NICHOLAS LEA Canadian native Nicholas Lea was born June 22, 1962, in New Westminster, British Columbia. He served in the Canadian Navy, fronted an alt-rock band called Beau Monde for five years, and worked in a clothing store before his striking looks began getting him roles in such Vancouver-shot TV series such as The Hat Squad. He went on to play the recurring character of Officer Enrico "Ricky" Caruso on the ABC cop hit The Commish, also shot in that city. During his run on the show, he met one-time girlfriend Melinda McGraw, who played Chief of Detectives Cyd Madison and who went on to guest as Melissa Scully, Dana's sister, on The X-Files. Lea's acting training comes from Beverly Hills Playhouse, Charles Conrad Studios and the Gastown Actor's Studio. Before assuming the X-Files role of Alex Krycek, he guest-starred as the hapless night-clubber picked up by the pheromone-spewing apparent-alien Marty in the first-season episode "Genderbender." That episode's director, Rob Bowman, remembered being much taken with Lea's work in a scene where a cop breaks up the couple's clench in a steamy-windowed car. "During that last shot in the car," Bowman recalled, "when he sees that the girl has now become a guy, I thought Nick did a beautiful job walking the line in conveying a turning point in his life. [His character will] never be the same again for the rest of his life, after seeing that. And I thought [Nick] found just the right level to play that." When Bowman went on to direct the first Krycek episode, "Sleepless," he suggested Lea read for the role — one that normally would have gone to a Los Angeles actor. But, Bowman said, "Nick was the best of all. He earned the role." Lea has guest-starred on such series as Highlander, >Sliders, The Burning Zone, The Outer Limits episodes "The Inheritors" and "In Our Own Image," Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years, and several Canadian series. His other feature credits include the 1989 Canadian film My American Boyfriend (his movie debut), Xtro II: The Second Encounter, Bad Company, The Impossible Elephant, Lunch with Charles and Ignition, and he was a star of the John Woo telefilm and series Once a Thief. He most recently starred in the 2002 telefilm The Investigation, had a starring turn in the theatrical hit Vertical Limit, and played the lead in SCI FI Pictures' Threshold (2003). His stage appearances include For What We Reap (Station Street Theatre), Bloody Business (Western Canadian Theatre CO./New Bastion Theatre), Fair Game (Arts Club Theatre), and At Home (Gastown Theatre). Lea currently resides in Vancouver, where, when not performing, he teaches at the Lyric School of Actors. close window