Bio
Leslie Hope is a Canadian actress best known for her starring role as Teri Bauer in the first season of the television action series 24, in 2002.
Hope also stars as Lily Rader, the wife of accused murderer Paul Rader, who works to create as stable an atmosphere as possible for her fugitive family in Runaway.
In 2012 she starred in the paranormal horror series The River.
Hope has been seen in a pair of recurring roles: as attorney general Melanie Blackston in the Golden Globe and Emmy Award-nominated series Commander in Chief, and as feminist theory professor Laurie Fields on the family drama Everwood.
Her other television credits include such telefilms and mini-series as The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie, with Gena Rowlands; An Unexpected Love; Meltdown; Nora Roberts' 'Sanctuary'; Stolen Miracle; Robocop: Prime Directives; and Seduced by Madness: The Diane Borchardt Story.
Hope will also be featured in the upcoming mini-series Everest '82, about the first Canadians to scale the world's highest mountain peak.
Additionally on television, she had a regular role on the Rod Lurie drama series Line of Fire, recurring roles on The District and Chicago Hope, and guest-starring stints on such series as House, M.D., Judging Amy, and Party of Five.
In feature films, Hope has been seen in 2002's Dragonfly, starring Kevin Costner; Kansas, opposite Matt Dillon; Oliver Stone's Talk Radio; Men at Work with Charlie Sheen; as well as The Life Before This, True Confections, Fun, Paris, France, Spreading Ground, Water Damage, Sweet Killing, and Bruiser.
Behind the camera, Hope directed the feature film Swimming Lessons, a dark comedy based on the critically-acclaimed play Slide, which she headlined in the original stage production.
The Wilton Project, a theatre company Hope co-founded in 1990, produced Slide. During The Wilton Project's decade of work, Hope produced, directed, and acted in several productions, including the award winning Therese Raquin and Ghost Stories.
She has also been seen in other stage productions, such as Emerald City, Taking off, and The Rattle of the Moon.
A native of Nova Scotia, Hope initially aspired to become a lawyer. But when she was 15, she decided that acting was her passion. A chance to play a part in a film being shot at her high school led to a meeting with director John Cassavetes. He wrote a starring role for her in his film Love Streams, that effectively began her career.
Hope travels extensively to such locations as Peru, Cuba, Iceland, China, and the Ecuadorian jungle, where she lived with a native tribe in a rainforest.
A trip to Cambodia impelled her to shoot the documentary What I See When I Close My Eyes for the organisation Friends-International (also known as The Street Children Network). That charity helps children living on the streets to reintegrate into mainstream society.