Megalyn Echikunwoke
Megalyn Echikunwoke is an actress who has spread out her numerous recurring television roles in such a way that it defies association with just one. At 14 she made her screen debut in the TV horror thriller "Creature," which was based on a Peter Benchley novel. Echikunwoke's first big recurring role came three years later, in 2001, when she was cast as one of the leads on the MTV soap "Spyder Games," as the singer Cherish Pardee. Later that year, she had a brief run playing President Palmer's daughter, Nicole, on the higher-profile venue of Fox's "24." In 2003, Echikunwoke landed another lead part, this time on the WB's "Like Family," a comedy about a suburban middle class family who invite a woman friend who's going through tough times, along with her son, to live with them. Echikunwoke's next gig as a regular began in 2006, when she joined the cast of the Emmy-nominated sci-fi series "The 4400," on CBS. Highlights from her short list of film credits include a co-starring role in the small, road trip-within-L.A. drama "Fix," from 2008, and another lead part in the 2011 offering from revered indie filmmaker Whit Stillman, the drama "Damsels in Distress." Echikunwoke, who is of Nigerian descent on her father's side and European on her mother's, also landed a recurring role on the revived incarnation of the primetime soap, "90210," as Holly Strickler, starting in 2011.