Lauren Lee Smith

The Leap from the Runway

Lauren Lee Smith was thirteen years old when she began traveling the world as a professional model. She lived in Milan, Paris and Tokyo before coming of age. But modeling was just a way to pay the bills. In 2000, she landed a small role in the remake of Get Carter alongside Sylvester Stallone.

That was the real start.

That experience in Vancouver taught her that she preferred film sets to high-fashion runways. She had no formal training in drama. She learned the craft by watching crew members and repeating takes in low-budget Canadian series. Because her home country's market has always been a proving ground for talent that ends up crossing the border.

In 2001, she landed a lead role in the series Mutant X. She played Emma deLauro for three full seasons. That production reached sixty-six episodes before being canceled due to legal disputes between the production companies. Smith used the break to look for projects that moved away from mainstream science fiction.

Breaking away from the television mold

In 2004, she joined the cast of The L Word to play Lara Perkins. That Showtime series broke new ground in cable television with its portrayal of female sexuality. Smith wasn't chasing easy fame. She chose characters with edges and real inner conflicts.

And the gamble paid off.

She joined CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in 2008 to replace Jorja Fox. The pressure of a global franchise can wear down any performer with its rigid scripts. Smith lasted one full season but decided to leave the series in 2009. She turned down a multimillion-dollar contract to return to independent productions where she would have more creative control.

In 2010, she starred in the drama A Night for Dying Tigers. The film was shot in just eighteen days on a minimal budget. The script explored the collapse of a family during a farewell dinner. Small projects like this define her career outside the major Los Angeles studios.

Maturity and Detectives in Toronto

Guillermo del Toro called her in 2017 for a supporting role in The Shape of Water. She played Elaine Strickland (the antagonist's wife) in a film that would go on to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Smith brought a much-needed sense of restraint to a dark fantasy setting. But her big leading opportunity came that same year with a national project.

She became the lead of Frankie Drake Mysteries in 2017. For four seasons, she played Toronto's first female private detective in the 1920s. The series demanded constant physical training for its action and chase scenes. She shot eighty episodes in total until the network CBC announced the end of production in 2021.

It was a tough blow for the crew.

In 2023, she joined the cast of the series Sullivan’s Crossing. She plays Dakota Jones in a story that aims for the unhurried tone of Canadian rural dramas. It's a very different register from the intensity of her previous work in the crime genre. In 2024, she appeared in the film The 4:30 Movie under director Kevin Smith.

The latter film was shot in New Jersey during the summer. The production had a three-million-dollar budget and was filmed entirely on location in old movie theaters.