2005, she co-produced the psychological thriller, The Quiet, in which she played 17-year-old sexually abused cheerleader Nina after the director deemed her too prominent to play the 'invisible' character Dot. She appeared in the music videos for Maroon 5's She Will Be Loved (2004), Weezer's Perfect Situation (2005), and Paris Hilton's Nothing in This World (2006).

She saw a low phase when she was nominated in the 'Worst Actress' category of the 'Razzie Award' for her role as a fashion model imprisoned by a psychopath in the 2007 thriller Captivity. She went on to play a quadriplegic in the drama film He Was a Quiet Man (2007) and a wealthy, fun-loving girl in My Sassy Girl (2008).

In 2008, she returned to television with the pilot of the failed American version of the Channel 4 drama NY-LON, and also starred in the Canadian miniseries Guns. She was a judge on an episode of Project Runway Canada and played the role of Tim Allen's daughter in the family comedy, The Six Wives of Henry Lefay, released primarily on DVD.

She played the recurring role of Maxine Denver in the ABC crime-drama The Forgotten in 2010, and in 2011-13, appeared in the main role of Alex Kerkovich in the ABC ensemble comedy Happy Endings.

In 2012, she hosted the American Music Awards and appeared in the music video Here Comes My Man by The Gaslight Anthem.

She played a small role in the 2014 black-comedy Just Before I Go, and in 2015, starred as Lizzy, a lesbian pregnant with her best friend's child, in the short-lived NBC sitcom One Big Happy.

She was cast in the sports-comedy Goon: Last of the Enforcers (2017) and the Netflix series The Ranch (2016-20), in which her character, Abby Phillips-Bennett, was promoted to main role after one season.

Elisha Cuthbert dated Trace Ayala, the best friend and business partner of singer-songwriter and actor, Justin Timberlake, in 2003-05, and was engaged to him in 2004. However, they broke off the engagement in November 2005, following which Timberlake wrote the song What Goes Around Comes Around, allegedly about Cuthbert cheating Ayala with hockey player Sean Avery.

She began dating Avery soon after, but broke up with him in 2007, following which she became involved in a relationship with another hockey player, Dion Phaneuf. In 2008, Avery was suspended for six games and then kicked off the team by the Dallas Stars after he made a crude remark on his ex-girlfriend's new affair with Phaneuf.

Cuthbert and Phaneuf announced their engagement in September 2012 and got married on July 6, 2013, at St. James Catholic Church in Summerfield, Prince Edward Island. The couple, who reside at Phaneuf's waterfront estate outside New London, Prince Edward Island, welcomed daughter Zaphire Phaneuf on December 21, 2017.

Both Elisha Cuthbert's mother and her brother played ice hockey and she is a huge hockey fan who held Los Angeles Kings season-ticket. In 2005, she had a blog titled Hollywood Hockey Thoughts on NHL.com, even though she did not post regularly during the season.