Sarah Chalke (1976)

 early life

Chalke was born in Ottawa, Ontario, and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is the middle of the three daughters of Douglas and Angie Chalke. Her mother is originally from Rostock, Germany. According to a Scrubs commentary track, she used to attend the German school in her hometown twice a week. Her first language is English, but she speaks German fluently and French fairly well; this was incorporated into her Scrubs character, Elliot Reid, who also speaks German and French at the same skill levels. Chalke graduated from Handsworth Secondary School in North Vancouver in 1994.

 career

Chalke's acting career began at the age of eight when she began appearing in musical theatre productions. At 12, she became a reporter on the Canadian children's show KidZone. In 1993, she took over the role of Rebecca Conner-Healy on Roseanne after Lecy Goranson left the series; she made a cameo appearance as a different character in the Roseanne episode "Halloween: The Final Chapter" (#178, originally aired October 31, 1995). She returned briefly to Canada where she starred in the CBC Television drama Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy (1998–1999).

In 2001, she was cast as Dr. Elliot Reid in the NBC comedy series Scrubs. She has appeared in several feature films, including Ernest Goes to School and Cake. She appeared in Channel 101's The 'Bu with The Lonely Island, a parody of the hit show The O.C., but was credited as "Pamela Fenton". In 2007, she appeared as a supporting character in Chaos Theory, which starred fellow Canadian Ryan Reynolds. In 2008, Chalke became the spokesperson for a line of women's underwear by Hanes that included a series of commercials directed by her Scrubs co-star Zach Braff. In 2008 and 2009 she made appearances in the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother as Stella Zinman. In the spring of 2011, she starred in the CBS television series Mad Love, a romantic comedy which debuted as a midseason replacement and was cancelled after only one season was produced.
Sarah Chalke has been signed by former Scrubs, and current Cougar Town executive producer, Bill Lawrence to play a love interest in the series Cougar Town. She is set to appear in multiple episodes.

 personal life

She is engaged to lawyer Jamie Afifi, with whom she has a son Charlie Rhodes Afifi, born December 24, 2009.

Her father is a lawyer in private practice in Vancouver. Her parents operate an adoption agency that specializes in placing foreign orphans with Canadian families. Her elder sister Natasha is also a lawyer, and she has a younger sister named Piper.