Izabella Miko

Born in Poland to accomplished thespian parents, Grazyna Dylag and Aleksander Mikolajczak, Izabella Miko could dance before she could walk. She began to pursue her dream career as a ballerina as soon as the opportunity was available to her at the age of 10. Izabella was accepted at the National Ballet School in Warsaw, though her teachers were concerned about what seemed to be some flexibility limitations of her body. At the age of 15, she was recruited to go to New York on full scholarship and study at the School of American Ballet. However, her body could no longer withstand the rigors of a seven-day a week ballet-training schedule, and in 1997 she suffered from a series of injuries to her vertebrae, knee and ankle injuries, ending her career as a ballet dancer. She found herself 17 years old and wondering what career she would ever find that would fulfill her the same way dance did. While back in Warsaw and recovering, a casting director who was working with Izabella's parents asked if she would play a part in a TV movie, "Lithuania You're My Motherland". She accepted, not knowing where else to turn. Having been bitten by the acting bug, Miko was headed back to America shortly before her 18th birthday. She immediately began training at The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and laying the groundwork for a successful career as an actor. She went to Los Angeles just after she turned 18, and a series of fortuitous event resulted in her landing the role in Jerry Bruckheimer's Coyote Ugly (2000) playing "Cammie". This role put her on the map in Hollywood, leading to a slew of magazine covers and billboards. She followed "Coyote Ugly" with a leading role in J.S. Cardone's The Forsaken (2001) and Minimal Knowledge (2002). She has also appeared in The Shore (2006), starring alongside Lesley Ann Warren and Ben Gazzara. Miko than starred alongside actors Derek Jacobi and Michael Lonsdale in Bye Bye Blackbird (2005). Her portrayal of Alice, a circus trapeze artist in the early 1900s, was the perfect combination of Izabella's most innate talents. She prepared for this role with a rigorous three-month training schedule on both the flying and static trapeze. Utilizing her dance and trapeze skills, along with rapidly learned tightrope walking, she secured a part time role of Raia, a member of the "Circus of Crime" circus troop in the 2011 NBC series The Cape (2011).