HOLLYWOOD — Actress Anna Torv used to dream about being an actress over the kitchen stove. "When I was about 15 or 16, mum would work, and I would often cook dinner at home," she says over coffee at a hotel on Hollywood Boulevard.

"And where the stove was I could see myself in the reflection of the window. I'd stir and remember thinking, 'My God, I can't wait until I'm at the National Institute of Dramatic Art and studying on my own, in my own flat.' I remember thinking how cool that would be."

Two years later, part of that dream came true. Torv was studying at NIDA and staying in her very own apartment.

"I was standing in my ... little flat, I was studying at night. And I caught a reflection of myself stirring a pot, going, 'Oh, my God, this is NOT what I imagined.' I think that was a big thing, and I get the giggles about how you can dream in great detail, but it never really is what you imagine it to be."

The actress, who plays an intrepid FBI investigator on Fox's sci-fi thriller "Fringe" — which begins airing new episodes on Jan. 20 — grew up on isolated acreage an hour outside of Brisbane, Australia.

Her parents split when she was 8 and she hasn't seen much of her father, a radio announcer, since then. She and her younger brother were raised by her mother, who started her own company making hats and later shirts and accessories.

"I think everyone makes such a big deal about staying in the moment and being present and here, and I kind of love holding on to my past and imagining the future," she says. "I think that did change my thinking. I'm a dreamer and nostalgic, and I like the combination."

After graduating, she plotted out her career. "I went with one-year increments," she says, her honey-colored hair falling over her shoulders. "The first was could I get work? And I did. And the second year was could I JUST act? And I did. Then could I earn my living doing only the things I wanted to do? Then I wanted to see if I could work overseas, so I moved to the U.K."

But before she left Australia for London, she suffered a crisis of sorts. "I was in a bit of a stalemate and I felt like I was treading water," she recalls, her hands entwined around her cup.

"I would've been about 26 or 27, and I was no longer excused for being a kid. It was time to grow up. And I didn't know what I wanted to do. The mid- to late-20s is a really funny time. The early 20s is great because you're not a teenager, everything's open. You believe you can do everything. You're strong.

"And then it kind of washes down a bit and friends I went to school with were getting married and having children, that was just implausible to me that could even be happening. I was still kind of bumming around and living this carefree, bohemian life. What was I doing? I'd put everything on hold for a career. So I said, 'What am I sitting around for?' "

Torv, 30, already had a British passport. "I went to London and didn't work for so long, four or five months, and just lived on my credit card," she says.

Then she landed a job doing voiceover and motion-capture for a computer game that was shooting in New Zealand. On the way back she stopped in Los Angeles.

"I auditioned for heaps of pilots and did network tests but didn't get any work. Then I'd spent my money and went back to London and did a part on a TV series called 'Mistresses.' Then a tiny part on 'Band of Brothers,' then the writers strike hit."

At last came the audition for "Fringe."

Torv is both stunned and thrilled with the role. "I feel just totally blessed. I can't explain how exciting it was. ... I think you always have a sense of feeling a little bit out of place, like, am I really right?"

She's right, all right, according to one of the show's creators, Alex Kurtzman: "The minute we saw Anna, we went, 'This is who we've been writing for this whole time. We just didn't know it.' It was a very easy decision for all of us."

Torv, who's neither married nor in a relationship, says she hopes to marry someday. And while she's in a field that demands bravado, she says, "I oscillate, sometimes, if you get me in a good mood, I'm quite extroverted and sometimes, if I'm in a quiet mood, I'm quite shy."