Kristin Kreuk might be one of the most resilient actresses on television today, taking a massive television career and keeping it burning despite a massive box office bomb in her earlier career. Starting on just one of the CW/WB’s many heart-throb teen dramas thanks to a province-wide fax search, Kristin quickly took on the world.
Born as the first of two sisters in British Columbia, Canada, in December of 1982, Kristin lead a quiet life growing up, mostly studying gymnastics and karate before deciding to become a forensic scientist. Her plans for college and beyond went through a massive shakeup in her final years of high school though, with the actress being scoped out by casting directors for the upcoming teen drama Edgemont.
A Sudden Star
Plucked from normal teenage life and set down in a fictionalized high school on television, Kristin quickly made her way through the medium, picking up insights and tips along the way. The first season of Edgemeont would lead to enough exposure for Kristin to earn a spot as both Snow White in a made-for-television adaptation of the old fairytale, as well as a romantic lead in the teen drama based on Superman, Smallville as Lana Lang.
Kreuk would stick to both Edgemont and Smallville very closely, only briefly leaving both to film an incredibly small yet vital role in the 2004 sex comedy Eurotrip, where she would play Fiona. While a small part, her character’s cheating with Matt Damon encapsulated in the catchy “Scotty Doesn’t Know” lit the spark that would make the cult comedy a classic.
Edgemont would end in 2005, leading to more time on Smallville until her exit there in 2008 to star in Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. As history shows, the film was a flop among flops, with characters and actors having roles switched for international versions and the barest semblance of plot stringing together fan-favorite Street Fighter characters. Michael Clarke Duncan deserves to be remembered better.
Keep Your Head High
Kristin kept moving despite the critical and commercial failure of the video-game adaptation, landing a small arc on Chuck in 2010 before taking on a couple of indies and made-for-television roles in Space Milkshake, a hard R rated space comedy and a television mini-series remake of classic Ben-Hur where she would play the lead character’s sister. The roles would bring her enough regard to set up a new recurring television role in 2012.
Beauty and the Beast would be a minor hit for The CW, at the time stuck in a strange rut between the popularity of Supernatural and the not-quite-yet premiered Arrow-verse. The show would update the classic love story of a woman falling in love with a man that’s more of a monster to modern times, making the Beast in question more of a Hulk-like transforming monster than a constant beast.
The show would run for four seasons, with Kreuk staying on for every episode. While the end of the series in 2016 would see her step back somewhat from the live-action scene, it doesn’t mean Kristin Kruek wouldn’t have a very busy schedule ahead of her. Lending her voice to both videogames in the form of Shuyan Saga as well as the longrunning Robot Chicken, where she would reprise her role from Beauty and the Beast for some stop-motion antics.
Close to Scandal
Not one to live her life very publicly, Kristin did end up in some unwanted media spotlight in 2017 upon the discovery of the NXIVM scandal. NXIVM, a cult disguised as a seeming multi-level marketing or self-help program, blew up big with the reveal of high-profile television stars like Kreuk’s Smallville colleague Allison Mack. The cult would have multiple ties and counts of sexual abuse and other crimes and is still undergoing investigation. For her part, Kreuk believed it to be more of a self-help. group and disavowed it in 2013.
Helping to bring about the end of an abusive cult was just the beginning of another era in Kristin Kreuk’s life. The law drama Body of Proof would see Kristin cast as the lead protagonist, a lawyer trying to solve the mystery of a shared illness in her hometown. The series would garner acclaim and an audience following, leading to three seasons running through 2021.
What is Kristin Kreuk Doing Now?
These days Kristin is doing her usual floating between before taking on another lead role, as seems to be her pattern. While she would show up for small guest spots here and there, notably in the AppleTV+ original Ghostwriter, a remake of the 90s Nickelodeon series, as well as Reacher alongside Alan Ritchson, yet another iteration of the daring secret agent played by actors like Tom Cruise in years past.
With nothing on the horizon as of yet and no news about any other work, the actress has noted on Instagram that she’s still in the game, even getting professional headshots done for the first time since she was a new actor at 19. Her role in Reacher is still open for a return in upcoming seasons, though nothing has been set in stone as of yet. In the meantime, the actress still keeps up a karate routine as well as other hobbies and frequently updates her Insta with fun selfies, pictures of her cats, or just general life updates and inspiration.
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