Photo of Lucia Walters courtesy of IMDB.com.

Canadian actress Lucia Walters plays social worker “Fern” on the CW’s critically acclaimed series “Life Unexpected” (Mondays at 8 p.m. Eastern on the CW).

“Life Unexpected” is about a 15-year-old foster child named “Lux” who reconnects with her birth parents, “Baze” and “Cate.” Not surprisingly Lux discovers her parents, who were teenagers themselves when she was born, still have a lot of growing up to do.

Fern decided whether Cate or Baze would continue to have joint custody of Lux or if she would return to foster care. In  that way her role fits the stereotypical depiction of social workers as “baby stealers.”

However, in an episode called “Family Therapized,” Fern holds a session with Lux, Cate and Baze that helps the three become honest about their feelings and begin heading down the path of becoming a true family. In that scene, Fern demonstrated the help real social workers provide families in crisis.

“I know it doesn’t feel like it,” Fern tells a tearful Cate after the emotional session. “But what you had truly was a breakthrough.”

Walters was born in Athabasca in Canada’s Alberta province to a Dutch mother and Antiquan father who was a minister in the Anglican church. She became a registered nurse but took a modeling course and landed a spot in a T-Mobile commercial with actress Catherine Zeta Jones. She went on to take acting classes and has appeared in the “X-Files,” “Smallville,” the “L-Word” and scores of other other television series and movies.

Walters agreed to talk to SocialWorkersSpeak.org about her social worker role on “Life Unexpected”:

Q: Did you know any real-life social workers before you took the role of Fern?

WALTERS: Before I became an actor I actually obtained a Health Science degree and was a registered nurse in an obstetric hospital that also had a rehab unit for pregnant drug addicts. I have worked with and know a number of amazing social workers!

 Q: How did you prepare for the part of “Fern”?

WALTERS: My prep was based on those amazing social workers I have worked with. I also got to know some of the community social workers who liaised with the hospital social workers. They seemed to be tougher, because they had been exposed to so much more within the community, so I wanted my character to reflect that as well.

 Q: There are thousands of foster care children in the system, including older ones such as “Lux” who have never been adopted for found a permanent family. Do you think “Life Unexpected” does a good job at educating the public about their plight?

WALTERS: Most of the foster children I have gotten to know are now adults and unfortunately, because I met them in a drug rehab unit, I have seen and heard the worst stories. “Life Unexpected” does an incredible job of showing an example of a foster child’s plight in life. It’s heartbreaking to see but imperative that the uninformed public gets a taste of the reality of many children out there.  “Life Unexpected” is the first show to address this and I think Liz Tigelaar, the show’s creator, knew exactly what she was talking about when she wrote this. Awareness instigates change.

To read SocialWorkersSpeak.org’s January 2010 interview with “Life Unexpected” creator Liz Tigelaar click here. And to find out more about how social workers help children such Lux visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Adoptions and Foster Care Web pages by clicking here.

Liz Tigelaar

One aim of SocialWorkersSpeak.org is to engage social workers with people who make film and television programs.

That mission appears to be yielding some results.

We asked Liz Tigelaar, creator of the CW’s critically acclaimed series “Life Unexpected,” to endorse an unfinished documentary from National Association of Social Workers member Matt Anderson. Matt is working on “From Place to Place,” a film that follows aged out foster children in Montana.

Some of these young people are grappling with unemployment, mental illness and drugs and reconnecting with birth families.

The issue of foster care resonates with Tigelaar. She was adopted and her program ”Life Unexpected” is about Lux, a foster child who reconnects with her birth parents.

Tigelaar said she was “tearing up” just reading our interview about Matt’s film. When asked if she would endorse the documentary she said through Twitter, “Of course!”

Thanks for your endorsement Liz! We hope it will help Matt get the funds to complete his work.

A social worker visits Cate and Baze in a scene from "Home Inspected" episode.

SocialWorkersSpeak.org recently sat down with Liz Tigelaar,creator and executive producer of “Life Unexpected,” to talk about what inspired her to do the drama. To read that interview click here.

“Life Unexpected,”  which airs Mondays at 9 p.m. Eastern on the CW, is about Lux (Britt Robertson), a foster child who reunites with her birth parents. The January 25 episode “Home Inspected” features a social worker who inspects the homes of parents Cate (Shiri Appleby) and Baze (Kristoffer Polaha) to see if they are capable of taking care of Lux.

Q: Social workers are sometimes stereotyped in television and movies as authority figures who come in and break up homes. We would like you to watch the “Home Inspected” episode of “Life Unexpected” and tell us what you think about the portrayal of the social worker. You can watch it online by clicking here.

Tigelaar’s latest project is “Life Unexpected,” which airs Monday nights at 9 p.m. Eastern on the CW. She is creator and executive producer of the drama. “Life Unexpected” is about “Lux,” a foster child who reconnects with her birth parents and finds they have more growing up to do than she does.

Social workers are often at the forefront of helping foster children get counseling and find permanent homes. So SocialWorkersSpeak.org talked to Tigelaar about what motivated her to create “Life Unexpected,” which premiered this month and is already garnering favorable critic reviews:

Q: What prompted you to do a series on a foster child?  Were you a foster child yourself?

A: I wasn’t in foster care myself, but growing up as an adopted kid I was always kind of interested in that subject –foster care, orphanages, etc.  I really wanted to tell a story about a kid who never had a permanent home, who never felt truly settled or wanted.  I felt so wanted by my parents (my adoptive parents) and have still dealt with feelings of rejection and abandonment, of holding on to people so tightly, being fearful that they’ll leave. I can’t imagine how I would feel if I never truly felt wanted.  So that’s the story I wanted to tell: a story of a girl who didn’t feel wanted and never had parents and basically was in this world alone.

Additionally, I feel like there isn’t much of a voice for foster kids, for what they have to endure, for what they have to go through at such a young age. I know we do the TV version of it but I thought it was a group that was underrepresented.

Q: What issues and experiences will “Lux” have in the opening episodes?

I think one of the biggest things is feeling torn.  She’s been put back in the custody of great people (maybe not great parents yet but great people) while her friends have not.  Tasha is still in foster care or at a group home, while Bug and Gavin have aged out of the system but have little support.  The four of them were supposed to be a family together but now Lux has a new one.  I think she feels incredibly guilty, not wanting to pass up this opportunity but also not wanting to leave them behind.

Q: Social workers often work with foster children.  Did you consult with social workers or other professionals when developing the series?

A: Yes absolutely.  We certainly check with experts on everything but sometimes there are conflicting opinions or different states have different ways of doing things.  To me, it’s the foster care element that makes this show so unique so it’s important that we’re able to tell those stories in a way that’s palatable for a CW show and our audience while being true to reality.  I will say that the stories that involve foster care are some of the stories that touch me the most.  Look for a story in the seventh episode between Lux and Tasha that just breaks my heart.

(Photo: Inset: Liz Tigelaar, creator and executive producer of “Life Unexpected.” The program stars from left Shiri Appleby, Britt Robertson, and Kristoffer Polaha. Photo courtesy of the CW.)

For more information on how social workers help children in foster care, check out the National Association of Social Workers “Help Starts Here” Adoptions and Foster Care Web page by clicking here.