Andrea Joy Cook [1] born July 22, [2] is a Canadian actress. Cook was born in Oshawa , Ontario. She spent most of her early life in nearby Whitby , where she attended Anderson Collegiate Vocational Institute. She has three siblings: Nathan, Paul, and Angela. Cook was declared legally blind in the second grade because of severe astigmatism , but wore contacts and thick "Coke bottle" glasses to correct her vision. Talking about her childhood, Cook recalled how other kids were "cruel" and that she "really couldn't see" and "everything looked like a smear of color with no shapes".
She also said that at the time of her diagnosis, she was not doing well in school. At first, people thought she had a learning disability because she could not read. In reality, she could not see the board, which affected her ability to recognize letters and know the sounds they made.
A dancer from age four, [5] Cook began taking jazz , tap and ballet lessons. She said that dance kept her engaged growing up as she did not have to recite or read anything. Cook also taught dance when she was younger and has stated that if she hadn't become an actress, she would most likely have set up a small dance studio somewhere. In an interview, she said that she still tap dances. Cook's first job was in a McDonald's commercial in She graduated to series work with a guest role on the television series Goosebumps and parts in two television movies, In His Father's Shoes and Elvis Meets Nixon.
Cook launched her feature film career as one of five suicidal Lisbon sisters in 's The Virgin Suicides. Also that year, she took a starring role in the TV series Higher Ground , in which Cook played Shelby Merrick, an adolescent girl dealing with abuse and heartache at a wilderness school for struggling teens.
Higher Ground lasted one season, ending with a romance between Shelby and Hayden Christensen 's character Scott. In , Cook guest starred in Dead Like Me. Beginning in September , she starred as Jennifer "J. On June 14, , it was announced that her contract option would not be picked up for season six as a series regular reportedly due to budget cuts on the show, [7] but she returned for two episodes to wrap up her character's storyline due to thousands of letters and petitions written to the show's producers.
