Lea Moreno

A pretty brunette with striking wide eyes and a compelling screen presence, actress Lea Moreno got her start in community theater then started acting at the West Coast Performing Arts Center and South Coast Repertory before landing her first screen roles shortly after graduating from high school. In 1995, she had guest roles on the ABC sitcoms "Home Improvement" and "Step by Step." The following year, she made her TV-movie debut co-starring alongside Jonathan Brandis, Ariana Richards and Christopher Noth in the ABC movie "Born Free: A New Adventure." Moreno and Brandis played city kids who move with their businessman father to Africa, where they endeavor to return a captured lion to the wild. That same year she made her feature acting debut in a similar setting, the safari-set Tarzan retread "Jungle Boy" (a 1998 US direct-to-video release). More TV work followed for Moreno, who guest starred on series including "Promised Land" and "Walker, Texas Ranger" (both CBS) and "Clueless" (UPN). Additionally, she was featured as the daughter of a breast cancer survivor (Mary McDonnell) whose health is once again in jeopardy in "Two Voices," Lifetime's 1997 fact-based account of the class-action suit that rocked the silicone breast implant industry. Moreno followed up this supporting role with a starring turn as the leader of a group of heroic children navigating a post-apocalyptic lost world in Showtime's sci-fi original "Doom Runners" (also 1997).