Vanessa Lengies

Vanessa Lengies came out of the Canadian children's television pipeline, which in the late 1990s was one of the more reliable training grounds in North America. Born in Montreal in 1985, she was working steadily while still a child: Popular Mechanics for Kids, Radio Active, Lassie, an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and Annie Inch in the animated Little Lulu Show. Then came American Dreams and Roxanne Bojarski, the role that moved her into American network drama.

She found a specific register early and has stayed profitably in it: the loud, certain, faintly abrasive optimist who is convinced she is the main character. Joanne Charis in Stick It, Natasha in Waiting... and again in Still Waiting..., Amy Pearl in The Perfect Man. Comic supporting parts with a hard edge under them, and she plays the edge rather than softening it.

The best-known version is Sugar Motta, the recurring role she played in the third, fourth and sixth seasons of Glee, a character whose entire premise is unearned confidence. Around it sit Kelly Epson on the medical drama HawthoRNe, Erica on the 2021 Turner & Hooch, Quinn on True Lies, and a substantial voice run as Kordi Freemaker across two LEGO Star Wars series.

It adds up to a working television career of the kind that rarely gets written about: nearly thirty credits across two countries, and a handful of films where she is the funniest thing in the room.