A Field Guide To Megalyn Echikunwoke

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She's African royalty. She's got legs as long and delicious as her name. She's made "House of Lies" our newest TV obsession. She's frequently topless. Yeah, this is clearly a woman we need to know better, so here goes another one of our Field Guides!

Ebubennem Megalyn Ann Echikunwoke was born on May 28, 1983 in Spokane, Washington, but she was brought up on a Navajo Native American Reservation in Chinle, Arizona. As we've mentioned before, Echikunwoke's paternal grandfather is the Nigerian leader of the Igbo, and therefore Megalyn is African royalty. As far as we know, this doesn't grand Megalyn any special powers or privileges, but it does moderately increase her hotness. Come on, she's a naked TV/movie star/princess, which is pretty much what everyone wants to be when they grow up.

As much as we hype her father's heritage and all the cool connotations surrounding it, Megalyn cites her mother as her biggest influence. Megalyn's father died when she was four, and it was up to her mom (a Caucasian nurse) to raise Megalyn and her siblings. Living on the reservation in Arizona, they didn't have much access to popular media, and Megalyn spent most of her time hiking and, according to one website, playing with sheep.

At 14, Megalyn went to a performing arts camp and caught the eye of a man who would end up being her manager. He encouraged her to audition for parts in Hollywood, and by 15, she landed her first role in the TV mini-series, "Creature." The Echikunwokes moved to Los Angeles, and since then (1998, for those keeping track), Megalyn has starred in tons of TV movies, shorts, and shows. She's best known for her recurring roles on "24," "The 4400," "Spyder Games," "CSI: Miami," "Like Family," "That '70s Show," "Raising the Bar," and the latest iteration of "90210." Megalyn's film work isn't as well-known, but she shines just as brightly on the big screen. In 2008, she teamed up with her best friend, Olivia Wilde (we're not joking, she's BFFLs with Olivia Wilde), on an independent film called "Fix."

Megalyn tried her hand (er, body) at modeling early in her career, but she didn't stick with it. She did, however, do a bit of nude modeling!

If all that doesn't make her sound busy, get a load of this: Megalyn founded a non-profit called W.E.A.P.O.N., and even though it sounds like some "X-Men" level stuff, it stands for Women (and girls), Education and Arts, Providing Opportunity Now. The mission statement she wrote on the website is pretty darn awesome, and deserves to be read in full:

I lost my father at a very young age to cancer, but his culture has been and will always be an important part of my life. I am very proud of my Nigerian heritage and one of my many reasons for founding W.E.A.P.O.N was to ensure that I could spend more time in my father's home and contribute in some way to his cultural legacy. I believe that education is the first and most important step in bringing about muchneeded change to lift communities out of abjection. Education for women and girls is an imperative weapon in the fight to raise quality of life and battle gender inequality. When I had the honor of meeting Hajiya Turai Umara Yar'adua, the first lady of Nigeria in April of 09. I asked her what were the biggest challenges Nigerian women and girls faced. She told me that beyond a shadow of a doubt it was access to education. She confirmed the fact that how in an intensely male dominated society such as Nigeria, education provides a women with independence, the opportunity to provide a better life for her family and the tools to help build self reliant communities. She assured me the need to support these women is critical and she is deeply committed to working with them to find sustainable solutions to accessing education. I share equally in this commitment. Through my organization I hope to ensure that the female victims of war, poverty, HIV/AIDS, or simple lack of local infrastructure throughout Africa have the same opportunities that I've been so blessed to have.

Guess what else? She sings and dances, too! One of her life goals is to break into the musical theater scene and one day perform in the ever-beloved "Chicago," but she's already gained recognition for her vocal talents; her recording of the ballad "So Much" can be heard on the soundtrack of MTV's "Spyder Games" and Megalyn she sang background vocals in Tricky's "Au Revoir Emanuelle" on the Serge Gainsbourg tribute album, Monsieur Gainsbourg: Revisited. When she was being interviewed in relation to "Fix," she let this little gem drop:

My fix is music. I think that through music, we have the ability to convey the beauty, the pain and the absurdity of human experience in a language that is universal.

Are you in love with her yet? No? Then browse this collection of Megalyn quotes on one of her (many) unofficial fansites.

If you are in love with her now, then good, you're on our level. Let's make sure that Showtime keeps her on "House of Lies" for a long time to come, not just so we can enjoy her on a weekly basis, but also because she's good for Don Cheadle's character. In the meantime, please enjoy browsing our collection of Megalyn Echikunwoke pictures, clips from her three appearances on "House of Lies," and also...

· Her Twitter (twitter.com)
· Her non-profit, W.E.A.P.O.N. (knowledgeisaweapon.org)
· A very informative fansite Megalyn-Fan (megalyn-fan.net)

[At top: a clip from Showtime's "House of Lies" (sho.com)]