Andrea Joy Cook was born on July 22nd, 1978 in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada to parents Mike and sandra Cook. She grew up with her two brothers, Nathan and Paul, and her one sister, Angie.
A.J. had a normal childhood and trained as a competitive dancer since the age of 4, and while in high-school AJ used to teach kids how to dance. A.J. didn't begin acting until she was 17 years-old, and her fisr job was a McDonalds commercial. She started out with a few very small roles and gradually moved up to bigger roles. Due to her mormon religion, she had to pick her roles very carefully so she didn't compromise her values. A.J.'s first big role was in the Sophia Coppola film "The Virgin Suicides" co-starriing Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, James Woods and Kathleen Turner, where she played one of the beautiful Lisbon sisters, Mary. But perhaps A.J is most well known for her role as Shelby Merrick in the short lived teen drama "Higher Ground" in wich A.J. got to show off her true acting talent in the dramatic scenes the show had almost every episode. With the show cancelation after only 1 season, A.J. was allowed to move on to bigger things.
A.J. got married to Nathan Andersen (the boy she dated for ages according to Jewel's Staite mom, Cher Staite) on September 2001 and two months after her movie "Out Cold" was released. Since then AJ has been on "Final Destination 2", the TV Show "Tru Calling" and the TV movie "Bloodsuckers". Right now (2005) AJ has two indie movies coming up - "Night Skies" and "I'm Reed Fish" and the dramatic TV Show "Criminal Minds".