- Mia Kirshner
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Mia Kirshner 
Kirshner in 2009, during interviewBorn January 25, 1975
Toronto, Ontario, CanadaOccupation Actress Years active 1989–present Mia Kirshner (born January 25, 1975) is a Canadian actress and social activist who works in movies and television series. She is best known for her portrayal of Jenny Schecter on The L Word (2004–2009) and for her role in the 2006 crime film The Black Dahlia as Elizabeth Short.
Contents
Early life
Kirshner was born in Toronto, Ontario, the daughter of Etti, a teacher, and Sheldon Kirshner, a journalist who writes for The Canadian Jewish News.[1] Kirshner is a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors;[2] her father was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany in 1946 and met Kirshner's mother, a Bulgarian Jewish refugee, in Israel.[2] Kirshner's paternal grandparents were Jews from Poland.[3][4] Kirshner had a middle class upbringing[5] and studied Russian literature and 20th-century movie industry at McGill University in Montreal. Her younger sister, Lauren Kirshner, a writer, was involved in the I Live Here project.[6]
Career
Kirshner found a talent agent at the age of 12, and was acting professionally by the age of 15.[citation needed] She made her film debut in 1993 in Denys Arcand's Love and Human Remains. She convinced her father to sign a “nudity waiver” to play a dominatrix.[7] Kirshner won a Genie nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role.[citation needed] The following year, she starred in Atom Egoyan's Exotica. In 1996, she appeared in The Crow: City of Angels.
Kirshner also appeared in the first three episodes of 24 as the bisexual assassin Mandy in 2001. She would later reprise the role for the second season's finale and in the latter half of the show's fourth season.[citation needed] Also in 2001, Kirshner played Catherine Wyler, The Cruelest Girl in School, in Not Another Teen Movie. The character is primarily a spoof of Kathryn Merteuil (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar) in Cruel Intentions, and was partially based on Mackenzie Siler (played by Anna Paquin) from She's All That. In Marilyn Manson's music video for "Tainted Love", which was featured on the movie's soundtrack, she made a cameo appearance as her character Catherine Wyler.
In 2004, Kirshner was cast as author Jenny Schecter, a main character in the drama series The L Word. She remained with the show for all of the show's six seasons through 2009.[8]
In 2006, she starred in Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia in which she plays the young aspiring actress, Elizabeth Short, who was mysteriously mutilated and murdered in 1947. While the film itself was critically panned, many reviews singled out her performance for acclaim.[9][10][11][12] In 2010, Kirshner co-starred in the film 30 Days of Night: Dark Days which began filming in the fall of 2009.[13] In 2010, she was cast as Isobel Fleming, a guest role on The Vampire Diaries.[8]
Philanthropy
In October 2008, after 7 years in production,[14] Kirshner published the book I Live Here,[15] which she co-produced with ex-Adbusters staffers Paul Shoebridge and Michael Simons,[16] as well as writer James MacKinnon. In the book, four different groups of women and children refugees from places such as Chechnya, Juárez, Burma and Malawi tell their life stories. The book features original material from well-known comic and graphic artists including Joe Sacco and Phoebe Gloeckner. It was published in the U.S. by Random House/Pantheon. It was supported logistically by Amnesty International, which will receive proceeds from the book. After the release of the book, the Center for International Studies at MIT invited Kirshner to run a 4-week course on I Live Here in January 2009.[17]
In popular culture
Kirshner was ranked #43 on the Maxim Hot 100 Women of 2002.[18] She and Beverly Polcyn were nominated for Best Kiss at the 2002 MTV Movie Awards for Not Another Teen Movie.[19] In 2010, Kirshner was ranked #36 in TC Candler's list of "Most Beautiful Faces".[20]
Filmography
Film Year Title Role Notes 1989 War of the Worlds Jo Episode: "Loving the Alien" 1990 Danger Bay Catherine Walker Episode: "Live Wires" 1990–1991 Dracula: The Series Sophie Metternich 21 episodes 1991 My Secret Identity Alana Porter Episode: "My Other Secret Identity" 1991 Sweating Bullets Cathy Paige Episode: "Runaway" 1992 Sweating Bullets Sandy Episode: "Stranger in Paradise" 1992 Road to Avonlea Emily Everett-Smythe Episode: "High Society" 1992 Are You Afraid of the Dark? Pam/Dora Pease Episode: "The Tale of the Hungry Hounds" 1993 Cadillac Girls Page 1993 Love & Human Remains Benita 1994 Exotica Christina 1995 Johnny's Girl Amy TV movie 1995 The Grass Harp Maude 1996 The Crow: City of Angels Sarah 1996 Murder in the First Adult Rosetta Young 1997 Mad City Laurie 1997 Anna Karenina Kitty 1999 Saturn Sarah 1999 Out of the Cold Deborah Berkowitz 2000 Innocents Dominique Denright 2000 Kissed by an Angel Candice 2001 Century Hotel Dominique 2001 According to Spencer Melora 2001 Not Another Teen Movie Catherine Wyler 2001–2005 24 Mandy 7 episodes 2001 Wolf Lake Ruby Cates 2001–2002 (9 episodes) 2002 New Best Friend Alicia Campbell 2002 Now & Forever Angela Wilson 2003 Party Monster Natasha 2004 The Iris Effect Rebecca 2004–2009 The L Word Jenny Schecter 70 episodes 2006 The Black Dahlia Elizabeth Short 2007 They Come Back Faith Hardy TV movie 2008 Miss Conception Clem 2009 The Cleaner April May Episode: "Does Everybody Have a Drink?" 2009 CSI: NY Deborah Carter Episode: "Dead Reckoning" 2010 30 Days of Night: Dark Days Lilith 2010–2011 The Vampire Diaries Isobel Fleming 6 episodes 2011 388 Arletta Avenue Amy 2012 Kiss at Pine Lake Zoe McDowell Post-production 2012 The Barrens Cynthia Vineyard Filming 2012 I Think I do Julia Pre-production See also
- The I Live Here Projects
References
- ^ "Mia Kirshner surprised by character in 'Mad City' film". News Tribune. 1997-11-15. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=NewsLibrary&p_multi=TNTB&d_place=TNTB&p_theme=newslibrary2&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EFE5EDE96979D03&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 2007-12-12.
- ^ a b "Mia Kirshner basks in an erotic mystery". Thelwordonline.com. 2004-04-05. http://www.thelwordonline.com/Mia_NYTarticle.shtml. Retrieved 2010-08-19.
- ^ "Film Rap: Mia Kirshner – I Live Here". The Warren Report. 2008-11-26. http://thewarrenreport.com/2008/11/26/film-rap-mia-kirshner-i-live-here/. Retrieved 2011-07-25.
- ^ Kirshner, Sheldon (2009-08-19). "Buildings in the former Lodz Ghetto still stand". Canadian Jewish News. http://www.cjnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17433&Itemid=86. Retrieved 2011-07-25.
- ^ Aurthur, Kate (2008-10-19). "Mia Kirshner backs up her commitment". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-miakirshner19-2008oct19,0,7058523.story. Retrieved 2009-10-19.
- ^ "'Give yourself permission to write'". the Varsity (University of Toronto). 2009-09-24. http://www.thevarsity.ca/articles/20376. Retrieved 2009-12-31.
- ^ Pfefferman, Naomi (March 16, 2009). "Mia Kirshner Documents A Different ‘L’ Word: Living". Baltimore Jewish Times. http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/news/jt/national_news/mia_kirshner_documents_a_different_l_word_living/. Retrieved September 27, 2010.
- ^ a b Ausiello, Michael (December 21, 2009). "Exclusive: 'Vampire Diaries' lures 'L Word' babe Mia Kirshner". Entertainment Weekly. http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2009/12/21/vampire-diaries-hires-mia-kirshner. Retrieved May 18, 2010.
- ^ Stephanie Zacharek (2006-09-15). ""The Black Dahlia"". Salon.com. http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/review/2006/09/15/black_dahlia. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
- ^ Mick LaSalle (2006-09-15). "'Black Dahlia' may look good, but it's noir lite". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/15/DDGHQL51DM1.DTL&type=movies. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
- ^ J. R. Jones (2006-08-29). "The Black Dahlia". Chicago Reader. http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-black-dahlia/Film?oid=1062534. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
- ^ Timothy Brayton (2007-09-18). "In This Corner: The Most Notorious Unsolved Murder In California History". Antagony & Ecstasy. http://antagonie.blogspot.com/2006/09/in-this-corner-most-notorious-unsolved.html. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
- ^ "BD's Got Your '30 Days of Night: Dark Days' Casting!". Bloody-disgusting.com. http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/17764. Retrieved 2010-08-19.
- ^ "Tavis Smiley Show". Tavis Smiley Show – Mia Kirshner. December 16, 2008. http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200812/20081216_kirshner.html. Retrieved 2009-12-31.
- ^ "I Live Here Foundation". I-live-here.com. http://www.i-live-here.com. Retrieved 2010-08-19.
- ^ "The Goggles". The Goggles. http://www.thegoggles.org. Retrieved 2010-08-19.
- ^ "MIT CIS: IAP 2009, I Live Here, Mia Kirshner". IAP COURSE: I Live Here—A Human Rights Multimedia Project. http://web.mit.edu/cis/eventposter_IAP2009_kirshner.html. Retrieved 2009-12-31.
- ^ "FreeJose.com". Maxim Magazine Hot 100 Women of 2002. http://www.freejose.com/lists/maxim/2002/. Retrieved April 19, 2007.
- ^ "About.com". Best Kiss nomination, 2002 MTV Movie Awards. http://movies.about.com/library/weekly/aamtvawardsa.htm/. Retrieved June 1, 2007.
- ^ "MOST BEAUTIFUL FACES 2010", TC Candler
External links
Categories:- 1975 births
- Canadian child actors
- Canadian film actors
- Jewish Canadian writers
- Canadian people of Jewish descent
- Canadian people of Polish-Jewish descent
- Canadian television actors
- Canadian women writers
- Jewish actors
- Living people
- McGill University alumni
- People from Toronto
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