Kristanna Loken is an American actress and model. After her modelling career, in which she participated in the 1994 Elite Model Look, Loken started her acting career in 1994 as the third actress to play Danielle 'Dani' Andropoulos on an episode of As the World Turns. She later appeared in several television shows and films, such as Mortal Kombat: Conquest and Air Panic (2001). Her breakthrough role was as the gynoid T-X in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), for which she was nominated for two Saturn Awards. She has since starred in films such as BloodRayne (2005), in which she portrayed Rayne, Bounty Killer (2013), and Darkness of Man (2024), as well as the TV series Painkiller Jane (2007), The L Word (2007–2008) and Burn Notice (2011–2012).

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is a 2003 science fiction action film that is the third installment in the Terminator franchise and a sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). It is directed by Jonathan Mostow and stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, and Kristanna Loken. In its plot, the malevolent artificial intelligence Skynet sends a T-X (Loken)—a highly advanced Terminator—back in time to ensure the rise of machines by killing top members of the future human resistance as John Connor's (Stahl) location is unknown. The resistance sends back a reprogrammed T-850 (Schwarzenegger) to protect John and Kate (Danes).