Sarah Polley

Actress-writer-director Sarah Polley's diverse career has taken her from child star in her native Canada to an acclaimed filmmaker and performer, whose refusal to conform to Hollywood conventions allowed her a creative freedom enjoyed by few of her contemporaries. Polley began acting at an early age, but a traumatic experience under director Terry Gilliam in "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" (1988), a growing disillusionment with the industry, and a series of personal upheavals led a teenage Polley to reconsider her chosen profession during the early 1990s. She returned to deliver an emotionally devastating performance in Atom Egoyan's heartrending drama "The Sweet Hereafter" (1997) and later took part in genre fare such as Zack Snyder's caffeinated zombie remake, "Dawn of the Dead" (2005). A growing interest in filmmaking eventually yielded Polley's debut as a writer-director, "Away from Her" (2006), an affecting drama that garnered widespread critical acclaim. Although she still acted in projects such as the sci-fi horror story "Splice" (2009), Polley continued to grow as a writer-director with her second feature "Take This Waltz" (2011), starring Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen, and "Stories We Tell" (2012), an inventive documentary about her own childhood. Immeasurably talented and fiercely independent, Polley bravely continued to pursue her own artistic inclinations as an actor and filmmaker.