Leslie Hope

Leslie Ann Hope is the Canadian actress who played Kira Meru, mother of Kira Nerys, in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode. A native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and a 1982 graduate of St. Michael's University School in Victoria, British Columbia, She is most identified as playing Jack Bauer's wife, Teri, in the first season of 24. In 2003, Hope and her 24 castmates – including Jude Ciccolella, Michelle Forbes, and Penny Johnson – were nominated as Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

Hope was initially aiming to become a lawyer, but turned to acting while attending school in Victoria. When her school was used as a filming location for a comedy called Ups & Downs, Hope won a part in the film. A crew member on the show introduced Hope to Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, who later cast Hope in his 1984 drama, Love Streams. TNG guest actor Seymour Cassel was one of the stars of this film.

Later that year, Hope became a regular on the NBC drama Berrenger's, which aired in early 1985. Although this series was pulled after only 11 episodes, Hope soon won a recurring role as Linda Martin on the long-running CBS series Knots Landing. In 1988, she appeared in the Emmy Award-winning mini-series War and Remembrance, which also featured fellow Star Trek alumni Ian Abercrombie, Granville Ames, Steven Berkoff, Peter Dennis, Lawrence Dobkin, Walker Edmiston, Bruce French, Grainger Hines, Paul Lambert, Richard Lineback, Byron Morrow, Glenn Morshower, George Murdock, Charles Napier, John Rhys-Davies, and William Schallert.

Hope's other TV credits include one-time appearances on the series Hunter (1987, with Bruce Davison and Franc Luz), seaQuest DSV (1994, with Rosalind Allen and Marco Sanchez), Party of Five (1994, with Scott Grimes), Vengeance Unlimited (1999, with James Avery, Jennifer Hetrick, Ken Jenkins, Clyde Kusatsu, Raphael Sbarge, and Michael Buchman Silver), Judging Amy (2000, with Brad Blaisdell and Charles Emmett), and the first episode of UPN's Level 9 (2000, with Willie Garson and J. Patrick McCormack). More recent guest spots include episodes of House (starring Jennifer Morrison), Eyes (with Gregg Henry and Rick Worthy), and CSI: Miami (playing the mother of Michael Welch).

In addition, Hope appeared in two episodes of the CBS medical drama Chicago Hope (including a 1999 episode with Ellen Bry, Boris Lee Krutonog, and Gail Strickland) and in a two-parter on CBS' The District (with Jonathan Banks, Roger Aaron Brown, Cliff DeYoung, and Richard Fancy). She was also a regular on the short-lived RoboCop series, Prime Directives, which aired in January 2001. She later starred in the 2003-04 series Line of Fire and had a recurring role on Everwood in 2006, working with Stephanie Niznik. She also recurred on the series Commander in Chief as Attorney General Melanie Blackston, co-starring Ronny Cox, Elizabeth Dennehy, Eric Pierpoint, and Tony Plana. Most recently, she starred in the short-lived CW drama Runaway, and has a recurring role as Kristina Frye on "The Mentalist".

Hope has starred in a number of television projects for the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company), including the 2004 Gemini Award-winning mini-series Human Cargo. More recently, she co-starred with James T. Kirk actor William Shatner in the CBC mini-series Everest, which premieres in 2008.

Aside from her many television projects, Hope has starred in several feature films. Some of her more notable film work includes the 1988 comedy It Takes Two (co-starring Bill Bolender), 's 1988 drama Talk Radio (with Zach Grenier), the 1990 action comedy Men at Work (with Geoffrey Blake and John Putch), and the 1993 thrillers Doppelganger (co-starring Dennis Christopher, Sally Kellerman, Scott Lawrence, Dan Shor, and Sean Whalen), and Sweet Killing (co-starring F. Murray Abraham). She also played the lead role in the erotically-charged 1993 drama, Paris, France.

Hope co-starred with John de Lancie, John Glover, and George D. Wallace in the direct-to-video thriller Schemes. Her more recent film credits include 1998's Shadow Builder (with Tony Todd), 1999's Water Damage (with John Neville and Dean Stockwell), 's 2000 horror-thriller Bruiser (with Peter Mensah), the 2002 drama Dragonfly (co-starring Casey Biggs and Susanna Thompson), and the 2008 action drama Never Back Down. She is currently filming a crime-thriller with Tzi Ma entitled Formosa Betrayed.