Irene Bedard

**Irene Bedard** (born July 22, 1967) is an American actress, who has played mostly lead Native American roles in a variety of films. She is perhaps best known for providing the speaking voice for the titular character in the 1995 animated film *Pocahontas*. Bedard reprised her role as Pocahontas in the films direct-to-video follow-up, *Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World* (1998) and for a cameo in *Ralph Breaks the Internet* (2018). She portrays Sylvie Nanmac in ***Alaska Daily***.

## Early life

Bedard was born in Anchorage, Alaska and is of Iñupiat and French Canadian/Cree (Métis) heritage and an enrolled member of the Native Village of Koyuk in Alaska. Bedard graduated from Dimond High School in Anchorage, Alaska in 1985. Bedard attended The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where she studied musical theater.

## Career

Her first role was as Mary Crow Dog in the 1994 television production, *Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee*, which depicted the 1970s standoff between the US government and citizens of several Native nations, including many of the Pine Ridge Reservation, at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. For this role, she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film. She is probably best known as the voice of the eponymous heroine in the 1995 Disney animated film *Pocahontas*, the direct-to-video 1998 sequel *Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World* and in the 2018 film *Ralph Breaks the Internet*. She appeared in a different take of the story in Terence Malick's 2005 film *The New World*, as Pocahontas's mother, Nonoma Winanuske Matatiske.

In 2001, Irene Bedard hosted the Ninth Annual First Americans in the Arts (FAITA) Awards from the Beverly Hilton Hotel. In 2002, at the Tenth Annual FAITA Awards, Bedard won Outstanding Guest Performance by an Actress in a TV Drama Series for *The Agency.*

In 2005, she was cast in the television mini-series *Into the West* as Margaret "Light Shines" Wheeler. Bedard has been very active in environmental groups to protect sacred lands. In 1997, she co-hosted with Floyd Westerman a benefit for the Dine' People of Big Mountain at The Loft Theatre, in Pasadena. In 2015, she appeared in Chloé Zhao's debut feature film, *Songs My Brothers Taught Me*. In 2017 Bedard announced an agreement with the Catawba Nation of South Carolina to join in a production agreement. That year she also appeared as a recurring character in the TV series *The Mist*. Bedard made an appearance in the music video for Jay-Z's 2018 song "Family Feud".

In 2020, Bedard played a recurring character in seasons one and two of the drama series *FBI: Most Wanted*. She then was a starring cast member in the Paramount+ miniseries *The Stand,* as Ray Brentner, a gender-swapped version of Ralph Brentner from the 1994 adaptation.

## Personal life

In 1993, Bedard married musician Deni Wilson. Between her films, the pair toured for several years with other musicians in a band called "ID," which came from the initials of their first names, Irene and Deni. In 2012, the couple divorced following Bedard's allegations of being a spousal abuse victim.

In November 2020, Bedard was arrested twice in three days. The first arrest was for alleged domestic violence, assault, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and criminal damaging; the second was for alleged disorderly conduct.

On August 20, 2022, she was again arrested for drunken disorderly conduct after she was heard loudly arguing with another woman in the street with no regard of safety in Xenia, Ohio. Bedard claims she was locked out of her studio and had no alcohol in her system, but police detected alcohol on her breath. The incident had begun as a welfare check on the other woman, who was reported as being passed out in the bushes, but she was gone when authorities arrived, leaving Bedard at the scene.

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