Sylvaine Strike

Biography

Sylvaine Strike is a South African actress, writer and theater director. She was born in Pretoria and studied in Cape Town, where she graduated with a Performer's Diploma in Speech and Drama in 1993. She studied further in Paris at Jacques LeCoq School with an emphasis on physical theater. She is best known for her voicework used in the original adverts for cellular network Cell C. In 2002, Strike joined the cast of the South African soap-drama Isidingo, playing the role of Lee Haines, but was ultimately recast only weeks later due to Strike's pregnancy which the show's producers were unwilling to write into the soap's storyline. (The role was recast with actress Ashley Callie who played Lee Haines until 2008, when Callie died from injuries sustained in a car accident in February of that year.) Strike appeared in the 2009 film, District 9 as Dr. Katrina McKenzie.