Julie McNiven

Julie McNiven made her feature debut in 2005, unaware that her minor role as a secretary in the working class drama "The Gypsy Years" would help prepare her for her breakthrough performance.

Two years later, McNiven bowed as Hildy, the perennially patient underling of slick advertising antagonist Pete Campbell on TV's "Mad Men." Having captured an attentive audience on the megahit AMC series, McNiven next appeared in "Desperate Housewives" as an ill-fated waitress. Her character's shocking strangulation prompted a spike in self-defense class enrollment on Wisteria Lane.

Concurrently, McNiven had a guest-starring role on the eye-opening drama "Supernatural" as a reconciliatory angel fallen from grace. She appeared in six episodes of the series' fourth and fifth seasons. In 2010, McNiven played Ginn, a member of the Lucian Alliance, on the Emmy nominated sci-fi series "SGU Stargate Universe."

She went on to nab a part in the primetime action series "Nikita"'s 2011 season, and was featured in an episode of the malady mystery series "House M.D." that same year.

2011 also marked McNiven's first big screen starring role; "Screwed," a coming-of-age '80s throwback romantic comedy cast her as the object of our hero's unrequited love.