Poppy Petal Emma Elizabeth Deveraux Donaghue (June 15, 1972 in Sydney, Australia) is an Australian-American actress best known for playing Sam Spade in Without a Trace.
She was partners with actor Adam Kaufman and they had one child. She is currently married to Shawn Sanford and they have two children.
She has the distinction of being an actress who has played both Marilyn Monroe and J. K. Rowling in biopics.
Film Roles
- Tammy and the T-Rex as Party Girl No. 1
- Devil in a Blue Dress as Barbara's Sister
- Dead Man on Campus as Rachel
- The Other Sister as Caroline Tate
- Life as Adult–Mae Rose Abernathy
- Blonde (2001) as Marilyn Monroe
Television roles
- Party of Five as Allison (1 episode)
- NYPD Blue as Lisa (1 episode)
- Relativity as Jennifer Lukens (7 episodes)
- Glory as Ellie Sparks (9 episodes)
- Without a Trace as Samantha Spade
- Unforgettable as Carrie Wells
- Reef Break as Cat Chambers
- Magic Beyond Words (2011 Lifetime Original Movie) as J. K. Rowling
Tropes associated with her work:
- Actor-Shared Background: Like Marilyn Monroe, who she played in Blonde, she dropped out of high school to pursue a career in entertainment.
- Awesome, Dear Boy:
- She agreed to do Without a Trace once they said Anthony LaPaglia was in it.
- Reef Break was developed around an idea of hers, where she wanted to just do a show that was fun and not "super dark".
- Costume Backlash: Admits that she "felt like a drag queen" when she saw herself made up as Marilyn Monroe in Blonde.
- Dyeing for Your Art: Normally red-haired, she went blonde for...well...Blonde and Magic Beyond Words. Ironically both real women she portrayed weren't natural blondes, and JK Rowling was a natural redhead like Poppy.
- Fake American: She's often called on to play this, more than her own nationality, although her accent was noted to slip quite a lot in Without A Trace and Unforgettable.
- Fake Brit: She plays an English girl in an episode of Party of Five and of course the famously British JK Rowling in Magic Beyond Words.
- Friendship on the Set: Her Without A Trace co-stars - Anthony LaPaglia was named her son's godfather, and she's called Roselyn Sanchez her best friend.
- Playing Against Type: She played a criminal in Reef Break specifically to not play a cop again.
- Promoted Fanboy: A lifelong Harry Potter fan, she got to play JK Rowling in a biopic.
- Romance on the Set: She got together with Adam Kaufman while they were filming the independent film Between, and they worked on the Made-for-TV Movie Life & Style, as well as him becoming a recurring love interest for her on Without a Trace.
