Nicholas Lea (born June 22, 1962 as Nicholas Christopher Schroeder, and later known as Nicholas Christopher Herbert) is a Canadian actor best known for his work on The X-Files playing Alex Krycek.Lea was born in New Westminster, British Columbia. He attended Prince of Wales Secondary (Grad of 1980). His first major role was on the TV series The Commish where he played Officer Enrico Caruso from 1991 to 1994. It was during this time that he had a minor guest role in a first-season episode of The X-Files called "Gender Bender."

The producers were impressed by his performance and when, in the second season, he auditioned for the role of turncoat FBI agent Alex Krycek, he was successful. Lea guest starred in eleven episodes from 1994 to 1996 and became a popular character amongst the fans. Because of his character's willingness to switch sides, he was known as the 'ratboy'. In the season three episode "Apocrypha," Krycek was left to die in an abandoned silo with an alien ship.

This allowed Lea to take a starring role in the series Once a Thief - which followed on from the 1996 John Woo film - alongside Ivan Sergei. The series was cancelled after one season. Lea continued to play Krycek, who became a nemesis not just of Mulder and Scully but particularly of A.D. Skinner (Mitch Pileggi). In various capacities, Lea continued appearing on the show until his character was killed off by A.D. Skinner in the Season 8 finale, although he later returned to the role for the ninth season's, and the series' finale.

In 2006, Lea had a role on Kyle XY playing Tom Foss, Kyle's tutor, and was one of the lead actors (playing Ethan McKaye) on the Canadian TV series Whistler. He was also that series' associate producer. He did not return to Whistler for its second season in 2007.

He has guest starred in shows such as NYPD Blue, Andromeda, Sliders, Highlander: The Series, Judging Amy, CSI (as Catherine Willows' boyfriend) and Men in Trees (as Eric, the minister). He is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Lyric School of Acting in Vancouver.

You can only imagine how many bad, bad, bad movies I have seen simply because Nick Lea was in them. Vertical Limit, Threshold, Kiss Tomorrow Good-Bye? Seen 'em. And I enjoyed every minute, not just because I heart bad TV but also because I heart Nicholas Lea so very, very much.

He was my first movie star crush (not counting my childhood crush on Luke Skywalker) back from when he was on the X-Files, his most appealling role. I even hunted down and watched the ill-fated Canadian series Once a Thief to get my Nick-fix.

He doesn't get the hard-hitting, emmy-nominating roles (which is really a shame), but he always puts his best into the roles he does get, often making him the highlight of any show/movie he is in.

He does get some good roles, his recurring appearances on CSI and NYPD Blue for example. Unfortunately his role of Alex Krycek seems to have type-cast him in the jerk role or as the baddy.

The world needs for Nick Lea. I think Sci-Fi should hire him and put him on one of the Stargates like they seem to be doing with all the other refugees from cancelled sci-fi series.