  Toronto actress Nazneen Contractor has a role on The Paul Reiser Show, which is set to air mid-season on NBC. |
LOS ANGELES - The sexy side of Nazneen Contractor is about to be unveiled now that she's won the part of a smoking hot, mini-skirt wearing, outrageously flirty talent agent in a new NBC sitcom.
Yes, the Toronto actress is a classically trained dancer, but her body has largely been kept under wraps for her TV roles: First under a kevlar vest playing a tough agent in The Border and then under flowing robes and a head scarf as the daughter of an Islamic president in the final season of 24.
Stripping off the cast type, her new role is all about her bod.
Contractor, 24, is playing Kuma D'Abu, a sexy talent agent of Middle-Eastern descent in The Paul Reiser Show, which is set to air mid-season on NBC.
"Kuma D'Abu is young, ambitious and wears alarmingly short skirts," Contractor, 24, said with glee after hearing the show is a definite go.
"The way she looks is definitely part of the comedy of the character -- her appearance disarms those who meet her, which then allows her, like any good agent, to go in for the kill!"
Last time we exchanged words a few months back, Contractor had just finished taping the last episode of 24 and was in Texas making a Fox TV pilot with Jon Voight, who stars as an oil baron in Lone Star.
The Lone Star pilot was picked up and starts airing in September, but Contractor was left wondering if her role would be a recurring one (she still doesn't know).
But the University of Toronto grad didn't have to wonder about work long: Paul Reiser picked her out of the lineup for the new comedy he wrote about himself trying to jump-start his acting career, 10 years after starring in the huge hit, Mad About You with Helen Hunt.
This will be Contractor's first time playing in a comedy and she's clearly tickled by it.
"My character is hilarious and I'm really looking forward to exploring her," she says.
Doing The Paul Reiser Show, filming locally at studios in Los Angeles, also means more face time with new husband, fellow Toronto actor, Carlo Rota.
"Luckily, we're getting a lot of time together," she said.
Rota, 49, left his show, Little Mosque on the Prairie, mid-season to join Contractor in L.A.
This past spring -- in between tapings of 24 -- Contractor and Rota travelled back to Hamilton, Ont., to make a Sci-Fi movie of the week flick, The Blood of Pegasus.
"I play the lead role of Philony, a virginal princess out to avenge her father, the king's death (and) my hubby plays the evil King Orthos!"
As for Rota, he's lining up work on more shows (he's been a regular cast member of 24, Stargate Universe, Queer as Folk, etc.) and tweeting about life in L.A. with his new gal.
"Oysters at (restaurant) Moonshadows in Malibu," he recently tweeted.
"... A motorcycle Sunday with lovely wife..."
OUT AND ABOUT: Canadian actor and writer Alan Thicke cheering his musician son Robin during his performance at a Beverly Hills fundraiser for the HollyRod Foundation, which provides care for patients living with Parkinson's disease and autism.... Donald Sutherland's head of lustrous silver hair catching the light during a dinner with friends at a sushi place in Santa Monica.
Linda Massarella, a Canadian writer in Los Angeles, writes every Sunday about notable Canadians living in L.A.
massarellalinda@yahoo.com
