The lithe and graceful Lone Star actress Natalie Zea attended Monahans High School in her hometown of Pasadena, TX, in the early '90s, graduating in 1993. In pursuit of a dramatic career, Zea subsequently moved to the Big Apple, where she enrolled in the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, and built a solid foundation as a theatrical player in such off-Broadway productions as Chekhov's The Three Sisters and William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
After graduation, Zea shifted focus; honing in almost exclusively on filmed work, she appeared in innumerable student and low-budget productions, and partially supported herself with work on television commercials, promoting such brands as Lucky Strike, Dove, Hellman's, and Snickers. A low-budget film collaboration with fellow actors John Glover and Gloria Reuben, Macbeth in Manhattan (1999), followed, along with a two-year stint as Gwen Hotchkiss on the daytime drama Passions. Zea also made her way into prime time, with guest work on such series as CSI, Two and a Half Men, and Without a Trace, as well as a recurring part on The Shield, as Lauren Riley. Then, in the mid- to late 2000s, Zea locked down two regular small-screen roles with ABC: Trish Agermeyer on the short-lived "financial intrigue" series Eyes (co-starring Tim Daly) and filthy rich divorcée Karen Darling on the weekly prime-time soap Dirty Sexy Money. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide