Mia Kirshner

Mia Kirshner (born January 25, 1975) is a Canadian actress who portrays a vampire named Isobel Flemming, Elena Gilbert's birth mother, on The Vampire Diaries. She is best known for her role as Jenny Schecter on the cable TV series The L Word (2004–2009), and for her recurring guest role as Mandy on the TV series 24 (2001-2005). She also appeared in Wolf Lake with Paul Wesley and also starred in the comedy, Not Another Teen Movie.
==Biography==
Kirshner was born January 25, 1975 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is a grandaughter of Holocaust survivors. Kirshner was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, the daughter of Etti, a teacher, and Sheldon Kirshner, a journalist who writes for The Canadian Jewish News. Her father was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany in 1946, and met Kirshner's mother, a Bulgarian Jewish refugee, in Israel. Kirshner has also a younger sister who is a writer. She attended McGill University in Montreal where she majored in Russian Literature. Kirshner's paternal grandparents were Jews from Poland, her granparents were survivors of the Holocaust. Kirshner had a middle class upbringing and attended Forest Hill Collegiate Institute but later graduated from the Jarvis Collegiate Institute. Kirshner studied Russian literature and 20th-century movie industry at McGill University in Montreal.
===Career===
Kirshner found a talent agent at the age of 12, and was acting professionally by the age of 15. 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. Kirshner won a Genie nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role. 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. 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. 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. In 2010, Kirshner co-starred in the film 30 Days of Night: Dark Days which began filming in the fall of 2009. In 2010, she was cast as Isobel Flemming, a guest role on The Vampire Diaries. 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. On April 20, 2012, it was announced that Kirshner will join the new sci-fi series Defiance, as the role of Kenya. Kirshner was ranked #43 on the Maxim Hot 100 Women of 2002. She and Beverly Polcyn were nominated for Best Kiss at the 2002 MTV Movie Awards for Not Another Teen Movie. In 2011, it was announced that Kirshner would be the face of Monica Rich Kosann's jewelry collection.
===Philanthropy===
In October 2008, after 7 years in production, Kirshner published the book I Live Here, which she co-produced with ex-Adbusters 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, 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.
==Filmography==
Year 	Title 	Role
2016 	Milton's Secret 	Jane Adams
2015 	Never Happened 	Laura
2015 	Reluctant Witness 	Erin Villenueve
2015 	Bloodline 	Woman
2013-2014	Defiance 	Kenya Rosewater
2013 	Lost Girl 	Clio
2013 	Graceland 	Ashika Pearl
2013 	I Think I Do 	Julia
2013 	The Surrogacy Trap 	Christy Bennett
2012 	The Barrens 	Cynthia Vineyard
2012 	Kiss at Pine Lake 	Zoe McDowell
2012 	388 Arletta Avenue Xtra 	Amy Walker
2011 	388 Arletta Avenue 	Amy Walker
2010-2011	The Vampire Diaries 	Isobel Flemming
2010 	30 Days of Night: Dark Days	Lilith
2009 	CSI: NY 	Deborah Carter
2009 	The Cleaner 	April May
2004-2009	The L Word 	Jenny Schecter
2008 	Miss Conception 	Clem
2007 	They Come Back 	Faith Hardy
2006 	The Black Dahlia 	Elizabeth Short
2006 	24: The Game 	Mandy
2005 	Exile 	Rebecca
2001-2005	24 	Mandy
2003 	Party Monster 	Natasha
2002 	Now & Forever 	Angela Wilson
2001-2002	Wolf Lake 	Ruby Cates
2002 	New Best Friend 	Alicia Campbell
2001 	Not Another Teen Movie 	Catherine Wyler
2001 	According to Spencer 	Melora
2001 	Century Hotel 	Dominique
2000 	Cowboys and Angels 	Candice
2000 	Innocents 	Dominique Denright
2000 	James Draminski 	James Draminski
1999 	Out of the Cold 	Deborah Berkowitz
1999 	Speed of Life 	Sarah
1997 	Mad City 	Laurie
1997 	Anna Karenina 	Kitty
1996 	The Crow: City of Angels 	Sarah
1995 	The Grass Harp 	Maude Riordan
1995 	Johnny's Girl 	Amy Ross
1995 	Murder in the First 	Adult Rosetta Young
1994 	Exotica 	Christina
1993 	Cadillac Girls 	Page
1993 	Love & Human Remains 	Benita
1991-1992	Sweating Bullets 	Sandy / Cathy Paige
1992 	Are You Afraid of the Dark?	Pam / Dora Pease
1992 	Avonlea 	Emily Everett-Smythe
1990-1991	Dracula: The Series 	Sophie Metternich
1991 	My Secret Identity 	Alana Porter
1991 	E.N.G. 	Risa Timmerman
1990 	Danger Bay 	Catherine Walker
1989 	War of the Worlds 	Jo
==Appearances==
;Season One
*Bloodlines
*A Few Good Men
*Blood Brothers
*Isobel
;Season Two
*The House Guest (uncredited)
*Know Thy Enemy
==Trivia==
*She shares the same birth date as Michael Trevino, who plays Tyler Lockwood on the show.
*Both Mia and Paul Wesley starred in Wolf Lake.
*She and Nina Dobrev are both Bulgarian, but just their respective characters on The Vampire Diaries share family ties.
== Gallery==
Imaaa67NDGOBaaavNa8Ty5jcd06g==.jpg
3212458042 9641b3e897.jpg
37131 Mia Kirshner pic 122 1060lo.jpg
jenny_schecter_mia_kirshner_vampire.jpg
Mia Kirshner 1920X1200 31040 Sexy Wallpaper.jpg
mia-kirshner_402x536.jpg
Mia_Kirshner_52.jpg
mia_kirshner_face_desktop_wallpaper_77873.jpg
Mia-Kirshner-1643-1.jpeg
tumblr_lhyoiiPHYf1qcpno5o1_500.png
005TLWLLL_Mia_Kirshner_023.jpg
57749.jpg
4356036742_44882ac367.jpg
4446215372_731954db4e.jpg
images454.jpg
k10_jpg.jpg
mia_kirshner_649_7.jpg
mia_kirshner_1920_1200_dec252009.jpg
Mia+Kirshner+Showtime+Bids+Adieu+Ladies+L+t5pRDRf6cfOl.jpg
MiaKirshner.jpg
mia-kirshner-18111.jpg
mia-kirshner-picture-1.jpg
Mia-Kirshner-Picture-004.jpg
-The-L-Word-Season-5-Premiere-Party-mia-kirshner-4151960-1200-1861.jpg
tumblr_lnxfuq4Xq71qgekr7o1_400.jpg
tumblr_m2dzich4qu1qdjy9wo1_500.jpg
tumblr_m2gze2s6iK1rr6w85o1_500.jpg
tumblr_m2ivb4S8Fr1qlku9vo1_500.jpg
tumblr_m2jv1jhhcP1rsx6iao1_500.jpg
tumblr_m2mrjijbyY1qlku9vo1_500.jpg
tumblr_m2ny14VyNA1qcs2blo1_400.jpg
tumblr_m2pz8vp9ec1r53wfqo1_500.jpg
tumblr_m2qacej6wO1rr6w85o1_500.jpg
tumblr_m2qqqusODf1qlku9vo1_500.jpg
tumblr_m2shz7MPPG1qlku9vo1_500.jpg
tumblr_m2snz4elhx1rupddoo1_500.jpg
tumblr_m2u9lx7paC1qlku9vo1_r1_500.jpg
tumblr_m2vvx3AADY1qz8tpmo1_500.jpg
tumblr_m2zsvzGnvB1rssrt4o1_500.jpg
tumblr_m2zxm0YlkT1qlku9vo2_250.jpg
tumblr_m2zxm0YlkT1qlku9vo3_250.jpg
tumblr_m2zxm0YlkT1qlku9vo9_250.jpg
tumblr_m3awg34Z801qlku9vo1_500.jpg
tumblr_m3awg34Z801qlku9vo2_250.jpg
tumblr_m3awg34Z801qlku9vo3_250.jpg
tumblr_m3bt243jdL1qbfzowo1_500.jpg
tumblr_m3cfvhr8qq1r24clpo1_500.png
tumblr_m3ctmsh0BT1qlku9vo1_500.jpg
tumblr_m3dco4zLu31qbyd8eo1_500.jpg
tumblr_m3ewvuWgRf1qflnnko1_500.jpg
tumblr_m3ggy0k2BO1qlku9vo2_500.gif
tumblr_m3j0s0JGnp1qh9poto1_500.jpg
tumblr_m3jxkixK3o1qlku9vo1_500.jpg
tumblr_m20vpgh3Zo1qgekr7o1_500.jpg
tumblr_m20vrp6E8u1qgekr7o1_400.jpg
tumblr_m20vzzuiZI1qgekr7o1_500.jpg
tumblr_m30pi7PxJZ1qcb3rro1_500.png
tumblr_m31qlqAg4A1qlku9vo4_250.jpg
tumblr_m33tqubw7j1r3uqezo1_500.jpg
tumblr_m3991tyxx91qkh90vo1_500.jpg
mia826.jpg
mia7566.jpg
mia93458.jpg
mia95256.jpg
20092.1.219.138.jpg|Mia Kirshner in The Black Dahlia
Miss-Conception.3.jpg|Mia Kirshner in Miss Conception
MiaKirshnerDefiance.jpg|Mia in "Defiance"
Mia Kirshner.jpg
==External links==
*IMDb
Category:The Vampire Diaries Cast
Category:The Vampire Diaries Season One Cast
Category:The Vampire Diaries Season Two Cast
Category:Guest Stars