Mia Kirshner

Mia Kirshner (born January 25, 1975) is a Canadian actress, writer and social activist. She is best known for television roles as Mandy in 24 (2001-2005), as Jenny Schecter in The L Word (2004-2009), and as Amanda Grayson in Star Trek: Discovery (2017–present). Her film credits include Love and Human Remains (1993), Exotica (1994), The Crow: City of Angels (1996), Mad City (1997), Not Another Teen Movie (2001) and The Black Dahlia (2006).

Mia Kirshner
Kirshner at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International
Born	(1975-01-25) January 25, 1975 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Occupation	Actress activist writer
Years active	1989–present

Early life

Kirshner was born in Toronto, Ontario, the daughter of Etti (Henrietta),[1] a teacher, and Sheldon Kirshner, a journalist who wrote for The Canadian Jewish News.[2][3] Kirshner is a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors;[4] her father was born in the displaced persons camp at Bad Reichenhall in Germany in 1946, and met Kirshner's mother, a Bulgarian Jewish refugee, after they escaped to Israel.[5][4] Kirshner's paternal grandparents were Polish Jewish.[6][7] Kirshner had a middle class upbringing[8] and attended Forest Hill Collegiate Institute but later graduated from Jarvis Collegiate Institute. Kirshner 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.[9]

Career

Kirshner in September 2009

Kirshner started her career in 1989 in "Loving the Alien", a second-season episode of War of the Worlds' as both Jo, a young resistance fighter who is captured and duplicated by the enemy aliens, and her doppelgänger. Kirshner made her film debut in 1993 at the age of 18 in Denys Arcand's Love and Human Remains. She convinced her father to sign a "nudity waiver" to play a dominatrix.[10] The following year, she starred in Atom Egoyan's Exotica. In 1996, she appeared in The Crow: City of Angels. She also played Kitty Scherbatsky in the 1997 version of Anna Karenina.

Kirshner also appeared in the first three episodes of 24 as the 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.[11] 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.[12]

In 2006, she starred in Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia in which she plays the young aspiring actress Elizabeth Short, whose mutilation and murder in 1947 remains unsolved. While the film itself was critically panned, many reviews singled out her performance for acclaim.[13][14][15][16] Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com, in a largely negative review, notes that the eponymous character was "played wonderfully by Mia Kirshner..."[13] Mick LaSalle wrote that Kirshner "makes a real impression of the Dahlia as a sad, lonely dreamer, a pathetic figure."[14] J. R. Jones described her performance as "haunting" and that the film's fictional screen tests "deliver the emotional darkness so lacking in the rest of the movie."[15] In 2010, Kirshner co-starred in the film 30 Days of Night: Dark Days which began filming in the fall of 2009.[17] In 2010, she was cast as Isobel Flemming, a guest role on The Vampire Diaries.[12]

In 2011, she voiced the title character in Bear 71, a National Film Board of Canada web documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.[18][19]

On April 20, 2012, it was announced that Kirshner would join the new Syfy series Defiance.[20]

On October 9, 2013, it was mentioned on the Showcase blog that Kirshner would be one of several guest stars in season four of the television series Lost Girl.[21]

In 2018, she began a recurring role on Star Trek: Discovery playing Amanda Grayson, foster mother of series protagonist Michael Burnham and mother of Spock, a role originated by Jane Wyatt on the original Star Trek.

On September 5, 2019, Entertainment Tonight's news outlet ET Online reported that Kirshner would play a character in Lifetime Television's movie, The College Admissions Scandal, with co-star Penelope Ann Miller in roles inspired by real life Hollywood stars Lori Loughlin's and Felicity Huffman's involvement in a massive college admissions bribery scam. Describing her role, Kirshner was quoted saying "This story is about privilege and corruption and it's about people who don't follow the rules because they think they're above rules... My character (based on Lori Loughlin but named "Bethany" in the film) is so corrupt, greedy, narcissistic, self-centered, and the dialogue is hilarious, so I'm glad that they're able to capture humor about this as well." [22]

Philanthropy

In October 2008, after seven years in production,[23] Kirshner published the book I Live Here,[24] which she co-produced with ex-Adbusters staffers Paul Shoebridge and Michael Simons,[25] 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.[26]

In popular culture

Kirshner was ranked #43 on the Maxim Hot 100 Women of 2002.[27] She and Beverly Polcyn were nominated for Best Kiss at the 2002 MTV Movie Awards for Not Another Teen Movie.[28] In 2011 it was announced that Kirshner would be the face of Monica Rich Kosann's jewelry collection.[29]

Personal life

In 2014 and 2015, Kirshner was the companion of actor and playwright Sam Shepard.[30][31]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Love and Human Remains	Benita
1993	Cadillac Girls	Page
1994	Exotica	Christina
1995	Murder in the First	Rosetta Young
1995	The Grass Harp	Maude Riordan
1996	The Crow: City of Angels	Sarah
1997	Anna Karenina	Kitty
1997	Mad City	Laurie Callahan
1999	Speed of Life	Sarah
1999	Out of the Cold	Deborah Berkowitz
2000	James Draminski	James Draminski	Short
2000	Innocents	Dominique Denright
2000	Cowboys and Angels	Candice
2001	Century Hotel	Dominique
2001	According to Spencer	Melora
2001	Not Another Teen Movie	Catherine Wyler
2002	New Best Friend	Alicia Campbell
2002	Now & Forever	Angela Wilson
2003	Party Monster	Natasha Gatien
2005	The Iris Effect	Rebecca
2006	The Black Dahlia	Elizabeth Short
2008	Miss Conception	Clem
2010	30 Days of Night: Dark Days	Lilith	Video
2011	388 Arletta Avenue	Amy Walker
2012	The Barrens	Cynthia Vineyard
2013	I Think I Do	Julia
2015	Never Happened	Laura	Short
2016	Milton's Secret	Jane Adams
2017	A Swinger's Weekend	Fiona
TBA	Dreamland		Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1989	War of the Worlds	Jo	"Loving the Alien"
1990	Danger Bay	Catherine Walker	"Live Wires"
1990–91	Dracula: The Series	Sophie Metternich	Main role
1991	E.N.G.	Risa Timerman	"Suffer the Little Children"
1991	My Secret Identity	Alana Porter	"My Other Secret Identity"
1991	Tropical Heat	Cathy Paige	"Runaway"
1992	Tropical Heat	Sandy	"Stranger in Paradise"
1992	Road to Avonlea	Emily Everett-Smythe	"High Society"
1992	Are You Afraid of the Dark?	Pam / Dora Pease	"The Tale of the Hungry Hounds"
1995	Johnny's Girl	Amy Ross	TV film
2001–02	Wolf Lake	Ruby Cates	Main role
2001–05	24	Mandy	Recurring role
2004–09	The L Word	Jenny Schecter	Regular role
2007	They Come Back	Faith Hardy	TV film
2009	The Cleaner	April May	"Does Everybody Have a Drink?"
2009	CSI: NY	Deborah Carter	"Dead Reckoning"
2010–11	The Vampire Diaries	Isobel Flemming	Recurring role
2012	Kiss at Pine Lake	Zoe McDowell	TV film
2013	The Surrogacy Trap	Christy Bennett	TV film
2013	Graceland	Ashika Pearl	"Pizza Box"
2013	Lost Girl	Clio	"In Memoriam", "Sleeping Beauty School", "Lovers. Apart."
2013–14	Defiance	Kenya Rosewater	Main role
2015	Bloodline	Sarah Rayburn	"Part 1", "Part 6", "Part 11"
2015	Reluctant Witness	Erin Villenueve	TV movie
2016	Real Detective	Det. Mannina	"No One Is Safe"
2017–present	Star Trek: Discovery	Amanda Grayson	Recurring role
2019	The College Admissions Scandal	Bethany Slade[32]	TV movie

Video games

Year	Title	Voice role	Notes
2006	24: The Game	Mandy

References

1. https://www.myheritage.com/site-family-tree-207104741/family-kirshner?familyTreeID=1
2. "Mia Kirshner surprised by character in 'Mad City' film". News Tribune. November 15, 1997. Archived from the original on May 14, 2011. Retrieved December 12, 2007.
3. "Defiant actor has impressive goals - The Canadian Jewish News". Retrieved April 22, 2015.
4. "Mia Kirshner basks in an erotic mystery". Thelwordonline.com. April 5, 2004. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
5. "A Sentimental Journey To Bad Reichenhall". Sheldon Kirshner. July 15, 2016. Retrieved April 6, 2019.
6. "Film Rap: Mia Kirshner – I Live Here". The Warren Report. November 26, 2008. Retrieved July 25, 2011.
7. Kirshner, Sheldon (August 19, 2009). "Buildings in the former Lodz Ghetto still stand". Canadian Jewish News. Retrieved July 25, 2011.
8. Aurthur, Kate (October 19, 2008). "Mia Kirshner backs up her commitment". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 19, 2009.
9. "'Give yourself permission to write'". the Varsity (University of Toronto). September 24, 2009. Archived from the original on December 28, 2009. Retrieved December 31, 2009.
10. Pfefferman, Naomi (March 16, 2009). "Mia Kirshner Documents A Different 'L' Word: Living". Baltimore Jewish Times. Retrieved June 8, 2014.
11. "Mia Kirshner". IMDb. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
12. Ausiello, Michael (December 21, 2009). "Exclusive: 'Vampire Diaries' lures 'L Word' babe Mia Kirshner". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on October 1, 2010. Retrieved May 18, 2010.
13. Stephanie Zacharek (September 15, 2006). "The Black Dahlia". Salon.com. Retrieved August 29, 2011.
14. Mick LaSalle (September 15, 2006). "'Black Dahlia' may look good, but it's noir lite". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved August 29, 2011.
15. J. R. Jones (August 29, 2006). "The Black Dahlia". Chicago Reader. Retrieved August 29, 2011.
16. Timothy Brayton (September 18, 2007). "In This Corner: The Most Notorious Unsolved Murder In California History". Antagony & Ecstasy. Retrieved August 29, 2011.
17. "BD's Got Your '30 Days of Night: Dark Days' Casting!". Bloody-disgusting.com. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
18. Monk, Katherine. "Sundance: Interactive film, Bear 71, blurs lines between wild and wired". canada.com. Postmedia News. Archived from the original on January 26, 2012. Retrieved January 25, 2012.
19. Makarechi, Kia (January 24, 2012). "'Bear 71': Interactive Film At Sundance Tells Dark Side Of Human Interaction With Wildlife". Huffington Post. Retrieved January 25, 2012.
20. Nellie Andreeva. "Mia Kirshner And Fionnula Flanagan Join Syfy Series 'Defiance'". Deadline. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
21. "Showcase". Showcase. Archived from the original on January 18, 2014. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
22. "Felicity Huffman & Lori Loughlin-Inspired 'College Admissions Scandal' Movie Gets First Trailer (Exclusive)". Retrieved October 7, 2019.
23. "Tavis Smiley Show". Tavis Smiley Show – Mia Kirshner. December 16, 2008. Retrieved December 31, 2009.
24. "I Live Here Foundation". I-live-here.com. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
25. "The Goggles". The Goggles. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
26. "MIT CIS: IAP 2009, I Live Here, Mia Kirshner". IAP COURSE: I Live Here—A Human Rights Multimedia Project. Retrieved December 31, 2009.
27. "FreeJose.com". Maxim Magazine Hot 100 Women of 2002. Archived from the original on February 23, 2007. Retrieved April 19, 2007.
28. "About.com". Best Kiss nomination, 2002 MTV Movie Awards. Archived from the original on December 14, 2007. Retrieved June 1, 2007.
29. "Mia Kirshner: the new face of Monica Rich Kosann". PRWeb. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
30. Sam Shepard and girlfriend Mia Kirshner shopping in Soho rexfeatures.com, 23 November 2014
31. Sam Shepard with girlfriend Mia Kirshner out and about, New York rexfeatures.com, 30 March 2015
32. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10803786/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm

External links

• Mia Kirshner on IMDb
• Mia Kirshner on Instagram
• Mia Kirshner on Twitter