Poppy Montgomery is an 8 million dollar net worth actress and producer with an Australian background. Famous for: Playing Samantha Spade on CBS’s police procedural “Without a Trace” (2002–2009) and appearing as Carrie Wells on CBS/A&E’s crime drama “Unforgettable” (2011–2016). Poppy’s first significant part opposite Marilyn Monroe was in the 2001 miniseries “Blonde” — a “dream role” for the actress, who had posters of the icon plastered on her bedroom walls as a child.
In 2011, she played author J.K. Rowling in the TV movie “Magic Beyond Words.” Montgomery’s credits include films Dead Man on Campus 1998, The Other Sister 1999, Life 1999, and How to Lose Your Lover 2004, the TV movies Murder in the Hamptons 2005, Lying to Be Perfect 2010, Signed, Sealed, Delivered: From Paris with Love 2015, A Surrogate’s Nightmare 2017, and Christmas on the Farm 2021, and the TV series Relativity (1996–97), Glory Days (2002) and Reef Break (2019). Poppy was an executive producer on Unforgettable, Reef Break, and Christmas on the Farm, as well as the 2013 Lifetime movie An Amish Murder.
Poppy Montgomery’s Early Life
Poppy Montgomery (born Poppy Petal Emma Elizabeth Deveraux Donahue; June 15, 1972) was born in Sydney, Australia. Phil Donahue (restaurateur) (Father), Nicola Montgomery (Executive/Market Researcher) (Mother). Poppy has four sisters, Rosie, Lily, Daisy, and Marigold, and one brother named Jethro Tull.
Poppy Montgomery was expelled from 6 private schools before she dropped out at 15 to pursue acting. Poppy went to Florida to join a boyfriend she had met in Australia when he was an exchange student, but as she told the Seattle Times in 2005, “After five days in Sarasota, I knew I couldn’t tolerate him.” Montgomery then took a bus to Los Angeles, where she stayed with some of her brother’s friends. Which meant sending a headshot to Bob McGowan–a former manager of Julia Roberts–every day until he finally agreed to sign her.
Poppy Montgomery Personal Life
Poppy Montgomery started dating actor Adam Kaufman after meeting on Between in 2005, and they had a son, Jackson Phillip Deveraux Montgomery Kaufman, on December 23, 2007. Her absence from “Without a Trace” was explained as a pregnancy, and her co-star, Anthony LaPaglia, is the godfather of Jackson. Montgomery and Kaufman starred together in the 2010 TV movie “Lying to Be Perfect,” and Adam appeared in 13 episodes of “Without a Trace” as Poppy’s character’s love interest.
Poppy Montgomery and Kaufman divorced in 2011, and later that year, Poppy began a relationship with Shawn Sanford, Microsoft’s director of lifestyle marketing. The duo tied the knot at Disneyland on Feb. 19, 2014, and shares two kids – Violet Grace Deveraux Sanford (April 2013) and Gus Monroe Deveraux Sanford (November 2014). Montgomery holds citizenship in both Australia and the US.
Poppy Montgomery Career
Poppy’s film and television debuts were in 1994 with an appearance in the two-part “Silk Stalkings” episode “Natural Selection” and a role as Party Girl No. 1 in the sci-fi comedy “Tammy and the T-Rex.” She also guest-starred on “Party of Five” (1996) and “NYPD Blue” (1996) in the ’90s and appeared in the films “Devil in a Blue Dress” (1995), “Dead Man on Campus” (1998), and “The Other Sister” (1999) and the TV movies “Jake Lassiter: Justice on the Bayou” (1995) and “The Cold Equations” (1996). Montgomery appeared as Jennifer Lukens in the ABC drama “Relativity” from 1996 to 1997, and co-starred opposite Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence in the film “Life” in 1999.
The beautiful Internet Chick Poppy Montgomery played Elizabeth Waclawek on the short-lived 2000 UPN drama The Beat, and in 2001, she starred as Marilyn Monroe in the CBS miniseries Blonde, based on Joyce Carol Oates’ 2000 novel of the same name. In an interview with “Entertainment Weekly” regarding the part, Poppy said, “When I told my mom I was cast as Marilyn Monroe, she didn’t even blink. Well, I guess you’ve been practicing for this your entire life. She went on to star as FBI agent Samantha Spade on Without a Trace (160 episodes over seven seasons), but first played Ellie Sparks on The WB series Glory Days in 2002.
Montgomery was featured in the films How to Lose Your Lover (2004) and Between (2005) and the TV movies Raising Waylon (2004), Murder in the Hamptons (2005), Snow Wonder (2005), and Lying to Be Perfect (2010), as well as playing Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling in the 2011 Lifetime movie Magic Beyond Words. Poppy played the lead role of Carrie Wells on “Unforgettable” from 2011 to 2016, a woman with a “phantasmagoric ability to remember almost everything she experiences.”
It ran for 61 episodes across four seasons (three on CBS, one on A&E) and earned a People’s Choice Award nomination in 2012 for Favorite New TV Drama. Montgomery also starred in several TV movies, including “Signed, Sealed, Delivered from Paris, With Love” (2015), “Furst Born” (2016), “A Surrogate’s Nightmare” (2017), and one of her last acting roles was as a recurring character in 2019 on the French-American crime drama “The Reef” as Cat Chambers.
Poppy Montgomery Award Nominations
Montgomery was nominated for an Online Film & Television Association Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture or Miniseries for “Blonde” in 2001. She was nominated in 2004 alongside her “Without a Trace” castmates for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. Poppy was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series, 2013, “Magic Beyond Words: The J.K. Rowling Story”.
