Vanessa Lengies (born July 21, 1985)^[1] is a Canadian actress, dancer, and singer. She is known for starring in the drama American Dreams as Roxanne Bojarski. She appeared as Charge Nurse Kelly Epson on the TNT medical drama HawthoRNe, and has appeared in the recurring role of Sugar Motta in the third, fourth, and sixth seasons of the Fox series Glee. In 2021, Lengies played Erica on Turner & Hooch.

Lengies was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to a German father and an Egyptian mother. She grew up in Hudson, Quebec, where she graduated from Hudson High School in 2002.^{[citation needed]}

Lengies got her start in Canadian television on shows such as Sponk!, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Radio Active, and Popular Mechanics for Kids. Her voice was lent to Emily on the PBS animated series Arthur. In 2000, she had the lead role in the Showtime film Ratz.

In 2002, she was cast as a series regular in the NBC comedy-drama American Dreams, playing teenager Roxanne Bojarski. The show was set in Philadelphia in the mid-1960s, and Roxanne becomes one of the dancers on the American Bandstand television show hosted by Dick Clark. The series ran for three seasons, with the final episode broadcast in March 2005.

In August 2005, she co-starred with Hilary Duff and Heather Locklear in the comedy The Perfect Man. She also plays a supporting role as the jailbait hostess, Natasha, in the 2005 American film Waiting...,^[2] and reprised the role in the film's 2009 sequel, Still Waiting.... In 2006, she co-starred with Jeff Bridges and Missy Peregrym as a gymnast in the film Stick It.

For The Grudge 2, the role of Vanessa was originally written for Lengies, who eventually turned it down to film My Suicide; the part still bears her name. She has also appeared in CBS show Ghost Whisperer in an episode titled "The Vanishing" and the NBC show Medium in the episode "Apocalypse... Now?". She made another appearance in an episode of the short-lived CBS show Moonlight.

Lengies was seen as Sophia in the Lifetime original drama series Monarch Cove. She also co-starred in the ABC online comedy Squeegees.^[2]

She appeared as Nurse Kelly Epson on the TNT medical drama Hawthorne from 2009 through 2011. The role was a recurring one for the first season, and Lengies became a series regular for the following two seasons. The show, which ran for three seasons of ten episodes starting each June, was not renewed for a fourth summer.^[3] She appeared in the role of Loco Uno in an online mockumentary and sitcom called MyMusic.^{[citation needed]}

She was cast as Kacey, a bubbly cocktail waitress, in the sitcom Mixology. However, ABC canceled Mixology after only one season.^[4] Originally cast in a guest role, Lengies was upped to a main cast role on FOX's 2016 drama Second Chance (earlier titled Lookinglass).^[5]

She came out as genderfluid and bisexual in her own documentary series The 'S' Word with Vanessa Lengies in 2017.^[17]

• Glee: The Music Presents Glease