That's Rae Dawn Chong raving about her Mysterious Ways co-star, Vancouver actress Alisen Down. And so, apparently, is everyone else I talked to on the set of the NBC series, shooting at Lions Gate Studios in North Vancouver.

On the weekend, the slim, jet-haired, azure-eyed Down picked up a Gemini for a guest role on Cold Squad. In Mysterious Ways, she plays the shy and socially inept Miranda, a brilliant physics grad student and assistant to a college professor obsessed with the paranormal.

Auditioning for the role was a trauma, she says. She tried out three times, "and I got my hopes up more and more as the auditioning went on. It still seems a little bit unreal to me -- I think I'm still in a bit of shock over booking this role."

In 1994, Down graduated from H.D. Stafford Secondary school in Langley. She keeps in touch with "two wonderful drama teachers, Mr. Williams and Mr. Roberts, who were so supportive -- they really cared about what we did. I think that fuelled my passion so much."

Down, who studied at L.A.'s American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the British American Dramatic Academy's Balliol College in Oxford, says Mysterious Ways "is the most steady work I've ever gotten."

Down, who hopes to hit the Broadway stage some day, credits her mom for spurring her on. "She always said, 'Alisen, you have a job, you don't need another job. You're an actor, don't quit, don't quit.' She's an amazing woman."