Marsha Thomason

Marsha Thomason
Thomason at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International.
Born	(1976-01-19) January 19, 1976 Moston, Greater Manchester, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1993–present
Spouse	Craig Sykes ​ (m. 2009)​
Children	1

Marsha Lisa Thomason (born January 19, 1976) is an English actress who is best known for playing Nessa Holt in the first two seasons of the NBC series Las Vegas, Naomi Dorrit on the ABC series Lost, and FBI agent Diana Berrigan on the USA Network series White Collar.

Early life

Thomason was born in Moston, Greater Manchester, the daughter of Phyllis (née McCrae), a Jamaican electronics company employee, and Peter Thomason, who worked in politics. She attended Holy Trinity Primary School in Blackley and North Manchester High School for Girls, before attending Oldham Sixth Form College to study for A levels in Media Studies, Theatre Studies, and Performing Arts. Thomason attended the Manchester Metropolitan University, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. From the age of 13, Thomason attended Oldham Theatre Workshop where she was able to participate in youth theatre productions.

Career

Thomason first came to prominence on British television in the series Playing the Field and Where The Heart Is, as well as in the first series of the BBC Three drama Burn It. In the United States, she appeared in Disney's The Haunted Mansion. She played Brandy in the film My Baby's Daddy and Victoria in Black Knight. She also played Vicki in Pure. She starred in the U.S. television series Las Vegas as Nessa Holt in seasons 1 and 2, a total of 47 episodes.

On 21 October 2004, she was a guest on the radio show Loveline. In January 2008, she appeared in Messiah V: The Rapture. In August 2008, Thomason was cast as a series regular in the CW show Easy Money. In late 2009, she appeared on General Hospital. After appearing in the pilot episode for White Collar as agent Diana Berrigan, she returned for the first season finale. It was announced that she would appear on the series full-time in the second season. She is also the new voice of Diana in Hitman: Absolution.

Thomason was a recurring character on the television show Lost as Naomi Dorrit. Being a friend of Dominic Monaghan (who played Charlie Pace on the series), she was a huge fan of the show and excited to be cast. She first appeared in the third season episode "Catch-22", which aired on 18 April 2007, and continued to appear until the season finale "Through the Looking Glass". She next appeared in "The Beginning of the End" and in the season 5, episode 13, "Some Like It Hoth".

Thomas said about the lack of character transparency in Lost, "That's kind of difficult as an actor, but also freeing in a way, because you just have to play the scenes as they're written. And then if you find out if you're a big villain or whatever, then you play that... you know when that worked really brilliantly? On 24 with Nina Myers. She didn't have a clue – Sarah Clarke, the actress – and that made it really brilliant, because she played Nina honestly. Really honestly. And then she was a villain. Genius. That was such a great one."

Personal life

On 5 April 2009, Thomason married lighting technician Craig Sykes in Malibu, California. Their daughter, Tallulah Anaïs, was born on 12 June 2013.

Thomason is an avid supporter of Manchester City.

Filmography

Gaming

• Diana Burnwood in Hitman: Absolution

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Safe	Wendy	TV film
1994	Priest	Nurse
1996	Brazen Hussies	Stripper with fire	TV film
2001	Swallow	Tina Harford	TV film
	Black Knight	Chambermaid Number 7 / Victoria the Chambermaid / Nicole
2002	Long Time Dead	Lucy
	Pure	Vicki
2003	The Haunted Mansion	Sara Evers / Elizabeth Henshaw
2004	My Baby's Daddy	Brandy
2005	The Nickel Children	Beatrice
2006	The Package	Melissa	Short film
	Caffeine	Rachel
	The Fast One	Lucy	Comedy short
	The Tripper	Linda
	Tug of War	Sam	Comedy short
2007	LA Blues	Carla
2008	Messiah V: The Rapture	Mel Palmer	TV film
2009	Into the Blue 2: The Reef	Azra	Film

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Prime Suspect		1 Episode: Prime Suspect 5: Errors of Judgement
1997	Pie in the Sky	Sally	8 Episodes
1998	Playing the Field	Sharon 'Shazza' Pearce
	Where the Heart Is	Jacqui Richards	3 Episodes: "The Final Curtain", "The Healing Game" & "Fresh"
1999	Love in the 21st Century	Louise	Episode: "Threesome"
2001	Table 12	Denie	Episode: "Guess Who's Not Coming to Dinner"
2003	Burn It	Tina
2003–2005	Las Vegas	Nessa Holt	Seasons 1-2 (Main cast: 47 Episodes)
2007	Cane	Miranda Sanfilipino	Episode: "Family Business"
2007–2010	Lost	Naomi Dorritt	12 Episodes
2008	Life	Jill Abrahams	Episode: "The Business of Miracles"
2008	Easy Money	Julia Miller	series regular
2009–2010	Make It or Break It	Mary Jane "MJ" Martin	6 Episodes
2009–2014	White Collar	Diana Berrigan	Season 1 (2 episodes: Pilot, Finale); Season 2-6 (Main Cast)
2009	General Hospital	Gillian Carlyle
2011	2 Broke Girls	Cashandra	Episodes: "And Hoarder Culture", "And The Really Petty Cash"
2013–2014	Men at Work	Selena	Episode: "Weekend at PJ's", "I Take Thee, Gibbs"
2014	House of Lies	Acquaintance	Episode: "Soldiers"
2015	Safe House	Katy	4 Episodes

External links

• Marsha Thomason at IMDb