Sarah Polley - Actress

Photo ©Seventeen Magazine

An actress of extraordinary subtlety and range, SARAH POLLEY made a spectacular transition from child to adult star with her critically-acclaimed performance in Atom Egoyan's "The Sweet Hereafter," winner of the 1997 Grand Prix at Cannes.

Born January 8, 1979 in the Toronto area, Polley's career began at a mere four years old when she appeared in Phillip Borsos' holiday fantasy "One Magic Christmas." At eight years of age she played the title role in the PBS series "Ramona." Her work on the show led to more screen work, including the 1987 Matt Dillon flop "The Big Town" and Terry Gilliam's "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen." In 1990, Polley got a lead role on the Emmy Award-winning television series "The Road to Avonlea," a part that she played for five seasons.

When she was 14, Polley played a supporting role in Atom Egoyan's "Exotica," which received the 1994 Cannes International Critic's Prize, and played the lead in the Stratford Festival's stage production of "Alice Through the Looking Glass."

Polley's other film credits include "Joe's So Mean to Josephine," Clement Virgo's "The Planet of Junior Brown" and Thom Fitzgerald's "The Hanging Garden."

Polley then received acclaim with her critically-lauded performance as the paralyzed survivor of a catastrophic bus accidenin Egoyan's Academy Award®-nominated "The Sweet Hereafter," winner of the 1997 Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. Following her success in the film, she went on to appear in "Guinevere" opposite Stephen Rea. Her performance drew rave reviews from critics and at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. She subsequently starred in David Cronenberg's science fiction piece "eXistenZ" with Jude Law and Don McKellar's "Last Night."

Polley received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for her portrayal of an iconoclastic checkout clerk who becomes entangled in a small-time drug deal in Doug Liman's dark comedy "Go," which premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. Also in 1999, Polley made her directorial debut by completing a short dramatic film, "Don't Think Twice," which premiered to critical praise at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival and screened at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival.

In 2000, Polley returned to Canada to star in Kathryn Bigelow's "The Weight of Water," a drama about the efforts of a photojournalist and her husband (Catherine McCormack and Sean Penn) to investigate a 19th century murder. That same year, she also appeared in Michael Winterbottom's "The Claim," playing the daughter of a gold miner (Peter Mullan) who sells his family for a bag of gold. She also starred in "The Law of Enclosures" with Diane Ladd for director John Grey. Both films screened at the Toronto Film Festival. She is currently in production on United Artists' "Monster."

On the small screen, Polley starred in the television movies "White Lies" and "Lantern Hill," starring Sam Waterston.

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