Bio
Sara Canning is a Canadian actress best known for her starring role as Jenna Sommers, the loving aunt trying to care for her teenage niece and nephew after the death of their parents, in the supernatural television series The Vampire Diaries, from 2009-2012.
She is also known for her starring role as Dylan Weir, a confident, athletic and adventurous woman whose love of animals led her into a career as a Predator Control Officer, handling wild animals that have strayed from their habitats, in the science fiction television series Primeval: New World, from 2012-2013.
Canning's love of performing began at a very young age; she was a competitive figure skater for much of her childhood and early adolescence. Later, she graduated from the Vancouver Film School's prestigious acting program.
Canning made her professional acting debut in the stage production of 1984 at the Citadel Theater in Edmonton, Alberta. She soon began working steadily in television, with guest starring roles in series like Smallville and Kyle XY.
Feature film roles swiftly followed, in projects such as Paparazzi Princess: The Paris Hilton Story, Slap Shot 3 and Come Dance at My Wedding.
Her breakthrough role came with the cable film Taken in Broad Daylight. In the based-on-a-true story movie, she starred as Anne Sluti, a teen whose bravery and intelligence led the police to locate her captor after she was abducted from a shopping mall by a deranged killer, played by James Van Der Beek.
Canning's classical training and dialect work came in handy for her role in the independent feature Black Field, in which she played a 19th Century Scottish émigré making a life in the untamed Canadian wilderness.
Beyond performing, Canning's passions also include other aspects of entertainment. In 2008 she wrote and produced an independent film, which was developed as her student thesis project.
Canning was born in Gander, Newfoundland.