Karen Sheila Gillan (born 28 November 1987) is a Scottish actress and director. She is known for the role of Amy Pond, companion to the Eleventh Doctor, in the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who (2010–13). In film, she has starred as Jane Lockhart in Not Another Happy Ending (2013), Kaylie Russell in the horror film Oculus (2013), and Nebula in the Marvel film Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and its sequel Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017). She took part in the upcoming films Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, The Circle (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and its untitled sequel (2019). In 2017, she directed her first feature film The Party's Just Beginning. 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. In February 2014, Gillan was cast as the lead in Selfie, an American single-camera sitcom for ABC, which is produced by Warner Bros. Television and was greenlit for the 2014–15 US television season. Gillan played a social media-obsessed socialite named Eliza Dooley, a modern-day take on the main character from My Fair Lady, Eliza Doolittle. This is Gillan's first time starring in the lead role of an American television series.
Gillan was born and raised in Inverness in the Scottish highlands, the only child of Marie (née Paterson) and Raymond Gillan, a singer and recording artist. When she turned 16, Gillan moved to Edinburgh and completed an HNC Acting and Performance course at Telford College. She moved to London at age 18 to study at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts drama school, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in acting. On 30 August 2016, it was announced that Gillan was cast in the lead female role in the Jumanji sequel. Gillan starred alongside Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Nick Jonas. She has stated that, though her family is Catholic, she was never baptised and is not religious, instead agreeing with the statement that, "we're just minuscule dots in the vast cosmic emptiness of the universe". During a 2012 interview on The Late Late Show, she stated that she had relocated to the US to star in the film Oculus and confirmed that she now lives in Los Angeles, California. Gillan joined the regular cast of Adult Swim's NTSF:SD:SUV:: for the show's third season in 2013.
Karen Gillan
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