Janaya Stephens

Biography

Janaya Lynn Stephens (born March 17, 1974, in London, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian actress raised in a small southwestern Ontario town. She excelled in sports in high school, played varsity basketball at Laurentian University where she also studied English and drama (starring as Juliet in a production of Romeo & Juliet), and later trained at the George Brown Theatre School in Toronto. She made her screen debut in 1996 on Lexx and Exhibit A: Secrets of Forensic Science (1997). Her most notable film credits include Chloe Steele in the Left Behind trilogy (Left Behind: The Movie 2000, Left Behind II: Tribulation Force 2002, Left Behind: World at War 2005), Alison Pratt in The Lookout (2007, directed by Scott Frank, with Matthew McConaughey), Suzy in Death Race (2008, with Jason Statham), Pilla in Strange But True (2019), and Grace's Mom in Whistle (2026, directed by Corin Hardy). On television she is best known as Sophie Lane in Flashpoint (2008–2012, 16 episodes, CTV), Marie Osmond in Inside the Osmonds (2001, ABC), Faye Byrne in The Killer Is Calling (2025, Lifetime), Erin Smythe in Fall Into Winter (2023, Hallmark), and Rose in Run the Burbs (2022–present, CBC), with additional credits in Quantico (2015, 4 episodes), The Strain (2014), Designated Survivor (2017), Suits (2019), Murdoch Mysteries (2019), and Hudson & Rex (2022).