Sarah Chalke
Chalke in December 2008
Born	(1976-08-27) August 27, 1976 (age 35) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Other names	Sarah Louise Christine Chalke Sarah Cassandra Chalke
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1984–present
Parents	Douglas and Angie Chalke

Sarah Chalke ( /ˈtʃɔːk/; born August 27, 1976) is a Canadian-American actress known for portraying Dr. Elliot Reid on the NBC/ABC comedy Scrubs, "Second Becky" Conner Healy on Roseanne, and Stella Zinman in the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother.^[1] She most recently starred in the CBS sitcom Mad Love, which aired during the spring of 2011. As of 2012, she is now guest-starring in ABC's sitcom Cougar Town.

Early life[link]

Chalke was born in Ottawa, Ontario, and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is the middle of the three daughters of Douglas and Angie Chalke. Her mother is originally from Rostock, Germany. According to a Scrubs commentary track, she used to attend the German school in her hometown twice a week. Her first language is English, but she speaks German fluently and French fairly well; this was incorporated into her Scrubs character, Elliot Reid, who also speaks German and French at the same skill levels. Chalke graduated from Handsworth Secondary School in North Vancouver in 1994.

Career[link]

Chalke's acting career began at the age of eight when she began appearing in musical theatre productions. At 12, she became a reporter on the Canadian children's show KidZone. In 1993, she took over the role of Rebecca Conner-Healy on Roseanne after Lecy Goranson left the series; she made a cameo appearance as a different character in the Roseanne episode "Halloween: The Final Chapter" (#178, originally aired October 31, 1995). She returned briefly to Canada where she starred in the CBC Television drama Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy (1998–1999).

In 2001, she was cast as Dr. Elliot Reid in the NBC comedy series Scrubs. She has appeared in several feature films, including Ernest Goes to School and Cake. She appeared in Channel 101's The 'Bu with The Lonely Island, a parody of the hit show The O.C., but was credited as "Pamela Fenton". In 2007, she appeared as a supporting character in Chaos Theory, which starred fellow Canadian Ryan Reynolds. In 2008, Chalke became the spokesperson for a line of women's underwear by Hanes that included a series of commercials directed by her Scrubs co-star Zach Braff.^[2][3] In 2008 and 2009 she made appearances in the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother as Stella Zinman. In the spring of 2011, she starred in the CBS television series Mad Love, a romantic comedy which debuted as a midseason replacement and was cancelled after only one season was produced.^[4] Chalke has been signed by former Scrubs, and current Cougar Town executive producer, Bill Lawrence to play a love interest in the series Cougar Town. She is set to appear in multiple episodes.^[5]

Activism[link]

Chalke lost her aunt and grandmother to breast cancer that was undiagnosed while in its early stages. Chalke has since encouraged breast cancer detection and prevention, and starred in the Lifetime movie Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy.^[6] She is an ambassador for the Audrey Hepburn Children's Foundation. Chalke also made an appearance in a short video parodying the National Organization for Marriage's "Gathering Storm" advertisement opposing same-sex marriage.^[7] She is also the 2009 ambassador for the Susan G. Komen Passionately Pink for the Cure(R) program, for which she also designed a T-shirt.^[8]

Personal life[link]

She is engaged to lawyer Jamie Afifi, with whom she has a son, Charlie Rhodes Afifi, born December 24, 2009.^[9][10]

Her father is a lawyer in private practice in Vancouver. Her parents operate an adoption agency that specializes in placing foreign orphans (primarily Chinese) with Canadian families. Her elder sister Natasha is also a lawyer, and she has a younger sister named Piper.

Filmography[link]

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sarah Chalke

• Sarah Chalke at the Internet Movie Database