 She made her debut in the series "" during the pilot episode, playing main cast character Lt. Vanessa Damphousse.While filming the pilot and the early part of the series, Chapman was on a leave of absence from a post-graduate film production program at the University of Southern California.She initially auditioned with Randy Stone, senior vice-president of talent and casting at Twentieth Century Fox Television, and then two days later with David Nutter, the director of the pilot.