Mia Kirshner
Encyclopedia
Mia Kirshner is a Canadian actress and social activist who works in movies and television series. She is best known for her portrayal of Jenny Schecter
Jenny Schecter
Jennifer "Jenny" Schecter is a fictional character from the American Showtime television drama series The L Word, played by Mia Kirshner. Jenny debuted on-screen during the pilot episode and remained until the series' final episode. Jenny became well documented in the media for her outlandish plots...

 on The L Word
The L Word
The L Word is an American co-production television drama series originally shown on Showtime portraying the lives of a group of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people and their friends, family and lovers in the trendy Greater Los Angeles, California city of West Hollywood...

(2004–2009) and for her role in the 2006 crime film The Black Dahlia
The Black Dahlia (film)
The Black Dahlia is a 2006 neo noir crime film directed by Brian De Palma. It is based on the novel of the same name by James Ellroy, writer of L.A. Confidential and starred Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Eckhart and Hilary Swank. The story is based on the murder of Elizabeth Short...

as Elizabeth Short.

Early life

Kirshner was born in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Ontario, the daughter of Etti, a teacher, and Sheldon Kirshner, a journalist who writes for The Canadian Jewish News
Canadian Jewish News
The Canadian Jewish News is a weekly, English-language tabloid-sized newspaper serving Canada's Jewish community. Though independent, the newspaper has been, since 1971, owned by a group of Jewish leaders involved with Canadian Jewish Congress...

.
Kirshner is a granddaughter of Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...

 survivors;
her father was born in a displaced persons camp
Displaced persons camp
A displaced persons camp or DP camp is a temporary facility for displaced persons coerced into forced migration. The term is mainly used for camps established after World War II in West Germany and in Austria, as well as in the United Kingdom, primarily for refugees from Eastern Europe and for the...

 in Germany in 1946 and met Kirshner's mother, a Bulgarian Jewish refugee, in Israel. Kirshner's paternal grandparents were Jews from Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

. Kirshner had a middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....

 upbringing
and attended Forest Hill Collegiate Institute
Forest Hill Collegiate Institute
Forest Hill Collegiate Institute is a semestered public high school of about 900 students and 55 teachers located in the Toronto, Ontario neighbourhood of Forest Hill...

 but later graduated from the Jarvis Collegiate Institute
Jarvis Collegiate Institute
Jarvis Collegiate Institute is a high school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.Jarvis is located on Jarvis Street. Founded in 1807 it is the second oldest high school in Ontario after the Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute, and the oldest high school in Toronto.-History:Jarvis Collegiate was...

. Kirshner studied Russian literature
Russian literature
Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia or its émigrés, and to the Russian-language literature of several independent nations once a part of what was historically Russia or the Soviet Union...

 and 20th-century movie industry at McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

 in Montreal. Her younger sister, Lauren Kirshner
Lauren Kirshner
-External links:*...

, a writer, was involved in the I Live Here project.

Career

Kirshner found a talent agent
Talent agent
A talent agent, or booking agent, is a person who finds jobs for actors, authors, film directors, musicians, models, producers, professional athletes, writers and other people in various entertainment businesses. Having an agent is not required, but does help the artist in getting jobs...

 at the age of 12, and was acting professionally by the age of 15. She made her film debut in 1993 in Denys Arcand
Denys Arcand
Georges-Henri Denys Arcand, is a Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. He has won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2004 for The Barbarian Invasions...

's Love and Human Remains
Love and Human Remains
Love and Human Remains is a 1993 Canadian film directed by Denys Arcand and based on Brad Fraser's stage play Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love. Fraser also wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation...

. She convinced her father to sign a “nudity waiver” to play a dominatrix
Dominatrix
Dominatrix or mistress is a woman or women who takes the dominant role in bondage, discipline and sadomasochism, or BDSM. A common form of address for a submissive to a dominatrix is "mistress", "ma'am", "domina" or "maîtresse"...

. Kirshner won a Genie
Genie Award
Genie Awards are given out to recognize the best of Canadian cinema by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. From 1949-1979, the awards were named the Canadian Film Awards...

 nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role. The following year, she starred in Atom Egoyan
Atom Egoyan
Atom Egoyan, OC is a critically acclaimed Armenian-Canadian stage director and film director. Egoyan made his career breakthrough with Exotica...

's Exotica
Exotica (film)
Exotica is a 1994 Canadian film set primarily in and around the Exotica strip club in Toronto, Canada. It was written and directed by Atom Egoyan. Music used includes "Montagues and Capulets".-Synopsis:...

. In 1996, she appeared in The Crow: City of Angels
The Crow: City of Angels
The Crow: City of Angels is a 1996 action film directed by Tim Pope. It is a sequel to the 1994 cult film The Crow.-Plot:The film is set in Los Angeles, where drug king Judah Earl controls it all...

.

Kirshner also appeared in the first three episodes of 24
24 (TV series)
24 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration...

as the bisexual assassin
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...

 Mandy
Mandy (24 character)
Mandy is a fictional character, played by Mia Kirshner, on the television series 24. She is a terrorist and a professional assassin, and is notable for being the only longtime antagonist of the series to remain alive, as of the end of Season 4 .-24: Season 1:Mandy appears in the first three...

 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. Also in 2001, Kirshner played Catherine Wyler, The Cruelest Girl in School, in Not Another Teen Movie
Not Another Teen Movie
Not Another Teen Movie is a 2001 American comedy film directed by Joel Gallen, released on December 14, 2001 by Columbia Pictures. It is a parody of teen movies which have accumulated in Hollywood over the last few decades...

. The character is primarily a spoof of Kathryn Merteuil (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Prinze , known professionally by her birth name of Sarah Michelle Gellar , is an American actress, singer and executive producer...

) in Cruel Intentions
Cruel Intentions
Cruel Intentions is a 1999 American drama film starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon, and Selma Blair. The film is an adaptation of the 18th-century French epistolary novel Les Liaisons dangereuses by Laclos and is set among wealthy teenagers living in modern New York...

, and was partially based on Mackenzie Siler (played by Anna Paquin
Anna Paquin
Anna Helene Paquin is a Canadian-born New Zealand actress. Paquin's first critically successful film was The Piano, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1994 at the age of 11 – the second youngest winner in history...

) from She's All That
She's All That
She's All That is a 1999 American romantic comedy film directed by Robert Iscove, and is a modern adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion...

. In Marilyn Manson's
Marilyn Manson (band)
Marilyn Manson is an American metal band from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Formed in 1989 by Brian Warner and Scott Putesky, the group was originally named Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids with their uniquely theatrical performances gathering a local cult following in the early '90s. This attention...

 music video for "Tainted Love
Tainted Love
"Tainted Love" is a song composed by Ed Cobb, formerly of The Four Preps, which was originally recorded by Gloria Jones in 1965. It attained worldwide fame after being covered by Soft Cell in 1981, reaching number one in the UK Singles Chart, and has since been covered by numerous groups and...

", 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
Jenny Schecter
Jennifer "Jenny" Schecter is a fictional character from the American Showtime television drama series The L Word, played by Mia Kirshner. Jenny debuted on-screen during the pilot episode and remained until the series' final episode. Jenny became well documented in the media for her outlandish plots...

, a main character in the drama series The L Word
The L Word
The L Word is an American co-production television drama series originally shown on Showtime portraying the lives of a group of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people and their friends, family and lovers in the trendy Greater Los Angeles, California city of West Hollywood...

.
She remained with the show for all of the show's six seasons through 2009.

In 2006, she starred in Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:...

's The Black Dahlia
The Black Dahlia (film)
The Black Dahlia is a 2006 neo noir crime film directed by Brian De Palma. It is based on the novel of the same name by James Ellroy, writer of L.A. Confidential and starred Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Eckhart and Hilary Swank. The story is based on the murder of Elizabeth Short...

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. In 2010, Kirshner co-starred in the film 30 Days of Night: Dark Days
30 Days of Night: Dark Days
30 Days of Night: Dark Days is a 2010 American horror film based on the comic book miniseries of the same name. It was directed by and written by Ben Ketai, alongside co-writer Steve Niles. It is a sequel to the 2007 film, 30 Days of Night...

which began filming in the fall of 2009. In 2010, she was cast as Isobel Fleming, a guest role on The Vampire Diaries
The Vampire Diaries (TV series)
The Vampire Diaries is an American supernatural drama television series developed by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec, based on the book series of the same name written by L. J. Smith. The series premiered on The CW Television Network on September 10, 2009, and is currently in its third season that...

.

Philanthropy

In October 2008, after 7 years in production, Kirshner published the book I Live Here, which she co-produced with ex-Adbusters
AdBusters
The Adbusters Media Foundation is a Canadian-based not-for-profit, anti-consumerist, pro-environment organization founded in 1989 by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz in Vancouver, British Columbia...

 staffers Paul Shoebridge and Michael Simons, as well as writer James MacKinnon. In the book, four different groups of women and children refugees from places such as Chechnya
Chechnya
The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...

, Juárez
Ciudad Juárez
Ciudad Juárez , officially known today as Heroica Ciudad Juárez, but abbreviated Juárez and formerly known as El Paso del Norte, is a city and seat of the municipality of Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Juárez's estimated population is 1.5 million people. The city lies on the Rio Grande...

, Burma and Malawi
Malawi
The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...

 tell their life stories. The book features original material from well-known comic and graphic artists including Joe Sacco
Joe Sacco
Joe Sacco is a Maltese-American comics artist and journalist. He achieved international fame through the 1996 American Book Award-winning Palestine, and his graphic novel on the Bosnian War, Safe Area Goražde.- Biography :...

 and Phoebe Gloeckner
Phoebe Gloeckner
Phoebe Louise Adams Gloeckner is an American cartoonist, illustrator, painter, and novelist.-Background:Gloeckner was born in 1960 in Philadelphia, and spent most of her later childhood and young adult life in San Francisco, where her family moved in the early 1970s...

. It was published in the U.S. by Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...

/Pantheon. It was supported logistically by Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

, 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.

In popular culture

Kirshner was ranked #43 on the Maxim
Maxim (magazine)
Maxim is an international men's magazine based in the United Kingdom and known for its pictorials featuring popular actresses, singers, and female models, sometimes pictured dressed, often pictured scantily dressed but not fully nude....

Hot 100 Women of 2002. She and Beverly Polcyn
Beverly Polcyn
Beverly Polcyn is an American actress.Poclyn's first appearance was in the 1991 horror movie Speak of the Devil where she played Ettie Glittens. She is mainly recognized for her appearance in Not Another Teen Movie, which resulted in a 2002 MTV Movie Awards "Best Kiss" nomination, along with Mia...

 were nominated for Best Kiss at the 2002 MTV Movie Awards for Not Another Teen Movie. In 2010, Kirshner was ranked #36 in TC Candler's list of "Most Beautiful Faces". In 2011 it was announced that Kirshner would be the face of Monica Rich Kosann
Monica Rich Kosann
Monica Rich Kosann is a fine art black-and-white photographer, who is also the founder of the Monica Rich Kosann a, jewelry, home decor and accessory company. Her signature line consists of several different collections: jewelry, image cases, frames and evening bags.-Photography:Kosann is noted...

's jewelry collection.

Filmography

Film
Year Title Role Notes
1989 War of the Worlds
War of the Worlds (TV series)
War of the Worlds is a television program that ran for two seasons, from 1988 to 1990. The series is an extension of the original 1953 film The War of the Worlds, using the same War Machine, often incorporating aspects from the film, radio adaptation, and original novel into its mythology.Though...

Jo Episode: "Loving the Alien"
1990 Danger Bay
Danger Bay
Danger Bay is a Canadian television series, produced in Vancouver, with first-run episodes broadcast on CBC Television starting October 18, 1984 and the Disney Channel starting October 7, 1985...

Catherine Walker Episode: "Live Wires"
1990–1991 Dracula: The Series
Dracula: The Series
Dracula: The Series was a short-lived syndicated series about Count Dracula and his struggles with Gustav Van Helsing, as well as Gustav's young nephews — Maximilian and Christopher Townsend. They were also aided by a schoolgirl, Sophie Metternich...

Sophie Metternich 21 episodes
1991 My Secret Identity
My Secret Identity
My Secret Identity is a Canadian television series starring Jerry O'Connell and Derek McGrath. Originally broadcast from September 1, 1988 to May 1, 1991 on CTV in Canada, the series also aired in syndication in the United States.-Synopsis:...

Alana Porter Episode: "My Other Secret Identity"
1991 Sweating Bullets
Tropical Heat
Tropical Heat was a Canadian TV series produced in cooperation with Mexico and Israel that aired between 1991 and 1993 ....

Cathy Paige Episode: "Runaway"
1992 Sweating Bullets Sandy Episode: "Stranger in Paradise"
1992 Road to Avonlea
Road to Avonlea
Road to Avonlea was a television series which was first broadcast in Canada and the United States between 1990 and 1996. It was created by Kevin Sullivan and produced by Sullivan Films in association with CBC and the Disney Channel, with additional funding from Telefilm Canada.It was adapted from...

Emily Everett-Smythe Episode: "High Society"
1992 Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Are You Afraid of the Dark? may refer to:* Are You Afraid of the Dark?, a 1992 television series* Are You Afraid of the Dark? , a 2004 novel by Sidney Sheldon...

Pam/Dora Pease Episode: "The Tale of the Hungry Hounds"
1993 Cadillac Girls Page
1993 Love & Human Remains Benita
1994 Exotica
Exotica (film)
Exotica is a 1994 Canadian film set primarily in and around the Exotica strip club in Toronto, Canada. It was written and directed by Atom Egoyan. Music used includes "Montagues and Capulets".-Synopsis:...

Christina
1995 Johnny's Girl Amy TV movie
1995 Maude
1996 Sarah
1996 Murder in the First
Murder in the First
Murder in the First is a largely fictitious 1995 film, directed by Marc Rocco, about a petty criminal named Henri Young who is put on trial for murder in the first degree.-Plot:...

Adult Rosetta Young
1997 Mad City
Mad City (film)
Mad City is a 1997 drama film and thriller film written by Tom Matthews and Eric Williams, directed by Costa-Gavras, and starring Dustin Hoffman, John Travolta, Mia Kirshner, Alan Alda, Blythe Danner, Ted Levine, Raymond J. Barry, and Larry King.-Plot:...

Laurie
1997 Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina (1997 film)
Anna Karenina is a 1997 film by director Bernard Rose, and starring Sophie Marceau and Sean Bean. The film is an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Leo Tolstoy. It was the first international version to be filmed entirely in Russia, at locations in St...

Kitty
1999 Saturn Sarah
1999 Out of the Cold Deborah Berkowitz
2000 Innocents Dominique Denright
2000 Kissed by an Angel Candice
2001 Century Hotel
Century Hotel
Century Hotel is a 2001 Canadian drama/mystery/romance film. It is directed and co-written by David Weaver and Bridget Newson.The film explains seven different stories, that happen in the same hotel room in different eras, from the 1920s to the 1990s...

Dominique
2001 According to Spencer
According to Spencer
According to Spencer is a 2001 film starring Jesse Bradford, Mia Kirshner, David Krumholtz, Adam Goldberg, and Brad Rowe.- Plot :The film is centered on Spencer , who moves to Los Angeles and runs into Melora , the girl he's been in love with since he was a child...

Melora
2001 Not Another Teen Movie
Not Another Teen Movie
Not Another Teen Movie is a 2001 American comedy film directed by Joel Gallen, released on December 14, 2001 by Columbia Pictures. It is a parody of teen movies which have accumulated in Hollywood over the last few decades...

Catherine Wyler
2001–2005 24
24 (TV series)
24 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration...

Mandy
Mandy (24 character)
Mandy is a fictional character, played by Mia Kirshner, on the television series 24. She is a terrorist and a professional assassin, and is notable for being the only longtime antagonist of the series to remain alive, as of the end of Season 4 .-24: Season 1:Mandy appears in the first three...

7 episodes
2001 Wolf Lake
Wolf Lake
Wolf Lake is an American television series that originally aired on CBS. Wolf Lake follows a pack of werewolves living in a Seattle suburb. The first 5 episodes aired on CBS, but due to low ratings CBS cancelled it. A total of nine aired episodes and a non-aired pilot were made before the show...

Ruby Cates 2001–2002 (9 episodes)
2002 New Best Friend
New Best Friend
New Best Friend is a 2002 American film based on a story by author James Edwards. The film was originally owned by MGM, which eventually let this film go...

Alicia Campbell
2002 Now & Forever Angela Wilson
2003 Party Monster Natasha
2004 Rebecca
2004–2009 Jenny Schecter
Jenny Schecter
Jennifer "Jenny" Schecter is a fictional character from the American Showtime television drama series The L Word, played by Mia Kirshner. Jenny debuted on-screen during the pilot episode and remained until the series' final episode. Jenny became well documented in the media for her outlandish plots...

70 episodes
2006 Elizabeth Short
2007 They Come Back Faith Hardy TV movie
2008 Miss Conception
Miss Conception
Miss Conception is a 2008 comedy film directed by Eric Styles and starring Heather Graham. Graham plays a woman who learns she has only one month left to conceive a child...

Clem
2009 April May Episode: "Does Everybody Have a Drink?"
2009 CSI: NY
CSI: NY
CSI: NY is an American police procedural television series that premiered on September 22, 2004, on CBS. The show follows the investigations of a team of NYPD forensic scientists and police officers as they unveil the circumstances behind mysterious and unusual deaths as well as other crimes...

Deborah Carter Episode: "Dead Reckoning"
2010 30 Days of Night: Dark Days
30 Days of Night: Dark Days
30 Days of Night: Dark Days is a 2010 American horror film based on the comic book miniseries of the same name. It was directed by and written by Ben Ketai, alongside co-writer Steve Niles. It is a sequel to the 2007 film, 30 Days of Night...

Lilith
Lilith (30 Days of Night)
Lilith is a character from the 30 Days of Night franchise, first appearing in the original comic sequel, Dark Days. She is the wife of Vicente, and together they are referred to as the "elders". She claims to be the mother of all other vampires...

2010–2011 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

External links

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