A tall, attractive blonde who traded the catwalks for the klieg lights, Kristanna Loken honed her craft in a series of TV appearances before landing what undoubtedly would be her breakthrough, the futuristic female robot that takes on Arnold Schwarzenegger in the long-awaited sequel "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" (2003). Of Norwegian descent, this daughter of a farmer (who also writes) and a former model ended up following in her mother's stead when as a teenager she entered the Elite "Look of the Year" contest in Ibiza, Spain and placed third. Casting agents soon noticed her and she was hired to play the troubled teen Dani Andropolous on CBS' long-running "As the World Turns" in 1994. Although she did not catch on with viewers and was replaced by Ashley Williams in the part, Loken soon moved to primetime making guest appearances on hit shows like Fox's "New York Undercover", NBC's "Law & Order" and ABC's "Boy Meets World".
In 1996, the actress deployed her sultry screen persona in the recurring role of Sable O'Brien on "Unhappily Ever After" (The WB). The following season, Loken starred as the formerly estranged daughter of a commander charged with training military pilots in the syndicated show "Pensacola: Wings of Gold". Loken segued to more action-related fare portraying the athletic thief Taja, who has partnered with a monk and an ex-soldier to battle a variety of villains in "Mortal Combat: Conquest" (syndicated 1998). Shifting gears, she was cast as an ambitious cable news producer sharing a Georgetown home with her African-American boyfriend, a womanizing lobbyist, a legislative aide and his free-spirited sister on the short-lived drama "D.C." (The WB, 2000). While she had more or less found steady employment in a career that isn't noted for its job security, Loken hadn't really risen above anything more than a cult figure. All that changed for her when director Jonathan Mostow tapped her to portray TX, a female terminator out to wreak havoc in the highly anticipated, high profile "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines".
