Jorja Fox (born Jorja-An Fox July 7, 1968 in New York, New York) is an American actress.
Her name is pronounced like "Georgia". She is most often credited as Jorja Fox, but has also been credited as Jorjan Fox. She is most notable for her role as Sara Sidle, in the popular American crime drama television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. A dedicated vegetarian, she resides in Los Angeles with her dog Ali and two cats, Rumplestiltskin and Sid Poitier. In 2003, she was ranked #80 in Stuff Magazine's list of the 103 sexiest women.
Jorja Fox was born in New York City, the youngest child of Montreal-born parents, and was raised on a narrow barrier island in Melbourne Beach, Florida. Growing up in Florida, Jorja Fox described herself as overweight, with a prominent gap between her teeth. Over the years she had a variety of strange items stuck between her two front teeth, including a quarter and some rocks. By her twenties, neither her wisdom teeth nor braces had appreciably helped, and Jorja said "forget it."
After attending Melbourne High School for two years, she won a modeling contest and moved to her birthplace of New York to pursue an acting career. Enjoying moderate success for independent films, Fox entered the limelight in 1996 when she appeared on the hit NBC television series, ER, as a recurring character (originally billed as "Jorjan Fox"), the no-nonsense medical intern Maggie Doyle. This character was eventually revealed to be a lesbian; playing up that fame, Fox appeared (uncredited) on the coming out episode of Ellen ("The Puppy Episode Part 2", 30 April 1997).
Fox went on to film the movies Velocity Trap and Food for the Heart. In 1999, she was cast as the recurring character of the Secret Service Agent Gina Toscano on NBC's series The West Wing. Fox also appeared briefly in the movie Memento, which starred Guy Pearce and Carrie-Anne Moss.
Fox is the co-founder of Honeypot Productions, an independent avant-garde theatre company in Los Angeles. The theater company has produced five original productions and she has starred in four, written three, and directed one of them. Friend and HoneyPot co-founder Heather Reid wrote Dear Bernard, which Fox helped produce. Emily Procter, one of Jorja's friends and a co-star in Forever Fabulous, calls her 'Horha', how Jorja would be pronounced in Spanish, as a nickname.
Fox is also a musician: she plays guitar (badly, she says) and recently purchased a drum kit. She also sings and writes songs, most notably the song "Lullabye" for the movie Traveling Companion, as well as the song "Satellite" which she published on her official web site.
She and CSI co-star George Eads received some bad publicity in 2004 when they were fired. Fox had allegedly failed to submit a letter to CBS confirming that she would be on time for shooting. The disputes were resolved in just over a week, and the two were rehired by CBS; however, neither actor's salary was raised like the rest of their co-workers. It was also reported that of the two, Fox was approached first to resume her contract with CSI - but she refused until Eads was rehired as well.
On April 18, 2007, TV Guide began reporting that Jorja Fox may not be returning for the eighth season of CSI having not yet signed a new contract. The season finale turned out to be a cliffhanger involving her character, Sara Sidle. The New York Post reported that Jorja didn't show up to film the finale because of those ongoing issues. Neither CBS nor Jorja's agent have confirmed the allegations.
