Chandra West was born in Alberta, Canada, the youngest of nine children. Growing up in Oakville, Ontario, outside of Toronto, she developed an early interest in the arts. This led to 10 years of intensive ballet training. When she was 16, she enrolled in a summer theater program at Oxford University in England, which started her down the path to pursuing a career in acting. She went on to study in the Theater Performance Program at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. Notable roles include the Canadian miniseries, Revenge of the Land (1999), directed by John N. Smith; the feature film, The Salton Sea (2002), opposite Val Kilmer; the NBC television series, Mister Sterling (2003), with Josh Brolin; the feature, White Noise (2005), starring alongside Michael Keaton; a major recurring role on NYPD Blue (1993), as Mark-Paul Gosselaar's bi-polar doctor girlfriend; the HBO series, John from Cincinnati (2007), from creator David Milch; the Canadian television movie, Of Murder and Memory (2008), for which she received a Gemini nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role; and the ABC supernatural series, The Gates (2010).