Elisha Cuthbert was born in Alberta, Canada in 1982. When she was only seven, Cuthbert began modeling for children's clothing and footwear. In 1996, at the age of fourteen she managed to get a small role on the television series Are You Afraid of the Dark?. The character was only named as "young girl", but Cuthbert had succeeded in garnering enough attention to later get her a reoccurring role on the series as well as another role in the dramatic family movie Dancing on the Moon.

That same year, 1997, she began hosting the show, Popular Mechanics for Kids, and continued to do so until 2000. She often acted as a foreign correspondent for the show, flying around the world to get interviews and report of foreign affairs. Hillary Clinton noticed her reporting and later invited her to visit the White House.

Cuthbert then began work on the Fox series, 24, which also starred Keifer Southerland. She played the role of Jack Bauer's daughter Kim from 2001-2006. The series quickly became one of the year's biggest hits, effectively launching Cuthbert's career into the stratosphere of Hollywood celebrity. She began being listed in FHM as one of the Sexiest women.

It wasn't long after this success before Cuthbert was picked to star in the romantic comedy The Girl Next Door. The movie did well at the box office as Cuthbert's character, Danielle, was compared to Rebecca De Morney's portrayal of a prostitute in Risky Business. Her next film, House of Wax, did not do as well, and was largely written off by critics.

This minor setback has not adversely affected her career and she is currently involved in several projects ranging from a quadriplegic in the film He Was a Quiet Man to voicing the cat character of Cleo in the animated movie Cat Tale, both of which are scheduled to be released sometime in 2007.