Karen Gillan Biography

Karen Sheila Gillan (born 28 November 1987) is a Scottish actress and former model. She played Amy Pond in the British science fiction series Doctor Who.

Personal life and education

Karen Gillan was born and raised in Inverness, Scotland. She is the only child of John Gillan, a singer/recording artist, and mother, Marie Gillan (ne Paterson). She learned to play the piano when she was seven. At a young age, she developed a love for acting, joining several local youth theatre groups and taking part in a wide range of productions at her school, Charleston Academy. When she turned 16, Gillan moved to Edinburgh and completed an HNC Acting and Performance course at Telford College. She then moved to London at 18 to study at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts drama school in the BA (Hons) Acting degree course.

In 2011, Gillan helped promote Fashion Targets Breast Cancer (FTBC) and the opening of Squirrel Ward in Great Ormond Street Hospital. During an interview with Craig Ferguson on The Late Late Show, she confirmed she now lives in Los Angeles.

Career

Modelling

While studying at Italia Conti, Gillan was scouted by a modelling agency, and modelled in the launch party of Nicola Roberts' Dainty Doll Make-Up Range. This was shown in Roberts' episode of the documentary, The Passions of Girls Aloud, which premiered on 4 April 2008. Gillan has said she would not give up her acting career to return to modelling, stating that she enjoyed modelling but acting was always her main interest and goal.

Acting

Gillan's early television acting career included guest appearances on several drama series, with her first ongoing role being a two-year stint as a member of the ensemble cast of the sketch comedy series The Kevin Bishop Show in which she played multiple characters, as well as celebrities such as Katy Perry and Angelina Jolie. She appeared in Channel 4's Stacked; she had the part of Ginny. Gillan also appeared on TV in a leading role in a horror project entitled The Well, which was broadcast as a series of episodic short films on BBC Two, and then later also as a web series on BBC.co.uk. Part of the BBC's multimedia "switch" programming, the short episodes interconnect with online games that further explore the environments presented in the series.

She was cast for the role of the Eleventh Doctor's first companion, Amy Pond, on the British sci-fi series Doctor Who in May 2009. She made her first on-screen appearance as Amy Pond in "The Eleventh Hour" with her cousin Caitlin Blackwood portraying a young Amelia (Amy) Pond. She was confirmed in Issue 420 of the Doctor Who Magazine to be appearing in the 2011 series. Gillan had appeared in Doctor Who once before in the 2008 episode "The Fires of Pompeii" in the role of a Soothsayer.

Gillan made her first theatre appearance playing the role of Shirley in John Osborne's play Inadmissible Evidence along with Douglas Hodge. The play debuted at the Donmar Warehouse on 16 October 2011.

During an interview at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con, Gillan revealed she would be returning to Doctor Who for its seventh series. On 15 December 2011, it was announced Gillan and Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams) would be leaving Doctor Who during the seventh series in 2012. On 26 January 2012, Karen Gillan played the part of supermodel Jean Shrimpton in the BBC Four film We'll Take Manhattan, which told the story of Shrimpton's relationship with the photographer David Bailey.

In August 2011, it was announced Gillan would star in an indie Scottish rom-com called Not Another Happy Ending alongside Emun Elliott. She was picked by director John McKay because he came to know her during the production of We'll Take Manhattan, which he also directed, as "a very bubbly, vibrant, energetic, funny, slightly clumsy person" who was a perfect fit for the character. Filming took place in July 2012, though Elliott was replaced by Stanley Weber. Gillan told journalists that she was happy to be involved in a Scottish production that "isn't about drug use or fighting the English". The film premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June 2013.

Gillan will star in a supernatural horror pic called Oculus cast in the lead role, filmed in Alabama and will be released April 2014. She revealed that she has been cast in comedian Charlie Brooker's TV series A Touch of Cloth. Gillan has also been cast in a film titled ' The List ' which began filming in Los Angeles in May 2013.

FHM magazine ranked Gillan #42 in FHM's 100 Sexiest Women 2011. In 2012 they also ranked her #36. Gillan has also voiced advertisements for eHarmony and The Royal Bank of Scotland. In May 2013, Gillan was cast as Nebula in the superhero science fiction film Guardians of the Galaxy, scheduled for release in August 2014.

Gillan joined the regular cast of Adult Swim's NTSF:SD:SUV:: for the show's third season in 2013. In November 2013 Gillan appeared on Broadway in a play called "Time to Act", one of the plays included in "The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway" to benefit the non-profit Urban Arts Partnership.

Filmography

Film

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008	Stacked	Ginny Turner
2008	New Town Killers	Girl at bus station
2010	Outcast	Ally
2012	We'll Take Manhattan	Jean Shrimpton
2013	Not Another Happy Ending	Jane Lockheart
2014	Oculus	Kaylie Russell
2014	Guardians of the Galaxy	Nebula
2014	The List	Lily	post-production

Television

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	Rebus	Terry Cotter
2007-2009	The Kevin Bishop Show	Various characters
2008	Coming Up	Anna
2008	Doctor Who	Soothsayer	Series 4: "The Fires of Pompeii"
2008	Harley Street	Holly
2010	The Well	Coll
2010-2012, 2013	Doctor Who	Amy Pond
2010	Doctor Who Prom	Herself	hosted with Matt Smith and Arthur Darvill
2010-2011	Doctor Who Confidential	Herself
2012	In Love With Coward	Laura
2013	NTSF:SD:SUV::	Daisy
2013	A Touch of Cloth	Kerry Newblood	Series 3

Theatre

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Venue
2011	Inadmissible Evidence	Shirley	Donmar Warehouse
2013	Time To Act		Broadway

( 24 Hour Play )

Video games

Video Games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2010	Doctor Who: The Adventure Games: City of the Daleks	Amy Pond
2010	Doctor Who: The Adventure Games: Blood of the Cybermen	Amy Pond
2010	Doctor Who: The Adventure Games: TARDIS	Amy Pond
2010	Doctor Who: The Adventure Games: Shadows of the Vashta Nerada	Amy Pond
2010	Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth	Amy Pond
2010	Doctor Who: Return to Earth	Amy Pond
2011	Doctor Who: The Adventure Games: The Gunpowder Plot	Amy Pond

Awards and honors

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result
2010	TV Quick Award	Best Actress	Doctor Who
2010	Cosmopolitan 'Woman of the year' Awards	Best Actress	Doctor Who
2011	SFX Awards	Best Actress	Doctor Who
2011	TV Choice Awards	Best Actress	Doctor Who
2011	Scream Awards	Best Sci-Fi Actress	Doctor Who
2012	National Television Awards	Best Drama Performance: Female	Doctor Who
2012	Scottish Fashion Awards	Scotland's Fashion Icon	Herself (modelling)