Yvonne Strahovski (born Strzechowski on 30 July 1982) is an Australian actress. Born in Australia to Polish immigrant parents, Strahovski speaks Polish and English. After graduating from University of Western Sydney she acted in three Australian television shows. She then auditioned for and won the role as Sarah Walker in the American television series Chuck. Her film career includes both Australian and American movies.
Strahovski was born in Maroubra, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, as Yvonne Strzechowski to Peter and Bozena Strzechowski. Her parents had emigrated from Warsaw, Poland. She adopted the more phonetic spelling of Strahovski as her stage name at Chuck producer Josh Schwartz's behest for the sake of easier pronunciation. Strahovski's father is an electronics engineer, and her mother works as a lab technician. Strahovski started acting when she played Viola in a school production of Twelfth Night.
She spent her high school years attending Santa Sabina College, Strathfield. She graduated from University of Western Sydney's Theatre Nepean in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts in Performance and received straight A's in her subjects.
Strahovski first started her career in Australia appearing in film and TV roles, including a turn on satirical show Double the Fist and a part in Aussie drama series headLand. She has also appeared in Channel Nine's show Sea Patrol.
She sent in her audition tape for the show Chuck while in the United States auditioning for roles in other shows, namely NBC's 2007 series Bionic Woman. She sent in an audition tape while waiting to hear from the other two jobs. She was contacted by the producers of Chuck the next day to come in to "run lines" with Zachary Levi. The producers called her back a week later letting her know she had been cast as Sarah Walker. Six months later, she moved to the United States.
Strahovski appears in Mass Effect Galaxy and Mass Effect 2 as the voice of Miranda Lawson. Strahovski had her face scanned and animated so she could portray Lawson in Mass Effect 2.
In 2009, Strahovski was rated #94 on Maxim's 2009 Hot 100 Women of the World. In 2010, Strahovski moved up 17 spots to #77.
In 2010, Strahovski received the Teen Choice Award for Choice Action TV Actress for Chuck.
Strahovski was ranked first in the list of the 100 sexiest women in television in 2010 compiled by BuddyTV.
Strahovski is set to voice Aya Brea in the English version of the Parasite Eve spinoff, The 3rd Birthday, which will be released on Playstation Portable in March 2011.
Strahovski moved to Los Angeles in 2007, although she has returned to Australia to work. She has acknowledged that one of the more difficult aspects of relocating to the U.S. is living there without the support of family and friends. After her acting success, her parents moved to the USA to be near her.