Last Updated: May 27, 2020
Born on July 22, 1978 in Oshawa, Ontario as Andrea Joy Cook, she is a gorgeous Canadian actress renowned for her appearance as Supervisory Special Agent Jennifer JJ Jareau on the hit CBS crime drama Criminal Minds. She mostly grew up in Ontario neighborhood of Whitby and attended Anderson Collegiate Vocational Institute. She also has three siblings named Nathan, Paul and Angela. She was in her second grade when a severe case of astigmatism rendered her legally blind, but, she wore contacts and thick glasses to correct her eyesight. In the year 2007, she had a lens implant surgery which corrected her impairment. She had been dancing from the age of four and started taking jazz, tap and ballet lessons. After competitive dancing for many years, she decided as a 16 years old and wanted to pursue a career in acting. Early in her life, she used to teach dance and had once stated that if she had not been an actress then she would have set up a small dance studio somewhere. She also admitted that she still tap dances.
Her first gig was as in an advertisement for McDonald’s in the year 1997. She played a guest role on the TV series Goosebumps, and parts in a couple of two television films titled In His Father’s Shoes and Elvis Meets Nixon. Her debut film was as one of the five captivating suicidal sisters in The Virgin Suicides. In the same year, she played a starring role in a TV series Higher Ground where she played the role of Shelby Merrick, a teenager dealing with abuse and heartache at a wilderness school for struggling kids. After Higher Ground, Cook was seen in the 2000 television film The Spiral Staircase, and went on to bag leading roles in many films such as Out Cold, Ripper, I’m Reed Fish, and Final Destination 2.
Starting from September 2005, she played the role of Jennifer J.J. Jareau in the CBS drama Criminal Minds. On June 14, 2010, it was announced that she won’t be a part of the sixth season of the show due to budget cuts. However, on April 16, 2011, it was reported that she had been signed for two more seasons of the show.
