The youngest of seven children, Staite modelled as a child and has acted since age six. She attended the Vancouver Film School and worked at the Vancouver Youth Theatre. Jewel married Matt Anderson on April 25, 2003.
Staite has worked with the Dyslexia Foundation and several AIDS charities.
One of Staite's most famous roles is as Kaylee Frye in the short-lived science fiction/western television series Firefly and its subsequent 2005 film, Serenity. She also wrote a chapter in the book Finding Serenity, called "Kaylee Speaks: Jewel Staite On Firefly". She also played Heidi Gotts, the antagonist in the TV series Wonderfalls, which, like Firefly, was cancelled by FOX.
She currently plays the role of head of medicine Dr. Jennifer Keller in the Stargate SG-1 spinoff Stargate Atlantis, making her the third actor from the Firefly series to move on to appear in a Stargate series (the first being Adam Baldwin and the second being Morena Baccarin), and the second to take a recurring role. She replaced Paul McGillion (Dr. Carson Beckett). In the fifth season her character was changed from recurring status to part of the main cast.[1] Before taking on the role as Dr. Keller she previously played the Wraith child Ellia in the Stargate Atlantis episode "Instinct".
