Saffron Burrows

Saffron Domini Burrows (born 22 October 1972) is a British-American actress who has appeared in films such as Circle of Friends, Wing Commander, Deep Blue Sea, Gangster No. 1, Enigma, Troy, Reign Over Me and The Bank Job. On the small screen, she has starred as Lorraine Weller on Boston Legal, Dr. Norah Skinner on My Own Worst Enemy, Detective Serena Stevens on Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Victoria Hand on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. She appeared as Cynthia Taylor on the Amazon Video series Mozart in the Jungle and as Dottie Quinn in the Netflix series You. Early life A Londoner, Burrows was born in St Pancras and grew up in Stoke Newington, her mother a trade unionist and primary school teacher in Hackney and her father an architect and teacher. Her parents and stepfather were Socialist Workers Party members, and Burrows was politically active from a young age. Burrows attended William Tyndale Primary School in Islington and then Stoke Newington School. When asked for her preference of a school in Hackney or Hampstead, she said she wanted to be in a multicultural, inclusive environment. She enrolled in acting classes at the Anna Scher Theatre when she was 11. Burrows had a successful modelling career after she was discovered at age 15 in Covent Garden by fashion photographer Beth Boldt. For five years she divided her time between London and Paris, where she learned French. She found the modelling world's "obsession with the ideal of the body" troubling.