Ava Hartmann

Standing at almost six foot, Ava is taller than both her parents, her older brother and most other women - most likely the reason why her figure is naturally quite thin with little curves. Ava has sharp features, blue eyes, a big smile and alabaster skin, but she prefers to make a point of going against the image-obsessed culture she's grown up in and has a tendency to play down her looks by not wearing make-up and dressing very casually. Aside from her height, there was something else that always made Ava stand out from the rest of her family - where they all had dark hair, Ava's is strawberry blonde, straight and when worn down falls down to the middle of the her back.

Growing up, Ava's parents had a tendency to buy her designer clothes, making it considerably difficult for her to dress down even if she wanted to. Now that she's in charge of her own wardrobe, however, she can almost always be found in jeans and definitely favours comfort over fashion.

For most of Ava's life, her main focus has been directing the spotlight away from herself. Having grown up with parents recognised the world over and in a city full of people fighting hard to make it big, her aim was always to be inconspicuous - although she recognised the press aided her parents' careers, she believed that didn't give them the right to try to interfere in her life. As a result, she's very modest and humble, often underplaying her own achievements and sometimes coming across as insecure.

In reality, however, Ava is a lot stronger than most people would think. She was praised for her maturity when her parents told her that she was adopted, and later on displayed the same attitude when both her marriages ended. Quite easy to get along with, Ava prefers to stay away from arguments if she can avoid them but will fight for something if she believes strongly enough in it. Ava is also grounded, realistic and down-to-earth, a quality that opposes considerably the world she's grown up in: it has always been her private belief that many celebrities tend to get so caught up in fame and fortune that they forget which planet they live on.

As an agent, Ava worked very hard but perhaps could only be faulted in the fact that she wasn't very inventive - she did what she was told to do, and did it perfectly, but was never very apt at thinking laterally or outside the box. She was, however, very easy to get along with, allowing her to build up a good relationship with the agents she assisted in the field.

Although her height and appearance gives off an aura of elegance, Ava is actually very clumsy and known amongst her friends for accidentally getting herself into the worst of social situations - fortunately, she also has a good sense of humour, and knows the importance of being able to laugh at oneself.

Ava was named after the legendary Hollywood actress Ava Gardner - hardly surprising considering she grew up in Los Angeles, California, as the daughter of actor Gregory Hartmann and award-winning director Sophia Hartmann. The Hartmann family, originally descended from German immigrants, was constantly exposed to celebrity culture and Ava's older brother, Clark, was already telling his sister at the age of fifteen that he wanted to follow in his parents' footsteps and work in the film industry. Ava, however, was always slightly different - and not only because of her height and strawberry blonde hair. She shied away from her parents' lifestyle and tried to avoid the press as much as possible, often feeling a little alienated from the rest of the Hartmanns. At school, she was expected to do well in Drama but often disappointed her peers with her apparent lack of ability in acting. In fact, Ava found her niche was more geared towards History - where her brother wanted to be a director or a producer, Ava always said she wanted to be an archaeologist.

When she was twelve, Ava's parents took her to one side and told her the truth they'd been keeping from her since she was born - Ava wasn't their real daughter, but in fact had been adopted. The revelation initially made Ava insecure, and she started to distance herself even more from her family, but it took her brother Clark to corner her one day at school and deliver some home truths for her to realise she was just as much a Hartmann as he was. Ava pushed the curiosity about her real parents to the back of her mind and, in an attempt to fit in, told her parents she'd decided she wanted to be part of the film industry after all. At school, meanwhile, she also began to gain an affinity for computers and technology, including teaching herself the basics of hacking.

However, Ava's plans had to change once more when she turned fourteeen and was spotted by a Deveraux Selector Agent for her fast developing technological capabilities. Deemed not quite capable of being a fully-fledged agent, she was asked to join Bourne Team in Newbolt Wing and quickly accepted, eager for a life away from Los Angeles. At Deveraux, Ava trained rigorously and showed enormous potential, but during her two years no spaces opened in Bond, Solo, Hannay or Palmer Teams. When she eventually did graduate, she was given the post of Roaming Agent for Region 1 - Argento - but, much to her disdain, was stationed back home in her native Los Angeles.

Ironically, Ava ended up fulfilling her parents' wishes and her own promise - the cover job she was given in Los Angeles was to work for talent agent Ari Cook, who had represented her father in the past, as an assistant in the Venture Talent Agency in Beverly Hills. Over the next nineteen years, she aided agents from Regions Slate, Silver, Blue and Khaki and also found time to get married - and divorced - twice. Her first husband, Eric Connolly, was the manager of one of Ari's many clients and her second was Ari himself. Both marriages fortunately ended amicably after three years and two years respectively, and Ava is still good friends with Eric and Ari.

Although quite fond of being a Deveraux agent, Ava always saw it as just a job rather than her true calling in life. At thirty-five, she started to grow a little restless of being cooped up in the 'bubble' - as she often calls the world of Beverly Hills - and longed for a change of scenery. Which was why, as soon as she heard that the post of History and History of Espionage teacher - her favourite subject, no less - was open at Deveraux, she immediately booked a flight to Boston, hoping to impress the new Senior Tutor and take on the role herself.