Sarah Rafferty's 10 Best Movies And TV Shows

The best Sarah Raffertymovies and TV shows include several great appearances that fans of the Suits star are guaranteed to find delightful. Born in Connecticut in 1972, Sarah Rafferty’s career on screen began in the 1990s following her graduation from Massachusetts’ Phillips Academy in 1989. For many years she made dozens of single-episode appearances in a number of hit shows, including Law & Order in 1999 and Walker, Texas Ranger in 2001.

Sarah Rafferty also had a brief spell appearing on the big screen too, landing several small, but memorable roles in films like 2006’s The Devil Wears Prada. However, it was the part of Donna in Suits that truly saw her career take off. In recent years, Rafferty has found herself landing more recurring and main cast roles, and the best movies and TV shows of her career suggest the coming years may be the most significant for her so far.

10 Falling For Grace (2006)

Sarah Rafferty Played Sydney

The 2006 romantic comedy Falling for Grace, from director Fay Ann Lee, marks Sarah Rafferty’s first notable movie appearance (though her role, like many of those she’s taken on in feature films, was a minor one). The film focuses on Grace Tang (played by director Fay Ann Lee), an Asian-American Wall Street banker raised in New York’s Chinatown.

The movie follows Grace’s attempts to ingratiate herself with the Upper East Side high society, and the prejudice she faces along the way. Rafferty’s Sydney is one of the elites of the Upper East Side, appearing in a party scene where Grace is introduced to love interest Andrew Barrington Jr. (Gale Harold). It’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance but still serves as an important milestone in Rafferty’s movie career.

9 Tremors (2003)

Sarah Rafferty Played Dr. Casey Mathews

The 2003 Sci-Fi Channel series Tremors was a spinoff of the movie series of the same name, canonically taking place between 2001’s Tremors 3: Back to Perfection and 2004’s Tremors 4: The Land Begins. While it was canceled after a single season, many fans of the Tremors franchise enjoyed the attempt to bring the story of the monster comedy franchise to the small screen.

Sarah Rafferty had a small but memorable appearance in 3 episodes of Tremors as Dr. Casey Mathews, an environmental scientist studying the effects of the compound Mixmaster, which blends the DNA of various animal species. It marks Rafferty’s only foray in the the science-fiction genre. Like many of her best TV roles, it wasn’t an incredibly prominent part, but Rafferty managed to make every minute of screen time count regardless.

8 What If God Were The Sun? (2007)

Sarah Rafferty Played Rachel Eisenbloom

The 2007 Lifetime movie What If God Were The Sun sees Sarah Rafferty as part of an ensemble cast that also includes Lacey Chabert of All My Children fame and Sam Trammell, known mostly for his role of Sam Merlotte in True Blood. Like the majority of Rafferty’s movie roles, her part of Rachel Eisenbloom in What If God Were The Sun? Isn’t the most central, but she still managed to make her scenes memorable.

The plot of What If God Were The Sun? Focuses on Jamie (Chabert), an ER nurse due to be married who finds herself so overcome with grief after the death of her father that she questions everything from her career to her faith to her fiance. However, she finds solace while caring for Melissa (Gena Rowlands). Rafferty appears as Rachel, Melissa’s daughter. It’s a minor role, though Rafferty plays the part of a grieving adult dealing with the loss of a parent incredibly well.

7 All Things Valentine (2016)

Sarah Rafferty Played Avery

All Things Valentine

Romance

Comedy

TV Movie

Release Date: January 31, 2016
Runtime: 85 minutes
Director: Gary Harvey
Writers: J.B. White
Producers: Anne Carlucci

Cast

See All

Sam Page
Brendan Bates
Sarah Rafferty
Avery Parker
Jeremy Guilbaut
Kit
Heather Doerksen
Hannah

The TV movie All Things Valentine is a Hallmark original that bears all the tropes fans of the studio have come to expect from their romantic ventures. It also marks one of the best movies starring Sarah Rafferty, and one of her most prominent roles. In All Things Valentine, Rafferty leads the cast as Avery, a relationship blogger who’s great at giving advice but terrible at securing a partner of her own.

As expected with a Hallmark love story, Avery meets a man she falls head-over-heels for instantly, Brendan (Samuel Page). However, Avery finds that winning him over won’t be easy, as the veterinarian blames her for his previous relationship falling apart. While All Things Valentine doesn’t do much to reinvent the romance movie wheel, Rafferty gives a solid performance in the by-the-numbers Hallmark film.

6 Small, Beautifully Moving Parts (2011)

Sarah Rafferty Played Emily

2011’s Small, Beautifully Moving Parts is an indie comedy-drama from writer-director duo Annie J. Howell and Lisa Robinson. The film focuses on freelance journalist Sarah Sparks (Anna Margaret Hollyman), a tech enthusiast who falls pregnant and finds her interest in ultrasound technology is a coping mechanism she’s using to prevent having to face her changing reality.

Sarah Rafferty co-stars in Small, Beautifully Moving Parts as Emily, Sarah’s sister. Unlike Sarah, Emily is fully invested in motherhood, and what’s more, she’s convinced that Sarah should be too. She convinces Sarah to come to a baby shower in L.A., and while their reunion is initially tense, it ultimately sparks a journey for the pair to reconnect with their estranged mother, Marjorie. While the film received mixed reviews from critics, it remains perhaps Rafferty’s most plot-central movie role to date.

5 The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

Sarah Rafferty Played Liz

While her career on the small screen has seen her appear in many well-known TV shows alongside Suits, Sarah Rafferty’s movie career hasn’t taken off quite as well. This is evidenced by the fact that her best movie appearance in 2006’s The Devil Wears Prada was in a deleted scene - though, for the fandom of the hit comedy-drama, it’s well known, as it’s a moment that displays the ruthlessness of Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly incredibly well.

In the deleted scene, Rafferty’s Liz is assisting Andy (Anne Hathaway) pick out some clothing options for the models for a shoot. Andy is on the phone to Miranda Priestly, who asks Andy who she is speaking to. When Miranda finds out it’s Liz, she utterly destroys Rafferty’s character with some of the most scathing words in the entire movie, leaving Liz utterly distraught. It’s a small but memorable appearance, and one that many The Devil Wears Prada fans feel should have made it into the final cut.

4 Grey’s Anatomy (2020)

Sarah Rafferty Played Suzanne

Few medical dramas can boast the success of Grey’s Anatomy, the long-running ABC series that can boast an astounding 21 seasons and over two decades on the air. Among the many cast members that have come and gone across the duration of Grey’s Anatomyis Sarah Rafferty, who appeared in 3 episodes of season 16 as Suzanne Britland. Debuting in episode 11 of season 16, “A Hard Pill To Swallow”, and leaving in episode 14, “A Diagnosis”, Sarah Rafferty’s Suzanne was one of the most memorable multi-episode patients of Grey’s Anatomy in 2020.

Sarah Rafferty’s Grey’s Anatomy character Suzanne presented with some incredibly mysterious symptoms following what should have been a routine appendectomy. The storyline was incredibly tense, especially due to Suzanne’s daughters refusing to leave her bedside since their father died the previous year following a medical misdiagnosis. While not the most significant role of Sarah Rafferty’s career, it allowed her to display her abilities for dramatic, emotive scenes more than many others.

3 Chicago Med (2021-2022)

Sarah Rafferty Played Dr. Pamela Blake

Chicago Med is the hit medical procedural from Law & Order creator Dick Wolf, and is part of NBC’s One Chicago franchise (alongside Chicago Fire, Chicago Justice, and Chicago P.D.). The series has run for 10 seasons so far, first debuting in 2015. Rafferty joined the cast in 2021, making her first appearance in the season 7 episode “Change Is A Tough Pill To Swallow” and leaving in the season 8 premiere, “How Do You Begin To Count The Losses”.

While not a central a role as that of Donna in Suits or Katherine in My Life with the Walter Boys, Sarah Rafferty still managed to make her Chicago Med character, Dr. Pamela Blake, a memorable one. Blake was the Division Chief of Transplantation Surgery, and the former girlfriend of Dominic Rains’ Dr. Cocket Marcel (and was also responsible for training him as a transplant surgeon). It was a nuanced role for Rafferty, and included some incredibly emotive moments as Blake began to lose the ability to perform surgeries due to developing a tremor in her hands.

2 My Life With The Walter Boys (2023)

Sarah Rafferty Played Katherine Walter

2023’s My Life with the Walter Boys arrived on Netflix in 2023, and marks Sarah Rafferty’s most significant role since playing Donna Paulsen in Suits. It’s also a role that showcases the wide range of Rafferty’s acting abilities, as her character, Katherine Walker, couldn’t be more different from that of Donna. The story of My Life with the Walter Boys (which is adapted from the Ali Novak novel of the same name) focuses on Jackie, a 15-year-old who moves to rural Colorado from New York following a deep personal tragedy.

Sharing plenty of screentime with star Nikki Rodriguez (who plays Jackie), Sarah Rafferty plays Jackie’s new legal guardian in Colorado, the veterinarian Katherine Walter. Rafferty does a superb job playing the matriarchal and motherly figure, providing an important emotional anchor not only for Jackie, but for the narrative of My Life with the Walter Boys as a whole.

1 Suits (2011-2019)

Sarah Rafferty Played Donna Paulsen

Of all the roles in Sarah Rafferty’s career, it’s her time as Donna Paulsen in Suits that still stands as her best TV show or movie - and none of her other appearances come close to matching its cultural impact. Throughout all 9 seasons of Suits Sarah Rafferty plays Donna, the secretary and eventual love interest of Gabriel Macht’s high-flying lawyer Harvey Specter.

As Donna, Sarah Rafferty was an essential ingredient in the formula that made suits so successful, especially when it came to storylines featuring Harvey Specter. Everything from Donna and Harvey’s can opener ritual to their will-they-won’t-they romance was beloved by fans, and no role Rafferty has taken on before or since has been as significant for her career. To this day, Sarah Rafferty continues to be highly engaged with the Suits fandom, even co-hosting a watch-through podcast, “Sidebar”, with co-star Patrick J. Adams.

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