In movies, leave it to James Cameron to create strong female characters. In Television, leave it to JJ Abrams to do that job (and Joss Whedon of course).

Here’s the list of strong female characters (played by then-unknown actresses who got their first big break) in JJ Abrams shows:

Keri Russell as Felicity Porter
(Felicity 1998 - 2002)

The series opens with Felicity’s high school graduation. She intends to attend Stanford University and study pre-med. A sudden change of heart, after a conversation with her high school crush, leads her to abandon those plans and go to the University of New York instead. Once there she quickly realizes that she needs to find herself, away from her parents’ sometimes overbearing influence and expectations. She begins her freshman year as an intelligent and thoughtful yet extremely impulsive person; however, as the show progresses, she grows into a more secure and centered young woman.

Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow
(Alias 2001 -2006)

A graduate student in English in Los Angeles. She moonlights as an operative for SD-6, which she thinks is a black ops division of the CIA. Her fiancée is murdered in the pilot episode, and she learns SD-6 is actually a branch of an international criminal organization known as the Alliance of Twelve. She then becomes a double agent for the real CIA.

Evangeline Lilly as Kate Austen 
(Lost 2004 - 2010)

Kate was one of the survivors from the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. Before the crash, Kate spent many years fleeing the law after killing her abusive father. To achieve her goals, she would commit several other crimes and would turn to bank robbery, assault and seduction.

On the Island, she became an integral member of the survivors’ society. Resourceful, quick-witted and mysteriously reclusive, she participated in many missions while attempting to hide her troubled past from the rest of the survivors.

Anna Torv as Olivia Dunham
(Fringe 2008 - Present)

Olivia Dunham is a young FBI agent assigned to a multi-agency task force of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security called the “Fringe Division” after her partner and lover, John Scott, is exposed to a flesh-dissolving agent. Olivia is a loner and dedicates almost all of her time to her work. She has a strong sense of justice, which drives her to solve a case by any means necessary.

Courtesy of Wikipedia