Emmanuelle Chriqui
Emmanuelle Sophie Anne Chriqui is a Canadian-American actress. Known for her versatile work in both film and television, she is best known for playing Sloan McQuewick on HBO's Entourage, a role that brought her widespread recognition, alongside her role as Dalia in You Don't Mess with the Zohan. She also gained notice for playing Lorelei Martins on CBS's The Mentalist and Lana Lang on The CW's Superman & Lois.
Her other notable work include the slasher film Wrong Turn, and the comedy films Waiting... and Super Troopers 2. She has also lent her voice to animations and video games, most notably Thundercats, in which she voiced Cheetara, Tron: Uprising, and Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Early life
Chriqui was born in Montreal, Quebec, the daughter of Moroccan Jewish parents. Her mother, Liliane, was born in Casablanca, and her father, Albert, in Rabat. Her family practiced Orthodox Judaism.Chriqui has an older brother, Serge, and an older sister, Laurence. When she was almost two, her family moved to Toronto, Ontario. She grew up in Markham, Ontario, a suburb northeast of the city. Her mother, an aesthetician who once told Emmanuelle she would become an actress, died when Chriqui was sixteen years old.
When Chriqui was a child, her brother began paying for her to take acting classes. She attended the drama program at Unionville High School, after having studied in high school in Paris and having done two years of comedy studies at the Perimony school, she decided to pursue a career in acting.
Career
Chriqui began acting while a 10-year-old in a McDonald's commercial. She moved to Vancouver in the mid-1990s, guest-starring in series such as Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Forever Knight, Once a Thief, and Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal. Her first Hollywood role was as a supporting character in Detroit Rock City. She had a larger role in Chris Koch's teen comedy Snow Day portraying Claire Bonner, and then appeared in several other Hollywood films, such as 100 Girls, Wrong Turn, On the Line, and In the Mix. She played Eve in the 2005 comedy National Lampoon's Adam & Eve, and played Adam Sandler's love interest Dalia in the 2008 film You Don't Mess with the Zohan.Chriqui was nominated for a Best Actress DVD Exclusive Award for her performance in 100 Girls and was nominated, with Lance Bass, for a Choice Liplock Teen Choice Award in On the Line. In April 2008, she won the Standout Performance Trophy at the Young Hollywood Awards.
Chriqui also starred in several music videos including Hinder's "Lips of an Angel", Zac Brown Band's "Whatever It Is", and Charles Perry's "I Could Be the Best Time of Your Life". She threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Los Angeles Dodgers game on 8 June 2008. Chriqui was on the cover of the Autumn 2008 issue of Naked Eye.
She appeared in the 2008 film Cadillac Records as Revetta Chess, where she performed with Beyoncé Knowles. Chriqui was seen in 2009 as one of several women whose lives interconnect in the comedy Women in Trouble and appeared in its 2010 sequel Elektra Luxx.
From the second season to the end of the show's original run, Chriqui played Sloan McQuewick in the hit HBO series Entourage. She reprised the role for the 2015 film of the show. In 2010, Chriqui joined Showtime's series, The Borgias. She topped AskMen's "Most Desirable Women" list in the same year. She also voiced Cheetara in the ThunderCats 2011 animated series, and Numbers in the Activision video game Call of Duty: Black Ops. In 2019, she played Madison in the Netflix film The Knight Before Christmas, opposite Vanessa Hudgens.
In April 2020, Chriqui was cast as Lana Lang in the CW action-superhero series Superman & Lois, and also portrayed her Bizarro counterpart Lana-Rho in the second season.
Personal life
Chriqui practices Transcendental Meditation. During a period of exploring various healing arts as a teenager, she was "very much into" practices like Reiki and yoga, which led her to study Hinduism, Buddhism, and meditation. She still holds these practices close to her heart.In her role in the film You Don't Mess with the Zohan, Chriqui played a character named Dalia who was also Moroccan. Chriqui noted that her character's passionate temperament was familiar to her, allowing her to "tap into some of my grandmother's qualities".
In September 2017, Chriqui became a U.S. citizen.
She has been in a relationship with actor Sam Trammell since 2020.
Following the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Chriqui denounced Hamas and declared that she would "stand with Israel today and always." On 12 October, she signed an open letter by Creative Community for Peace denouncing the attacks and calling for the return of kidnapped Israelis. On 14 February 2024, Chriqui signed another letter by the organization that criticized attempts to remove Israel from Eurovision 2024 due to the Gaza war.