Born on November 28, 1987, Karen Sheila Gillan is a Scottish actress and filmmaker. Karen Gillan became well-known for her work in British cinema and television, especially for her role as Amy Pond, the Eleventh Doctor’s main companion in the science fiction series Doctor Who (2010–2013), for which she was nominated and won multiple awards.
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Her early acting credits include Jane Lockhart’s romance comedy Not Another Happy Ending (2013) and Ally’s role in the thriller Outcast (2010). While in Britain, she also performed on stage, making an appearance in the play Inadmissible Evidence (2011) by John Osborne.
After achieving her first commercial breakthrough in the US as Kaylie Russell in the horror movie Oculus (2013), Gillan made the move to Hollywood and went on to play the lead in the ABC sitcom Selfie (2014). Her roles as Nebula in many Marvel Cinematic Universe films (2014–2023), one of the highest-grossing media series, and Ruby Roundhouse in the action flicks Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019) catapulted her to international fame.
In addition, she won praise from critics for co-writing and directing the 2018 drama film The Party’s Just Beginning, in which she also acted. Since then, she has portrayed Louise in the coming-of-age movie Late Bloomers (2023), Sam in the comedy Gunpowder Milkshake (2021), and a double role in the sci-fi thriller Dual (2022). In 2024, she made a comeback to British television as Madeleine in the sitcom Douglas Is Cancelled.
Among Gillan’s achievements are nominations for the Saturn Award, Critics’ Choice Award, British Academy Scotland Film Award, and Empire Award. She also received nominations for the National Television Award and Teen Choice Award. She is well-known for her advocacy and public persona, especially in the area of suicide prevention.
Karen Gillan Childhood
Karen Sheila Gillan, the daughter of Marie and Raymond John Gillan, was born in Inverness on November 28, 1987 . Her father is from North East England, namely Sunderland. Despite having a Catholic upbringing, she claims she was not baptized and does not follow any particular faith.
Gillan went to Edinburgh when she was sixteen years old, where she finished an HNC Acting and Performance study at Telford College. At the age of 18, she relocated to London in order to attend the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts. A modeling agency scouted her while she was there. Karen Gillan was a model before she became an actress; her first appearance was during London Fashion Week in 2007. Although she enjoyed modeling, Karen Gillan has stated that acting has always been her primary interest and objective. She has stated that she would not give up her acting profession to return to modeling.
Karen Gillan Career
British cinema and television from 2006 to 2012
During her early TV acting career, Gillan had guest appearances on a number of shows. She had to drop out of school for her first role, which was in an ITV crime thriller Rebus episode.
For two years, Gillan was a part of the ensemble cast of The Kevin Bishop Show, a sketch comedy show. She performed a variety of roles, including those of celebrities like Angelina Jolie and Katy Perry. In addition, Karen Gillan had a prominent role on television in the horror series The Well, which aired on BBC Two as a run of eponymous short films and thereafter on BBC.co.uk as an online series. The brief episodes, which are a component of the BBC’s multimedia “switch” programming, link to online games that delve deeper into the settings seen in the series. She starred in the 2008 television movie Stacked on Channe .[Reference required]
Gillan in 2010 with Matt Smith, her co-star on Doctor Who
Later, Gillan portrayed Amy Pond, the British sci-fi series Doctor Who’s companion to the Eleventh Doctor (played by Matt Smith). Before being cast in the part in May 2009, she had previously featured on Doctor Who in Series 4 episode “The Fires of Pompeii” in the character of a soothsayer. She debuted as Amy on TV for the first time in “The Eleventh Hour,” when her cousin Caitlin Blackwood played a younger Amy.
Karen Gillan was the Young Scot Awards’ 2010 Entertainment category winner. She starred in the first five episodes of the seventh series in 2012 and the sixth season in 2011 . Following this, both her character and Rory Williams (played by Arthur Darvill) departed the show. In the Christmas special “The Time of the Doctor” (2013), Karen Gillan returned to her role coinciding with Smith’s retirement from the role of the Doctor.
Playing the part of Shirley in John Osborne’s production Inadmissible Evidence alongside Douglas Hodge, Gillan made her stage debut in 2011. October 16, 2011, marked the play’s Donmar Warehouse premiere. Following her role in Outcast, it was revealed that Karen Gillan and Emun Elliott would co-star in Not Another Happy Ending, an independent Scottish romantic comedy, in August 2011. Director John McKay chose her because he had seen her in the We’ll Take Manhattan production, which he also directed, and thought she was “a very bubbly, vibrant, energetic, funny, slightly clumsy person” who would be ideal for the role. While filming was taking place in July 2012, Stanley Weber took Elliott’s position. Journalists were informed by Karen Gillan that she was delighted to be working on a Scottish production that “isn’t about fighting the English or drug use.” In June 2013, the movie made its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
As supermodel Jean Shrimpton, Gillan starred in the 2012 television movie We’ll Take Manhattan, which chronicled Shrimpton’s romance with photographer David Bailey.
Hollywood breakthrough from 2013 to 2019
Gillan presenting Guardians of the Galaxy at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con. She shaved her head for her breakout performance as Nebula.
A play named Time to Act, which was one of the pieces in “The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway” to support the nonprofit Urban Arts Partnership, debuted on Broadway in November of 2013. In addition, she was chosen for the third season of Charlie Brooker’s co-created show A Touch of Cloth. In 2013, Gillan became a regular cast member of Adult Swim’s NTSF:SD:SUV:: for its third season. After relocating to the States in 2013, she was cast in the eerie horror film Oculus, which marked her breakthrough Hollywood role. Premiering at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, the film was shot in Alabama. to a crucial triumph. The movie worked, according to Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com, “thanks largely to a game performance from Gillan.” She portrays Kaylie as a determined individual on the verge of insanity.” She received a nomination for Best Actress in the Fright Meter Awards.
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The lead role in the American single-camera sitcom Selfie, created by Warner Bros. Television and approved for the 2014–2015 US television season, went to Gillan in February 2014. Gillan portrayed Eliza Dooley, a socialite who is fixated on social media and is a contemporary counterpart of Eliza Doolittle. This marked Gillan’s debut in a major American television series role. After seven episodes, ABC cancelled the series on November 7, 2014; the final six episodes were made accessible on Hulu on November 25, 2014. Years after its premiere, Selfie still maintains a devoted fan base, particularly in China.
The Marvel superhero science fiction picture Guardians of the Galaxy, which was released in August 2014, cast Karen Gillan as Nebula in May 2013. For the part, Gillan shaved off all hair, which Marvel then transformed into the wig Gillan wore while filming Selfie. In May 2014, Karen Gillan was cast with John Travolta, Ethan Hawke, and Taissa Farmiga in Ti West’s Western picture, In a Valley of Violence. Farmiga’s older sister Ellen was portrayed by Karen Gillan. She also starred in the October 3, 2014, release of the “Happy Idiot” music video by TV on the Radio.
In Adam McKay’s drama The Big Short (2015), Gillan costarred with Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Steve Carell, and Melissa Leo in a small role. Coward, the first short film she wrote and directed, was nominated for multiple accolades and screened at the 2015 Edinburgh Film Festival. She wrote, directed, and starred in Conventional, another short film, later that year. She took home the 20th Empire Awards for Guardians of the Galaxy and Oculus in the Best Female Newcomer category. She was chosen for the HBO pilot The Devil You Know that same year.
On 2 November 2016, it was revealed that Gillan would write, direct and star in her directorial feature film debut with Burbank-based development and production company Mt. Hollywood Films’ indie drama project titled Tupperware Party. Filming started in January 2017 and concluded the following month. The story is set in her hometown of Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. Later on, The Party’s Just Beginning replaced the original title of the movie. The movie received a nomination for the British Academy Scotland Awards’ Best Feature Film category.
Gillan played Nebula again in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in 2017; this time, she joined the movie’s titular squad. She also co-starred in The Circle with Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, and John Boyega. The latter movie, which debuted in April, was based on a novel by Dave Eggers and was written and directed by James Ponsoldt. In Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, the third installment of the Jumanji franchise, which starred Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Nick Jonas, Karen Gillan played the primary female character of Ruby Roundhouse. In the consecutively shot films Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), she played Nebula once more. Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia hosted filming for the two movies from January 2017 to January 2018.
In 2019, she starred in All Creatures Here Below, Spies in Disguise, and Stuber in addition to her major role in Avengers: Endgame. She returned to Jumanji: The Next Level in 2019 as Ruby Roundhouse and had an appearance in the short film Neurotica.
2020–present: Success in the mainstream
Gillan had an appearance in the Jack London novel-based adventure drama The Call of the Wild in 2020. Next year, she co-starred with Michelle Yeoh, Paul Giamatti, Lena Headey, Angela Bassett, and Carla Gugino in the action movie Gunpowder Milkshake. Karen Gillan received a nomination for the 2nd Critics’ Choice Super Awards for Best Actress in an Action Movie because of the role.
Disney Branded Television revealed in 2021 that Gillan would play the title role in Rhona Who Lives by the River, an upcoming Disney Television Animation and 20th Television Animation series. Gillan would also serve as the show’s executive producer, working with series creator Emily Kapnek and series composer Danny Elfman.
Karen Gillan co-starred with Aaron Paul in the science fiction thriller Dual in 2022, which was shot entirely in Tampere, Finland. She performed admirably in a dual part and won praise. The film was deemed “well-led” by critics on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, and John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter observed that “Karen Gillan, who has spent much of her post-Doctor Who decade playing cyborgs, computer avatars and a thinly imagined assassin, has a barely more human role to play here; to the extent that she makes either Sarah worth rooting for, it’s an achievement.” She received a nomination for Best Actress in a Science Fiction/Fantasy Movie at the 3rd Critics’ Choice Super Awards. Her “engaging and refreshingly vanity-free performance” was hailed by Damon Wise of Deadline Hollywood for her appearance in the 2023 film Late Bloomers .
She also started shooting Sleeping Dogs in Australia in 2023 alongside Russell Crowe , which was released in 2024 to a mixed critical reception. The comic drama series Douglas Is Cancelled on ITVX, which aired in June 2024 and featured Gillan’s comeback to British television, was well-recei Her acting received high appreciation from critics. The Guardian’s Lucy Mangan stated that her “magnificent performance keeps all the possibilities in play. “Gillan is totally convincing as a woman whose beauty distracts from her brains,” according to Nick Hilton of The Independent. In The Life of Chuck, Gillan reunited with director Mike Flanagan, with whom she has previously worked on Oculus , a film that debuted at TIFF in September 2024. In the next movie Fools, she will also be portraying Queen Mary Tudor.
Other undertakings
Gillan participated in the 2011 Great Ormond Street Hospital in London’s Squirrel Ward opening and Fashion Targets Breast Cancer (FTBC).
Gillan presented her film The Party’s Just Beginning in 2018, and she then paid a visit to the Mikeysline crisis assistance center located in Inverness. In the movie, which centers on the high suicide rate in Scotland’s Highlands, Gillan publicly promised to donate to the mental health organization. A student from Inverness was chosen in a competition inspired by The Party’s Just Beginning to attend New York Fashion Week, organized by Mikeysline and Fashion Week Online, in September 2020, according to a story published in the Inverness Courier. The contest was intended to raise awareness for World Suicide Prevention Day.
Karen Gillan was one of the British film and television professionals who contributed to an auction in 2024 to raise money for Gaza humanitarian aid.
Karen Gillan Media
Gillan has provided voiceovers for commercials for The Royal Bank of Scotland and Harmony.
Karen Gillan Individual Life
Gillan wed American comedian Nick Kocher, one half of the sketch team BriTANicK, in a May 2022 wedding held at Castle Toward in Dunoon, Scotland. Karen Gillan made her first child announcement at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2024.
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