Alison Pill Biography

Birth Name :Alison Courtney Pill

Nickname :Ali, Al

Date of Birth :27 November 1985, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Height : 5' 6½" (1.69 m)

Occupation : Actress, voice performer

A native of Toronto, Ontario, Alison Pill decided she wanted to be an actor at the age of 10. As a member of the Toronto Children's Chorus, she was chosen to narrate one of their performances. "Through that I got a job doing books on tape for children. So I said, 'Well, now I’m a professional, getting like 20 bucks a pop,'" she told Tribute Publishing. Her mother tried to discourage Alison by getting her a job as a background performer on the series Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. The tactic failed, as Alison didn't mind the long hours of waiting for the few minutes that she was able to get in front of the camera. "I thought I was incredible as the girl who was pointing out the vase in this museum scene," Pill recalled.

She then got an agent, and the chubby-cheeked little girl found she fit into a wide variety of roles. By the time she was 11, she'd played a guest role on an episode of the kids' series The New Ghostwriter Mysteries. At 12, she landed roles in two TV movies and a mini-series, a guest appearance on the TV series PSI Factor and voiced a character on an animated series. After roles in two more television movies, she landed her first feature film—a small budget Canadian movie called The Life Before This (1999), followed by the role of Jacob’s older sister Marfa in Jacob Two Two Meets the Hooded Fang (1999). Pill played parts in four more TV movies before the age of fourteen.

After she stood by her mother (Sissy Spacek) in "Midwives" (Lifetime, 2001), and then rebelled against her dying mother in her Young Artist Award-nominated performance "What Girl's Learn" (Showtime, 2001), Pill headed to New York City after landing a role as Katie Holmes' younger, tightly-strung sister in Peter Hedges' critically praised "Pieces of April" (2003). She next starred as the plain-Jane foil to Lindsay Lohan's big screen antics in the 'tween hit, "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" (2004), followed by a role as the Amish girl accused of murdering her newborn in the television movie, "Plain Truth" (Lifetime, 2004). On stage, Pill shared the 2004 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble for her work in Neil LaBute's "The Distance from Here." Back on TV, she challenged her morally flawed priest father (Aidan Quinn) in the drama series that was hotly disputed by religious conservatives, "The Book of Daniel" (NBC, 2006). She was also Tony Award-nominated that same year for her Broadway debut as a teen terrorist in Martin McDonagh's black comedy "The Lieutenant of Inishmore." Reunited with Peter Hedges again, she starred in the box office disappointment "Dan in Real Life" (2007) in which she played the eldest, tolerant daughter to Steve Carell, before returning to the stage where she was again nominated for Outer Critics Circle and Drama League awards in 2007 for her Lolita-style affair opposite Jeff Daniels in "Blackbird," as well as highly praised for her tour-de-force alongside F. Murray Abraham in "Mauritius."

In the Oscar-winning feature drama "Milk" (2008), Pill portrayed Harvey Milk's campaign manager, Anne Kronenberg, who infiltrates the boy's club as the lone lesbian and successfully orchestrates Milk's election. Pill shared in the kudos with her castmates as a 2009 SAG nominee for Outstanding Cast, and also was one of the winners of the Critic's Choice Award for Best Acting Ensemble by the Broadcast Film Critics. Pill went on to wow viewers of the gritty HBO series "In Treatment" (2008- ), the heavily awarded program about a psychotherapist and his patients, in which the actress played a student diagnosed with lymphoma, who views her illness as a disgraceful secret. Next on the docket, Pill portrayed Maud, the daughter and heir of King Henry I of England - as well as the first, albeit brief, female ruler of the kingdom - in the miniseries about the building of a cathedral in Kingsbridge, England, "The Pillars of the Earth" (Starz, 2010). Making a decidedly 180 degree turn into hip comedy territory, Pill starred alongside actors Michael Cera and Anna Kendrick in the comedy-fantasy-adventure "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" (2010). She also found time to return to Broadway in 2010, assuming the role of Annie Sullivan in "The Miracle Worker," opposite Abigail Breslin as Helen Keller.