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What to Know About Resident Alien Star Sara Tomko's Acting Career
In addition to Asta Twelvetrees, Tomko has played a Peter Pan character and a very memorable cavewoman.
On Resident Alien, Sara Tomko plays Asta Twelvetrees, a nurse in Patience, Colorado — and, for a while, the only person with a medical degree who isn’t actually an alien in disguise, like Alan Tudyk’s Harry Vanderspeigle. But, before Tomko found out about Harry’s true extra-terrestrial identity, she appeared on a lot of other TV shows, too.
As you watch the ongoing third season of Resident Alien on SYFY and USA Network and revisit the first two seasons, here’s a run-down of Tomko’s career and where you might have seen her before.
Sara Tomko's Early Years
Tomko was born on October 19, 1983, to a military family on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio. She is of mixed Polish, Slovak, and Native Heritage, though as she explained to SYFY WIRE, she is not a member of any specific tribe. In an interview with Salon, Tomko explained that she had always been into drama as a kid, but it wasn’t until college, when she attended James Madison University in Virginia, that she decided to pursue acting as a career.
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Sara Tomko's Film Career
Tomko’s first main role was in 2008’s Journey to the Center of the Earth, a mockbuster from the production company The Asylum that came out around the same time as the Brendan Fraser-led wide-release film of the same name.
Tomko would go on to appear in a few more mockbusters from The Asylum, like 2012: Doomsday, The Terminators, and Extracted. She appeared in the 2015 sci-fi film 400 Days and more recently was a lead in the 2022 comedy horror Suicide for Beginners.
Sara Tomko's TV Career
In 2015, Tomko had a very, very memorable role as a pregnant cavewoman in the bizarre opening scene of The Leftovers Season 2 premiere. Showrunner Damon Lindelof told Vulture that Tomko was cast for the wordless but extremely challenging role because her performance “was the most real.”
Since then, Tomko has appeared on Once Upon a Time, where she played a reimagined version of the Peter Pan character Tiger Lilly. She was also Suzanne in Season 2 of Prime Video’s crime drama Sneaky Pete. Additionally, Tomko appeared in an episode of the first season of S.W.A.T. and in the 2016 medical drama Heartbeat.
Her main role as Asta on Resident Alien, which premiered in 2021, is undoubtedly Tomko’s highest-profile gig yet. Asta has become a fan-favorite character, and it’s not hard to see why.
How to Watch SYFY's Resident Alien TV Show
Resident Alien is currently in the midst of its third season, with new episodes airing on Wednesdays at 10/9c on SYFY, and streaming next day on Peacock.
The first two seasons of Resident Alien can be found on Peacock as well. The NBCUniversal platform currently offers two monthly subscription plans: Premium ($5.99 a month with ads) and Premium Plus ($11.99 a month with no ads and download access for certain titles). If you're a student, you can enjoy the Premium plan for just $1.99 for an entire year!
