Marsha Thomason

Marsha Thomason
Thomason at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con
Born	(1976-01-19) 19 January 1976 Moston, Manchester, England
Alma mater	Manchester Metropolitan University (BA)
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1993–present
Spouse	Craig Sykes ​ (m. 2009)​
Children	1

Marsha Lisa Thomason Sykes (born 19 January 1976) is an English television and film actress who is best known for playing Sara Evers in Disney's The Haunted Mansion, Nessa Holt in the first two seasons of the NBC series Las Vegas, Naomi Dorrit on the ABC series Lost, FBI agent Diana Berrigan on the USA Network series White Collar, and DS Jenn Townsend in ITV crime series The Bay.

Early life

Thomason attended Holy Trinity Primary School in Harpurhey and North Manchester High School for Girls in Moston, before attending Oldham Sixth Form College to study for A levels in media studies, theatre studies, and performing arts. She attended the Manchester Metropolitan University, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. From the age of 13, Thomason attended Oldham Theatre Workshop, where she participated in youth theatre productions.

Career

Thomason first came to prominence on British television in the fifth series of Pie in the Sky (1997) playing the waitress, Sally, in eight episodes. She went on to appear in Playing the Field and Where the Heart Is (both 1998), as well as in the first series of the BBC Three drama Burn It (2003). In the United States, she appeared in Disney's The Haunted Mansion, opposite Eddie Murphy. She played Brandy in the film My Baby's Daddy and Victoria in Black Knight. She also played Vicki in Pure. She starred in the U.S. television series Las Vegas as Nessa Holt in seasons one and two, a total of 47 episodes.

On 21 October 2004, she was a guest on the radio show Loveline. In January 2008, she appeared in Messiah V: The Rapture. In August 2008, Thomason was cast as a series regular in the CW show Easy Money. In late 2009, she appeared on General Hospital. After appearing in the pilot episode for White Collar as agent Diana Berrigan, she returned for the first-season finale. It was announced that she would appear on the series full-time in the second season. She is also the new voice of Diana in Hitman: Absolution.

Thomason had the recurring role of Naomi Dorrit on the television show Lost. Being a friend of Dominic Monaghan (who played Charlie Pace on the series), she was a huge fan of the show and excited to be cast. She first appeared in the third-season episode "Catch-22", which aired on 18 April 2007, and continued to appear until the season finale "Through the Looking Glass". She next appeared in "The Beginning of the End" and in the season-five episode "Some Like It Hoth".

In an interview on her role in Lost and whether the actors were provided with information not known to the audience she said, "That's kind of difficult as an actor, but also freeing in a way, because you just have to play the scenes as they're written. And then if you find out if you're a big villain or whatever, then you play that".

Personal life

On 5 April 2009, Thomason married lighting technician Craig Sykes in Malibu, California. Their daughter was born in June 2013.

Filmography

Film

Film
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Priest	Nurse
2001	Black Knight	Victoria the Chambermaid and Nicole
2002	Long Time Dead	Lucy
	Pure	Vicki
2003	The Haunted Mansion	Sara Evers and Elizabeth Henshaw
2004	My Baby's Daddy	Brandy
2005	The Nickel Children	Beatrice
2006	The Package	Melissa	Short film
	Caffeine	Rachel
	The Fast One	Lucy	Comedy short
	The Tripper	Linda
	Tug of War	Sam	Comedy short
2007	LA Blues	Carla
2009	Into the Blue 2: The Reef	Azra
TBA	The Extraordinary Farewell	Claire Samuels	Pre-production

Television

Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Safe	Wendy	TV film
1996	Prime Suspect	Janice	Episode: Prime Suspect 5: "Errors of Judgement"
1996	Brazen Hussies	Stripper with fire	TV film
1997	Pie in the Sky	Sally	8 episodes
1998	Playing the Field	Sharon 'Shazza' Pearce
1998–1999	Where the Heart Is	Jacqui Richards	20 episodes
1999	Love in the 21st Century	Louise	Episode: "Threesome"
2001	Table 12	Denie	Episode: "Guess Who's Not Coming to Dinner"
	Swallow	Tina Harford	TV film
2003	Burn It	Tina	3 episodes
2003–2005	Las Vegas	Nessa Holt	Seasons 1–2 (Main cast: 47 episodes)
2007	Cane	Miranda Sanfilipino	Episode: "Family Business"
2007–2010	Lost	Naomi Dorrit	12 episodes
2008	Life	Jill Abrahams	Episode: "The Business of Miracles"
	Easy Money	Julia Miller	8 episodes
	Messiah V: The Rapture	Mel Palmer	TV film
2009	General Hospital	Gillian Carlyle	4 episodes
2009–2010	Make It or Break It	Mary Jane "MJ" Martin	6 episodes
2009–2014	White Collar	Special Agent Diana Berrigan	Season 1 (2 episodes: Pilot, Finale); Seasons 2–6 (main cast)
2011	2 Broke Girls	Cashandra	2 episodes
2013–2014	Men at Work	Selena	2 episodes
2014	House of Lies	Acquaintance	Episode: "Soldiers"
2015	Safe House	Katy	4 episodes
2017	Bones	Amy Bryan	Episode: "The Tutor in the Tussle"
2017–2020	NCIS: Los Angeles	Nicole Dechamps	8 episodes
2017–2018	The Good Doctor	Dr. Isabel Barnes	3 episodes
2018	SEAL Team	Staff Sergeant Vanessa Ryan	3 episodes
2019	Better Things	Mer Kodis	3 episodes
2020–present	COBRA	Francine Bridge
2020	MacGyver	Dr. Cheryl Werner	Episode: "Tesla + Bell + Edison + Mac"
2021	Castlevania	Greta	Voice, 6 episodes
	Magnum P.I.	Eve	Season 4 recurring
2022–present	The Bay	DS Jenn Townsend	Lead role; since series 3
2022	FreakAngels		Voice

Video games

Video games
Year	Title	Role	Notes
2012	Hitman: Absolution	Diana Burnwood

External links

• Marsha Thomason at IMDb
• Marsha Thomason at Rotten Tomatoes