Kathleen Robertson

A player on Beverly Hills 90210 from 1993 until 1997, Canadian actress Kathleen Robertson didn't begin to get recognition for her work in film until she started an on- and offscreen collaboration with director Gregg Araki. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, on July 8, 1973, she began acting at the age of ten and launched her career in Canadian television and film. She had her big-screen debut with a small part in the 1992 bomb thriller Blown Away, and the following year was cast on 90210. Her first collaboration with Araki came in 1997, when he cast her as Lucifer, one of a group of bored, alienated, and very horny Los Angeles teens in Nowhere. Robertson went on to work with him again two years later, starring as the center of a love triangle in Splendor, Araki's salute to screwball romantic comedies. The same year, she appeared in Dog Park, another romantic comedy, directed by fellow Canadian and Kids in the Hall alum Bruce McCulloch. As her onscreen profile heightened, Robertson made news offscreen by announcing her romantic involvement with Araki: their relationship was a shock to many, as the director had been openly gay for years.

Ironically, after sending up the Gidget wave of the 1960s with her role in Psycho Beach Party (2000), Robertson would turn her talents to skewering the beauty pageant world as Miss Tennessee in Sally Field's feature directorial debut, Beautiful (also 2000). Robertson kept the laughs coming in 2001 with her role in the Keenan Ivory Wayans' Scary Movie 2 before heading back into more serious territory with XX/XY (2002). Gemini-nominated that same year for her performance as controversial Canadian murderess Evelyn Dick, Robertson would next make a brief foray into television with the shortlived David E. Kelley sitcom Girl's Club. A string of indie comedies and dramas were quick to follow, and in 2006 Robertson would join an impressive cast that included Ben Affleck, Adrien Brody, and Diane Lane for a look at the last days of television Superman George Reeves in Hollywoodland. - Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide