Strahovski started acting at school when she played Viola in the school production of
Twelfth Night. She appeared in film and television roles in
Australia, including a turn on satirical show
Double the Fist and as Freya Lewis in the Australian drama series
headLand. She has also appeared in
Channel Nine's
Sea Patrol. Strahovski sent in her audition tape for the TV series
Chuck while in the United States auditioning for roles in other shows, namely
NBC's 2007 series
Bionic Woman. She was cast as
Sarah Walker after running lines with
Zachary Levi. She relocated to the United States six months later. Strahovski adopted the more
phonetic spelling of Strahovski as her stage name in place of Strzechowski at this time. In addition to English, Strahovski is fluent in Polish, and employed it in a brief exchange with a colleague in the
Chuck episode "
Chuck Versus the Wookiee" and again in the episodes "
Chuck Versus the Three Words" and "
Chuck Versus the Honeymooners". Although she portrays an American in the series, she briefly spoke in a "Hollywood" Australian accent in the episode "
Chuck Versus the Ex". Strahovski appears in
Mass Effect Galaxy,
Mass Effect 2, and
Mass Effect 3 as the voice of
Miranda Lawson. She had her face scanned and animated so she could portray Lawson in
Mass Effect 2. Strahovski voices
Aya Brea in the English version of the
Parasite Eve spinoff,
The 3rd Birthday. She appeared in a
CollegeHumor sketch in April 2011, parodying the music styles of
Katy Perry,
Ke$ha,
Lady Gaga, and
Justin Bieber. Strahovski appeared in the 2011 film
Killer Elite, alongside
Jason Statham,
Clive Owen, and
Robert De Niro. She appeared in the 2012 comedy
The Guilt Trip, opposite
Seth Rogen and
Barbra Streisand. In 2010, Strahovski received the
Teen Choice Award for Choice Action TV Actress for
Chuck, as well as a nomination for
Spike Video Game Awards for Best Performance by a Human Female for
Mass Effect 2. In 2011, Strahovski was nominated again for the
Teen Choice Awards for Choice Action TV Actress. In 2011,
Cosmopolitan Magazine (Australia) named Strahovski the Fun Fearless Female of the Year, along with Favorite TV Actress. In November 2011, Strahovski was cast as the female lead in
I, Frankenstein (2014). In March 2012, she featured in a new
SoBe Life commercial. In May 2012, Strahovski ranked No. 35 in
Maxim Hot 100. In June 2012, Showtime announced Strahovski had joined the cast for the seventh season of
Dexter portraying
Hannah McKay, a woman involved with an investigation following the death of her former lover, a
spree killer whom she accompanied when she was a teenager. She reprised the role in the eighth season of
Dexter. In December 2012, she made her
Broadway debut in a revival of Clifford Odets'
Golden Boy, Strahovski was honored along with
Liam Hemsworth for their work in international roles with the 2012 Australians in Film Breakthrough Award. In 2014, Strahovski joined
Fox's TV series
24: Live Another Day cast as Kate Morgan, CIA agent. Later that year, she was cast as
Rene Carpenter on the
ABC limited series
The Astronaut Wives Club. In 2016, she starred, along with
Adrien Brody, as Caroline Crowley in the film noir
Manhattan Night. She was featured in
Maxim Hot 100 from 2009 to 2013. Strahovski starred as
Serena Joy Waterford in all six seasons of the acclaimed
Hulu drama series ''
The Handmaid's Tale, which ran from 2017 to 2025. For her performance, she earned Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2018 and 2021. She also starred as Sofie Werner in the limited series Stateless'' (2020). ==Personal life==