Jewel Staite is exciting, funny, dynamic, and passionate about everything she does. At 22 years old, she is an award-winning, Gemini-nominated actor who is a 15-year veteran of the film and television industry.

Until the age of four, Jewel lived on Maui and made her first public appearance at the age of two in the Maui County Most Beautiful Baby Contest.  An entertainer from birth, she spent every Friday night dressed in a grass skirt, doing hula at the Mai Tai parties at the Mauian Hotel on Napili Bay.

At four, Jewel moved to Vancouver. After a photo session for her mom at the Sears Portrait Studio, Jewel was approached for modeling and asked to do a video for Sears. Even though they offered her anything in the toy department she'd like, she refused the work because "they talk down to me." Shortly after, she attended a children's fashion show and wanted all the clothes. Her mom said, "No, they're too expensive." On learning that the children wearing the clothes were models and that they worked for them, she said, "Okay, I wanna do it now. Call those guys at Sears."

Her mom arranged a photo shoot and necessary promotional items and Jewel went pro. Vancouver Youth Theatre became her second home, where she trained several days a week for several years. Modeling jobs led to commercials and eventually large television roles. "Jewel landed her first few big roles because she was a complete and total professional who could cry on cue, knew all her technical skills, and had a dedicated and impressive work ethic," recalls Jewel's first agent. Besides that, she could act. A complete natural, her work appears effortless and she gets straight to the heart of her characters. "I love acting because it allows me to be as many different people as my imagination can conceptualize," says Jewel, "and I can spill my guts, bare my soul and be a bitch without actually offending anyone in the real world." She becomes attached to her characters and feels like they are another personality that is always a part of her.

Jewel has eight TV series under her belt, and has recently started her ninth. Her web pages get thousands of hits a day from all over the world where her shows are always popular and her characters have touched the lives and hearts of millions of kids. Her email is always brimming with letters from young people asking for advice.

In September 2002, Jewel was seen in Fox's science fiction series Firefly, created, written, and directed by Joss Whedon of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame. In addition, she played "Heidi" on the highly praised Fox series Wonderfalls. She reprised her role in Serenity, a Universal Pictures feature film based on the show.

For fun, Jewel sings jazz and swing. It doesn't take much coaxing to get her up to the mike at her favorite hangout, The Marquee Grill, where she sang every Sunday night until work interfered. She also sings for good causes and has opened benefits for the Dyslexia Foundation at the Vogue and often offers her talents to benefit her main charity, The Children with AIDS Project, of which she was Teen Spokesperson some years ago.