Poppy Montgomery's Real Name: Poppy Montgomery

Quick answer: She is known as Poppy Montgomery. CBS News says her mother named her and her sisters after flower fairies, and gives her first names as Poppy Petal. TV Guide lists a long birth name, "Poppy Petal Ema Elizabeth Deveraux Montgomery," but also says Montgomery was her mother's maiden name, taken as a stage name. Her full birth surname is unresolved.

Real name and early life

CBS News, in a 2004 profile by Rome Neal, says she "was born June 19, 1972," and calls her a Sydney, Australia, native. It says her mother named each daughter after flower fairies in a children's book: Poppy Petal, Rosie Thorn, Daisy Yellow, Marigold Sun, and Lily Belle. TV Guide also lists her birthplace as Sydney.

TV Guide's birth-name field reads "Poppy Petal Ema Elizabeth Deveraux Montgomery," yet the same page says she "took her mother's maiden name Montgomery as her stage name." Those two statements point in different directions, and a different birth surname appears only on wiki-type sites, so the conflict remains unresolved.

CBS says that at 18 she took a Greyhound bus from Florida to Hollywood and persuaded Julia Roberts' agent to give her a chance after reading about him in the book How to Make It in Hollywood. Daily Actor also says she moved to Los Angeles at 18, and TV Guide says her first acting job was a Carl's Jr. commercial that never aired.

Career highlights

Daily Actor says she quickly landed roles on NYPD Blue and Party of Five, then had her first regular role on Glory Days. CBS says her breakout came in 2001, when she played Marilyn Monroe in the CBS miniseries Blonde, and lists film credits including Dead Man on Campus, The Other Sister, and Life.

CBS and Daily Actor both identify her as FBI agent Samantha Spade on CBS's Without a Trace, opposite fellow Australian Anthony LaPaglia; Daily Actor says she stayed for seven seasons. Daily Actor, in a 2012 interview, describes her as the star of CBS's Unforgettable, playing Carrie Wells, a former detective with a flawless memory.

Collider, in a 2019 interview, says she was an executive producer of ABC's Reef Break, developed from her own idea, and starred as Cat Chambers, a former thief who solves crimes. She told Collider she first pitched it to France's M6, where her earlier shows were popular, and that it was filmed in Queensland. TV Guide lists a 2013 Canadian Screen Award nomination.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Poppy Montgomery, Poppy Petal, or her long birth name are looking for the same actress. Samantha Spade, Carrie Wells, and Cat Chambers are characters.