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Jennifer Morrison is probably best known for her portrayal of Dr. Allison Cameron on the long-running television series House, M.D. Leaving the series after its sixth season in 2010, Morrison has gone onto other projects, including the 2009 Star Trek movie, in which she plays Captain Kirk’s mother and a stint on the CBS comedy series How I Met Your Mother.
In Once Upon a Time, Morrison stars as Emma Swan, a 28-year old bail-bondswoman living the single life. One night a young boy appears on her doorstep; he is a ghost from Emma’s past—Henry, the son she gave up for adoption at birth.
Henry has sought out his birth mother to enlist her aid in what seems to her to be a far-fetched fantasy (or delusion). Insisting the Emma is the long-missing daughter of Snow White (Yes, that Snow White), Henry tries to convince her to return with him to his hometown of Storybrooke. It is there that Emma will meet her destiny (and a lot of strange characters).
“Basically, it’s as if every fairy tale character ever written is real and actually exists, but they’ve been cursed and they don’t know their true identities,” Morrison told TVLine last spring. “They are living in our reality not knowing who they truly are.”
For example, Regina (Lana Parilla), the mayor of Storybrooke (and Henry’s adoptive mother) is in reality The Evil Queen who once upon a time put a curse on the fairytale characters, trapping them forever here in our modern world.
Morrison has a pretty full schedule, appearing the feature film Warrior, starring opposite Nick Nolte, and this month she stars in the Lifetime TV movie 5 For the Cure, intended to increase awareness of breast cancer. Now residing in Los Angeles, Morrison originally comes from the Chicago area and studied at the legendary Steppenwolf Theatre Company. She earned a degree from Chicago’s Loyola University in Theater.
I interviewed Morrison while she was still doing differential diagnoses on House. You can read it here.
Once Upon a Time airs Sundays on ABC beginning October 23.
