Mia Kirshner aka Mia biography

Real biography: Mia Kirshner was raised by her mother, Etti, an English teacher, and her father, Sheldon, a journalist for The Canadian Jewish News. She once dreamt of working alongside her father, but fell in love with acting after watching "Gone with the Wind." After studying Russian literature and film at McGill University in Montreal, she pursued acting full time.

Mia began her career with small parts on various television shows, including the Nickelodeon show "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" In 1993, she filmed Denys Arcand's movie "Love and Human Remains" in which she portrayed a dominatrix. The film earned her a Genie nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role and would steer her career towards the dark and erotic.

Her next role was playing a stripper in Atom Egoyan's "Exotica," followed by the part of Sarah, a tattoo artist with a penchant for the occult in "The Crow: City of Angels". In 2001, she began playing Mandy, a hijacker on "24". That same year, she took part in "Not Another Teen Movie." In that film, she shared a makeout scene with a grandma and was nominated for an MTV award for best kiss.

More recently, Mia portrayed Elizabeth Short, an actress who was brutally murdered in 1947 in "The Black Dahlia" and is a regular castmember on "The L Word".