For one Madeline Prior of Toronto, Canada, she had two big goals in her life. The first, to write a novel that might transcend time and put her into the hands of generations to come, and the second, to have a big family. At twenty-seven, she was well on her way to both, after marrying David Monfort, a fellow Canadian and giving birth to her first daughter, Evangeline, she was pregnant with her second and plugging away chapter by chapter at a coming of age tale somewhat based on her own life. Madeline had lived all over the world growing up, with wealthy parents who traveled for business and brought their children along for years at a time. Settling in Montreal was a dream for her, to have a real semblance of home to raise her family in. By the time baby number three came along, a second girl they named Colette, Madeline had finished her novel.

Though her book was published, it was not at all the success Madeline had wanted it to be. By that time however, she was so in love with being a mother, she felt accomplished for only having done it in the first place. The whole thing had served to bring about a lesson she would pass down to her children as she raised them into adulthood: go after whatever your dream is. The success would not matter nearly as much as having done it. From a very small age, Colette Monfort idolized her mother. Yes, she loved her father, but it was her mother's nurturing spirit that became the driving force in her life. She learned that nothing was too big for her to dream of, so long as she was willing to put in the effort to achieve these things.

The predominantly French-speaking home Colette was raised in apparently had nothing on American television. Though her parents spoke French almost exclusively in their home, Colette became mildly (read: extremely) obsessed with watching just about anything she could get her hands on. Yes, she learned English in school and from her parents as well, but she didn't speak it fluently until she was ten or eleven, and that was mostly due to Saved by the Bell. She was convinced that she would move to California at some point in her life and spend summers on the beach. That wouldn't exactly happen, but television gave her something else from a young age: a bit of an acting bug.

Academics were always a big deal in her family -- the norm of having chores and expectations to earn privileges became part of every day life. High school brought a number of things for Colette, first love and heartache, sure, but it also brought theatre into her life, and the drive to do something with it. Oh she loved the thrill of stepping into someone else's shoes for a while, for doing all that "actory" scene work that she seemed to thrive in. She dabbled in other things; field hockey, creative writing, student government -- but nothing stuck to her like acting did. It was such a silly dream to think about, being an actor for a living -- but that's really where her mother's philosophy came to mean the most to her. She encouraged Colette to do whatever it was that made her happy. She applied to colleges in the US, and was elated to be accepted into Juilliard. She was actually slightly (or more than slightly) terrified to move away from home and onto such a prestigious school, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Her years at Juilliard would prove to be some of the best of her life. She learned so much that she would carry with her into her career, and gain the confidence she needed to actually go after it. New York itself became home to her, and one she actually fell madly in love with. The big, scary world was waiting for her after graduation, but her life was in New York now, and she was glad for it. Auditioning was sort of a bitch to wrap her head around, but luckily she had an agent that believed in her and wanted to see her succeed (and probably collect checks, but that was neither here nor there.) Her time in college didn't entirely prepare her for hard-hitting roles in shows like Smallville, but she was so happy to be working, no matter what. She believed that philosophy that no role was less important than any other, and moreover, that each project she worked on would be a learning experience for the next. She'd come prepared, and work her way on from there.

The fact of life as an actor seemed to be that no matter how great a role was, or how much one might promise to be "the big one", it never quite was. After landing a role in The Black Donnellys, she was so excited to have such a show to sink her teeth into -- and then half a season later, it was cancelled. Dust off and move on, she found some great projects to work on as she built up her resume. She was lucky enough to have some critically acclaimed work under her belt, never quite finding any "niche" to stick herself into. She wouldn't have wanted anything different. It gave her a certain freedom to continually reinvent herself, and stay under whatever "fame" radar many young artists found themselves in.

Any acclaim she may have gotten for this performance or that, or any personal milestone didn't seem to have the kind of staying power that would launch her into some big life-changing situation. It wasn't until she was cast in the hit series Vikings that her life really took such a turn. For the first time in her career, she felt as though she were working on something that had the chance to alter her life -- and for the better. She was doing work that she loved, in locations that she could have only dreamed about, and miraculously on a show that lasted more than a season. She was finding herself able to walk into an audition for another project and have a sort of boost because of her body of work and the eyeballs that had actually seen it. She would thank her work on Vikings for launching her into even getting into the room to audition for the female lead in the latest Mission: Impossible film. These were daily moments where she felt she was taking a true risk with herself, with her career, and putting herself out there in a way she hadn't before. In her mind, so long as she could keep doing what she loved, she'd be so happy. And if she could last a few more seasons on Vikings being a badass, she'd consider herself the luckiest.