Actress Megan Dodds is an alumna of the esteemed Juilliard School and a veteran of classical stage drama. Her sharp, effervescent beauty has also garnered her a strong presence in contemporary screen projects, often playing driven yet playful professional types. After just a few years on the New York theater scene, she made her film debut as a cruel and haughty stepsister in the Drew Barrymore romance "Ever After" (1998), a post-feminist take on the Cinderella story. By the time of the movie's release, though, a plum role in playwright Ben Elton's pulpy crime satire, "Popcorn," had kicked off her love affair with the London stage. Based in England ever since, she's landed several regular TV roles highlighted by her turn as an exasperated book-publisher-cum-landlady on the spunky British sitcom "Not Going Out." Ultimately, however, her devotion to her booming theater career, which has famously seen her share an onstage kiss with pop megastar Madonna, tends to keep her from making long-term small-screen commitments. As an international movie performer, she's appeared in the American/German-produced crime thriller "The Contract," which co-starred Morgan Freeman and John Cusack, and the British troubled-youth drama "Chatroom" ('10), which featured her as a successful fantasy author who alienates her own son.