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Italo-Brazilian actress Morena Baccarin was born on January 2, 1979, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but was raised in Greenwich Village, New York. Morena is the daughter of well-known Brazilian TV and stage actress Vera Setta. She attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Arts and went to the renowned Juilliard School in New York City. She landed her first movie role in the independent film "Perfume" and later had an award-winning role in the film "Way Of Broadway." Her television credits include roles as Maya Griffin on "The O.C.," Adria on "Stargate SG-1" and as high-class call girl Inara on the short-lived sci-fi series "Firefly." Morena lives in both New York and Los Angeles, depending where she is working.

When she took her on-camera bow in the early 2000s, Brazilian-born actress Morena Baccarin maintained equal footing in the film and television arenas, typically filling parts that called for an exotic ingenue with an undercurrent of raw intelligence. Feature roles included the evocation of a gifted and brilliant young actress typecast by gender at the hands of sexist casting directors in Daniel Kay's ensemble comedy drama Way Off Broadway (2001) and a bit part in the 2002 comedy Roger Dodger (as a pickup). Baccarin's regular small-screen role on the 2002 sci-fi-Western hybrid series Firefly -- as Inara, a "companion" (a well-respected courtesan) on board a futuristic spaceship -- yielded an assignment to reprise that characterization in the big-screen adaptation of that series, Serenity (2005). After taking on guest roles on such small-screen programs as The O.C., Justice League, and Stargate SG-1, Baccarin landed regular billing as a nurse on the series medical drama Heartland (2007), opposite Treat Williams and Dabney Coleman. Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

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