Katherine Moennig #7

For years, men have been the crusading casanovas on prime time. She's shaking up the formula and throwing a wrench in the stale sexual politics of television.


Katherine Moennig likes her women freaky. "There are a gazillion projects out there that offer standard female roles, but they're not for me," says the 27-years-old actress. This is no surprise since Moennig is best known for her starring role on Showtime's The L Word as sexually voracious vixen Shane McCutcheon, TV's most high profile gay female skirt-chaser, a girl, who as the show's first two seasons would seem to imply, likes a lot of other girls. Big changes, though, are afoot for Shane, says Moennig, in the third season, which begins airing in january. "Shane's in a steady relationship this time. And she's dealing with the mistake she makes along the way."

The niece of actress Blythe Danner (and the cousin of Gwyneth Paltrow), Moennig grew up in Philadelphia and moved to New York shortly after high school, embarking on a tour through the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She'd been wanting in to move to L.A but found the prospect daunting; when she was cast on the l word, which films in Vancouver, she decided to finaly head west, albeit 2000 miles north.

Early next year, Moennig makes the leap to the big screen, appearing in Ghost World (2001) director Terry Zwigoff Art School Confidential [release date : April 26, 2006] and plans to use The L Word's hiatus to get back into the Hollywood loop. Still, she's making the most of her time in Canada. "Vancouver's cool because I can bike or skateboard to the set," she says. "We decided Shane should skate, so I got a coach and learned how to skate a half-pipe. It's harder than it looks. It's not bad, though, getting paid to do what I like."