Sarah Wayne Callies

Sarah Wayne Callies — Biography

Sarah Wayne Callies (born Sarah Anne Callies on 1 June 1977 in La Grange, Illinois) is an American actress, director and producer. She made her name as the prison doctor Dr. Sara Tancredi in the Fox series Prison Break, and then reached a far wider audience with the role of Lori Grimes in AMC's The Walking Dead.

Born in Illinois, Callies is the daughter of two academics who taught at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, one in English literature and the other in law; when she was just a year old the family moved to Honolulu. Her interest in acting began with plays staged during her school years, and after high school she studied at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. She combined her undergraduate years with theatre work, then continued her training at the National Theater Conservatory in Denver, where she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in 2002.

Callies entered the screen world through television in the early 2000s, becoming known for roles in series such as Tarzan and Queens Supreme, playing the character Kate O'Malley in the latter. International fame came with Prison Break, which began in 2005. In a production also featuring Wentworth Miller, Dominic Purcell, Robert Knepper and Amaury Nolasco, she played the prison doctor Sara Tancredi; the character also appeared in the 2009 film Prison Break: The Final Break and in the show's fifth season, filmed years later.

In 2010 she joined the cast of AMC's comic book adaptation The Walking Dead and played Lori Grimes through the series' first three seasons. In later years she took on the roles of Katie Bowman in the USA Network production Colony, Robin Perry in NBC's Council of Dads and Birdie Nicolletti in The Company You Keep on ABC; she also appeared in the miniseries The Long Road Home and Unspeakable.

Her film credits include The Celestine Prophecy (2006), Whisper (2007), Black Gold (2011), about the search for oil, Faces in the Crowd (2011), Foreverland (2011), Into the Storm (2014), Pay the Ghost (2015), The Other Side of the Door (2016) and This Is Your Death (2017). Her voice work includes The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas recorded in 2010; alongside acting she has also worked as a director and producer.

In her private life she is married to Josh Winterhalt, and the actress has a daughter named Keala.