Before Kathryn Morris was cast in her career-making role as Detective Lilly Rush, the cool, tough-talking cop on “Cold Case” (NBC, 2003 - ), the gamine blond played roles in many b-grade horror films and small parts in several influential 90s movies.

Born January 28, 1969, in Cincinnati, she traveled in a gospel singing group with her family as a child. They eventually settled in Windsor Locks, Conn., where she grew up with her 6 siblings. Morris attended Temple University in the early 90s. Morris’ first telepic was “Long Road Home” (1991) a movie about early American share croppers with Mark Harmon, but her first brush with celebrity was in “Cool as Ice” (1992) the disastrous vehicle for rapper Vanilla Ice. By 1994, Morris was in the miniseries “The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All” (NBC) with Diane Lane, Donald Sutherland and Anne Bancroft, and “A Friend To Die For,” a Catholic school slasher with Tori Spelling.

Morris made two horror movies in 1995. She appeared in “Sleepstalker: The Sandman’s Last Rites,” in which a dead serial killer returns as an amorphous but deadly pile of sand and the telepic “W.E.I.R.D. World” (FOX), a horror anthology about a scientific organization where everyone is trying to double cross someone. Also in 1995, Morris was a member of a trailer park family manipulating the system in “Family Values” (UPN, 1995). Two years later Morris was a mental patient in “As Good as it Gets” (1997) with Jack Nicholson, and also played a regular role on the naval drama “Pensacola: Wings of Gold” (Syndicated, 1997-1998) with James Brolin. Morris made two more horror movies before the 90s were over. In “The Prophecy II” (1998), the Archangel Gabriel turns evil after doing some time in hell. She also appeared in “The Inferno” (1998), the second movie in a trilogy about three witches.

The future TV star made her first guest appearance on “Murder: She Wrote,” “Silk Stalkings,” “Ink,” “L.A. Firefighters,” and “Poltergeist, The Legacy.” On “Xena: Warrior Princess,” (Syndicated, 1998), Morris played Najara, the vulnerable villain warrior.

In 1999, Morris appeared in two episodes of “Magnificent Seven” (CBS) an episode of “Providence” (WB) and three movies, the updated “Inherit the Wind” telepic (SHO) with Jack Lemmon, George C. Scott and Beau Bridges; “Screenplay” in which a desperate Hollywood screenwriter holds an agent hostage in an effort to sell his script; and she was half of a middle class couple marooned in a Colorado diner with the U.S. President during an international nuclear crisis in “Deterrence.” The film starred Timothy Hutton and Kevin Pollack.

By 2000, Morris was back to horror in the telepic “Hell Swarm” (UPN), in which Tim Matheson plays a cop recruited to help block an alien takeover. The same year Morris’ “Murder: She Wrote” character from four years before was reprised in the TV movie, “Murder: She Wrote: A Story to Die For” (CBS). She also played the small role of a federal agent in “The Contender” (2000), with Gary Oldman, Joan Allen, Christian Slater, Jeff Bridges, and Sam Elliott. 2001 was the year of the small role with parts in “Artificial Intelligence: AI,” with Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Sam Robards, Frances O’Connor, and “The Last Castle” (2001), with Robert Reford, James Gandolfini and Mark Ruffalo, where her scenes were deleted.

A real break came in 2002 with her role as Tom Cruise’s beautiful, whimsical estranged wife in “Minority Report,” also featuring then-newcomer Colin Farrell and Dame Judi Dench. Morris made two episodes of “The Mind of a Married Man” (HBO, 2001) and starred in “The Hire: Hostage” (2001), as a kidnap victim whose only hope is her cell phone, before being tapped for her breakout role as the sole female detective on the “Cold Case” (CBS, 2003 - ) police squad. As the star, not to mention the only regular female role on the show, Morris brought a steely determination to the part, which makes Detective Lilly Rush seem absolutely indomitable. Rush is smart, cool and always right. And it looks incredibly easy.

Along with the new, steady prime-time exposure, Morris was also seen with Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman in the blockbuster, “Paycheck” (2003), in which an engineer’s memory is erased mysteriously and he must piece his life back together. The following year, the lovely actress had a role in “Mindhunters” (2004). Morris starred with Val Kilmer, LL Cool J and Christian Slater in this film where an FBI training session on an island goes horribly wrong after it’s discovered that one of them is a serial killer.