53 Facts About Sydney Bristow

Sydney Anne Bristow is a fictional character and the protagonist of the television series Alias.

Sydney Bristow is an American woman with a Russian-Canadian family background who works as a spy for the CIA.

Sydney Bristow deals with some significant trauma over the years: the death of her fiance, the death of her best friend, the realization that her mother was a former KGB spy, the estrangement of many of her friends and the constant activity and changes that she must endure from being a spy on a regular basis.

Sydney Bristow is highly skilled in Krav Maga and is a polyglot, speaking English, Russian, German, Greek, Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Swedish, Romanian, Hungarian, Hebrew, Uzbek, Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Indonesian, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Vietnamese, Polish, Serbian, Czech, Ukrainian, and Bulgarian in various episodes.

Sydney Bristow herself had stated that she had large memory gaps from around the time of her mother's death and can only remember that her father began drinking heavily and became more of an absentee father, leaving Sydney Bristow to be raised by nannies.

When Sydney Bristow was 19 years old and a freshman in college, a man approached her and told her that he worked with US intelligence and that they wanted to interview her because she fit a profile.

Sydney Bristow declined at first but then decided to join them.

Sydney Bristow assumed that the bank was somehow affiliated with the CIA.

Sydney Bristow angrily refused to quit and this led to the beginning of a several-year estrangement in their relationship.

Seven years after joining SD-6, Sydney Bristow discovered that SD-6 was actually a branch of the Alliance of Twelve, an international organized crime group involved in the trade of intelligence and weapons, and was an enemy of the United States.

Sydney Bristow was engaged to be married to her boyfriend Danny Hecht, but he was killed by SD-6 after Sydney Bristow told him that she worked for the CIA.

Sydney Bristow went to the real CIA with her knowledge of SD-6, and was recruited by the CIA into working as a double agent to bring down SD-6.

Sydney Bristow soon learns that her own father is a double agent as well.

Sydney Bristow had to balance all these new revelations with keeping all these secrets from her friends, notably Will Tippin and Francie Calfo.

Sydney Bristow worked on a number of missions to retrieve or modify these Rambaldi devices to prevent them from falling into the hands of SD-6.

Sydney Bristow has to work to make amends with Dixon, who is bitter that Sydney Bristow knew SD-6 was not part of the US Government and didn't tell him, although they are eventually able to patch things up and Dixon begins to work with the CIA.

When Sydney Bristow wakes up, she is in Hong Kong and comes to find out that two years have passed without her knowledge.

Sydney Bristow now has to deal with the pain of not knowing what has happened for the previous two years of her life, but the fact that Vaughn is married to another woman, National Security Council liaison Lauren Reed.

Sydney Bristow tries to manipulate the CIA to stay in the loop of the organization.

Sydney Bristow learns that an organization known as The Covenant seems to be involved with her disappearance.

Sydney Bristow soon discovers that the Passenger is Nadia Santos, her half-sister by the way of an affair between Irina and Sloane.

When Sydney Bristow learns about Vaughn, she goes after Lauren herself.

Sydney Bristow goes to the box and finds secret CIA documents about her.

Several months after her discovery, Sydney Bristow is estranged from her father, having discovered that he had killed Irina Derevko.

In truth, Sydney Bristow has been recruited into APO, a new black ops division of the CIA patterned after SD-6.

Finally, when she is about to destroy the Mueller device, Sydney Bristow goes back to Vaughn and gives him an affirmative reply.

Sydney Bristow manages to escape and tells Sydney that his real name is Andre Michaux.

Sydney Bristow tells her that he's been working for several years to uncover the activities of a mysterious organization known as Prophet Five.

Shortly thereafter, Sydney Bristow learns she is pregnant and Vaughn is shot and apparently killed by a rogue agent posing as a CIA officer.

Four months later, Sydney Bristow makes contact with Renee Rienne, an assassin on the CIA's most wanted list, who had been working with Vaughn, and whose father had worked with Vaughn's father, to bring down Prophet Five.

Sydney Bristow finds a kindred spirit in Rachel Gibson, a young, wide-eyed, inexperienced agent rescued from "The Shed", a covert criminal organization that, much like SD-6, operates under the alias of a CIA black-ops division.

Now a member of APO, Gibson is learning the ways of being a field agent, with Sydney Bristow her designated handler, just as Michael had worked with her.

Sydney Bristow has put at least some demons of the past behind her.

Sydney Bristow continues to go on missions when her condition allows, often using the pregnancy as part of her disguises.

Three weeks before her due date, Sydney Bristow is captured by Prophet Five in order to force her to remember details of a giant SD-6 flowchart that she had been shown by Michael Vaughn during one of their first meetings.

Sydney Bristow discovers that she has been stranded aboard a freighter at sea where she attempts to elude Prophet Five and one of their associates, Kelly Peyton.

Sydney Bristow goes undercover as Anna to infiltrate Prophet Five and meets up with Peyton.

Sydney Bristow meets up with Julian Sark in Italy and he gets them arrested to infiltrate the prison that stands where the monastery once did.

Sydney Bristow discovers an elderly man who identifies himself as The Rose.

Sydney Bristow survives the attempt but Sloane escapes with the amulet.

Sydney Bristow successfully captures intel on three of the twelve and returns to Los Angeles.

Marshall is able to pass a message to Sydney Bristow, who, working with Marshall's wife Carrie, is able to locate Marshall and Rachel and mount a rescue.

Marshall and Rachel advise the team that Sloane is seeking a cave in Italy and Sydney Bristow deduces that Sloane is headed for Mount Subasio.

Sloane fires several rounds into the floor of the cave at Sydney Bristow's feet, causing the floor to give way.

Sydney Bristow disrupts Sloane's plans by grabbing the Horizon from the altar, causing the ball to collapse in a torrent of red liquid.

Sydney Bristow reluctantly obeys and departs for Hong Kong for a final confrontation with Irina.

Dixon comes to visit and is greeted by Vaughn and Sydney Bristow, who is holding their second child who is named Jack after Sydney Bristow's father.

Isabelle has found the blocks for Project Christmas and assembles them in no time, but dismantles it after Sydney Bristow calls for her and she joins her family outside.

Sydney Bristow did many of the physical stunts herself throughout the series.

Sydney Bristow was listed AOL TV's "100 Most Memorable Female TV Characters", ranking at No 27.

Sydney Bristow appeared in Maxim list of the Hottest Nerd Crushes.

Sydney Bristow was included in Total Sci-Fi Onlines list of The 25 Women Who Shook Sci-Fi.

Sydney Bristow was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series in 2004 and she won the award in 2005.