Most talented actresses

The acclaimed Cornish actress Dame Kristin Scott Thomas was born in Redruth, Cornwall, to Deborah (Hurlbatt) and Lieutenant Commander Simon Scott Thomas. Her father was a pilot for the British Royal Navy and died in a flying accident in 1964. Her stepfather, Lt. Cdr Simon Idiens, was also a pilot, and died six years later under similar circumstances. Her childhood home was Dorset, England. She left at the age of 19 to work as an au pair in Paris. She was married to French doctor François Oliviennes, with whom she had three children; Hannah, Joseph, and George.

Jess Weixler is an American actress. She played Dawn O'Keefe in the comedy-horror film Teeth and Jordan in the comedy The Big Bad Swim. Weixler graduated in 1999 from Atherton High School in Louisville, Kentucky, where she also attended the Walden Theatre Conservatory Program and was in The River City Players acting group and in the Chamber Singers choral group. Subsequently, Weixler, attended Juilliard where she was a classmate of Jessica Chastain. She was a participant during the first year of Bruce Brubaker's InterArts performance project at Juilliard.

In 2007 she was nominated for a Breakthrough Award at the Gotham Awards, and won the Special Jury Prize in Dramatic category For a juicy and jaw-dropping performance at the Sundance Film Festival, both for her role in Teeth. She also appeared in the TV series Law & Order: Criminal Intent. In January 2009, she was named by New York magazine as the "New Indie Queen" of the year and one of the fourteen "New Yorkers you need to know".

In 2013, she joined the cast of CBS series The Good Wife, playing investigator Robyn Burdine. That same year she appeared in The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby as the titular character's sister. The part was written specifically for her.

Weixler next turned her hand to writing, penning the script for Apartment Troubles with her friend, and former roommate Jennifer Prediger. The two co-directed and co-starred in the movie. Apartment Troubles premiered at the 2014 Los Angeles Film Festival. It was picked up by Gravitas Ventures and given theatrical and VOD distribution in March 2015.

On June 9, 2015, Variety announced that Jamie Bamber, Kellan Lutz, Jesse Williams, and Jess Weixler had joined the cast of a thriller film titled Money, directed by Martin Rosete and produced by Atit Shah.

Weixler is married to Hamish Brocklebank, an English businessman and co-founder of Flooved.

Samantha Ferris was born on 2 November 1969 in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She is an actress, known for The Tall Man (2012), Shattered (2007) and Along Came a Spider (2001).

Alexandra Paige Holden is an American actress. Her credits include films such as Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), Sugar & Spice (2001) and The Hot Chick (2002), and recurring roles in the television series Friends, Ally McBeal, Friday Night Lights, Franklin & Bash, and Rizzoli & Isles. She is also known for her roles in the horror films Wishcraft (2002) and Dead End (2003).

Brit Morgan was born on 24 September 1987 in Marlton, New Jersey, USA. She is an actress and director, known for True Blood (2008), Riverdale (2017) and Supergirl (2015).

Ann Dowd was born on 30 January 1956 in Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA. She is an actress, known for Compliance (2012), Hereditary (2018) and Garden State (2004). She has been married to Lawrence Arancio since 7 November 1984. They have three children.

Award-winning stage actress Frances Conroy was introduced and encouraged by her parents to explore the elements of theater. Born Frances Hardman Conroy in Monroe, Georgia, she attended high school in Long Island and experienced classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse as a teenager. The pale, blue-eyed redhead also studied drama at Dickinson College and the Juilliard School (BFA) where she was taught, at the latter college, by theater greats John Houseman and Marian Seldes.

Following potent dramatic roles in such classical productions as "Mother Courage...and Her Children," "King Lear," "All's Well That Ends Well," "Measure for Measure" and "Othello" (as Desdemona) in the late 70s, Frances made her Broadway debut with "The Lady from Dubuque" in 1980. She went on to earn a well-respected name for herself under the Broadway and off-Broadway lights throughout the 1980s in such esteemed plays as "Our Town" (as Mrs. Gibbs), "The Little Foxes (as Birdie) and "In the Summer House." She also appeared with Ms. Seldes in the well-received plays "Ring 'Round the Moon" and "A Bright Room Called Day."

A performer with the The Acting Company, Frances won a Drama Desk Award for "The Secret Rapture" and an Obie for "The Last Yankee." In 2000 she received the Outer Critics Circle Award and a Tony nomination for "The Ride Down Mt. Morgan." Her other Broadway credits include "Ring Round the Moon", "The Little Foxes", "The Rehearsal" (Drama Desk Nominee), "Broken Glass", "In the Summer House" (Drama Desk Nominee) and "The Secret Rapture" (Drama Desk Nominee). Conroy's numerous Off- Broadway plays include "The Dinner Party", "The Skin of Our Teeth", "The Last Yankee" and "Othello" (Drama Desk Nominee).

An actress of subtle power, great depth and astonishing versatility, she has both an aloof serenity and faintly sad/sensitive ambiance that makes her all the more mysterious and intriguing. She came out to California in 1985 at the invitation of director Houseman and appeared in more theater plays, including "Richard III," at San Diego's Globe Theater. She also earned a sprinkling of generally overlooked film and TV parts, including small parts in Woody Allen's Manhattan (1979) (debut), Another Woman (1988) and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989). Showing a distinct flair for the offbeat and neurotic, nothing really pushed the envelope for her on screen quite like her series' turn as the dowdy, emotionally frail undertaker's widow Ruth Fisher in the cult hit TV series Six Feet Under (2001). During the five-season run she won both a Golden Globe and three Screen Actors Guild awards and was nominated four times for an Emmy.

Film roles have been growing more abundant over the years, offering a number of fascinating featured roles, often as eccentric, often disturbing mothers and matrons. Such movies include Billy Bathgate (1991), Scent of a Woman (1992), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), The Crucible (1996), Maid in Manhattan (2002), Die, Mommie, Die! (2003), Catwoman (2004), The Aviator (2004) (as Kate Hepburn's mother), Shopgirl (2005), The Wicker Man (2006), Humboldt County (2008), The Smell of Success (2009), Love Happens (2009), 6 Souls (2010), Waking Madison (2010), Chasing Ghosts (2014), Making the Rules (2014), Welcome to Happiness (2015), rare leading roles in No Pay, Nudity (2016) and Mountain Rest (2018), and as psychotic Joaquin Phoenix's needy mother in the Oscar-winning psychological drama Joker (2019).

Frances has also appeared to fine advantage in several other TV series of late, most notably American Horror Story (2011) in which she earned her fifth and sixth Emmy nomination. She also had stand-out roles in How I Met Your Mother (2005), Casual (2015), Arrested Development (2003) and Dead to Me (2019), in addition to episodic guest spots on "ER," "Desperate Housewives," "Nip/Tuck," "Grey's Anatomy," "Young Sheldon" and "Castle Rock."

In 1992, she married actor/husband Jan Munroe, an L.A. performance artist. After a few Broadway roles with "The Little Foxes" (as Birdie), "Ring Round the Moon" and "The Ride Down Mt. Morgan," Frances returned to the theatre after a six-year absence, in the 2006 production of "Pyrenees" by David Greig at the Kirk Douglas Theater in Los Angeles.

Georgina Blackledge is known for Portals (2019), Eden Lodge (2015) and The Devil Made Me Do It (2012).

Natalie Jackson Mendoza was born in Hong Kong of a Filipino/Spanish Jazz musician father and German/English mother. She had a bohemian upbringing with her six artist siblings living all over the world in Asia, Australia, England and NYC. She was raised as a child in Hong Kong and Australia. She studied Classical Acting at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School UK and Playhouse West LA. Natalie has enjoyed playing many lead roles in theater and had the honor to open the National Theatre's brand new Dorfman Theatre in London with the show Here Lies Love written by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, directed by Alex Timbers, Natalie was cast as the lead role of Imelda Marcos and has received 5-star reviews for her interpretation of the role. Other theater credits include, Arms of Fire by Duncan Sheik and Steven Adler. She was selected from over 3000 women by Bono and Edge to play the original Arachne in Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark on Broadway. Cameron Macintosh originally discovered Natalie and had her star in Les Miserables and Miss Saigon Australia. Other credits include 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee MTC, Ghost, Lord of the Rings, Cats, and many more. After studying classical acting she moved on to do many plays including Romeo and Juliet, Coup D'Etat, 5 Kinds of Silence, Macbeth and many more. She has always worked in film and television from a young age and landed a 3-picture deal with Miramax at 19. She most recently appeared as one of the leads in Americana directed by Philip Noyce by ABC America and the British classic Midsomer Murders as Sasha Fleetwood. She is still best known for Descent 1 & 2 and her lead role of Jackie Clunes in BBC's drama Hotel Babylon. Natalie has moved on to writing and developing for her own film production company as well as recording an album she will be releasing later next year. She had a record deal with Virgin Records as a teenager in a Punk pop band. She won Best Film, Best Writer and Best Director for the 72 hr Film Festival held in LA in 2011. Natalie is also directing her first feature slated for release next year.

Rebecca Whitehurst is known for Lady Business (2012), Don't Move and Return to Sender (2012).

Taraji Penda Henson is an American actress and singer. She studied acting at Howard University and began her Hollywood career in guest roles on several television shows before making her breakthrough in Baby Boy (2001). She played a prostitute in Hustle & Flow (2005), for which she received a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture nomination; and a single mother of a disabled child in David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), for which she received Academy Award, SAG Award and Critics Choice Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress. In 2010, she appeared in the action comedy Date Night, and co-starred in the remake of The Karate Kid.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Simone always knew she was meant to perform. Growing up, Simone spent years playing the violin, singing, and playing sports before she decided to focus on acting. While in her first year as an English major at Howard University, she decided to take a theatre for non-majors course. This class solidified her commitment to acting, and she graduated with a minor in Theatre arts. Following graduation, Simone traveled to Oxford, England, where she participated in the British American Drama Academy taking Master Classes with greats Ben Kingsley, Alan Rickman, and Jane Lapotaire. She then honed her craft performing in regional theatre in Detroit, Michigan before packing it all up and moving to Los Angeles. In 2015, Simone made her debut as "Misty Knight" in "Marvel's Luke Cage". She has since reprised her role as that character in "Marvel's: The Defenders", and Season 2 of both "Marvel's Luke Cage" and "Marvel's Iron Fist". In the spring of 2018, Simone made her New York theatre debut in Dominique Morrisseau's "Paradise Blue" at the Signature Theatre. This fall, Simone stars and is a producer on the highly anticipated Orion pictures film, "Jinn", which will be in theaters in the fall of 2018.

Macarena Gómez Traseira (born 2 February 1978) is a Spanish actress, known for her role of Lola in the current television series La que se avecina, aired on Telecinco. She is also known for her portrayal of mermaid-like priestess Uxía Cambarro in the 2001 horror movie Dagon and for her starring role in the 2008 comedy-horror film Sexykiller. She trained at Rose Bruford College Drama School in London.

By the end of 2013, right after the beginning of the new season of the soap opera La que se avecina, Macarena Gómez starts presenting TV-commercials for the Spanish banking group Bankia.

In June 2013, Macarena Gómez married musician and film director Aldo Comas. In 2016, Macarena Gomez has given a unique interview dedicated to all her Russian - speaking fans. the interview was given to Ukrainian horror writer Denis Bushlatov and was published in the biggest Russian horror magazine Darker.

Katrin Cartlidge began her career doing backstage & front of house work at London's Royal Court Theatre, having appeared with their Young People's Theatre group. She progressed to appearing in play readings and workshops before winning a regular role in Brookside (1982).

She went on to forge an award-winning career in theatre and film.

In the wake of her death, the Katrin Cartlidge Foundation was established to recognize a "new creative voice in cinema" at the Sarajevo Film Festival.

Vinessa Elizabeth Shaw is an American film actress and model. She began her career as a child actor, and had her break-out role in Disney's 1993 Halloween comedy-fantasy film Hocus Pocus. Shaw also appeared in Ladybugs (1992) and L.A. Without a Map (1998). While attending Barnard College, Shaw was cast in a supporting role in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut (1999), after which she decided to pursue acting into her adulthood. Subsequent roles include in the comedy 40 Days and 40 Nights (2002), and the 2006 remake of Wes Craven's horror film The Hills Have Eyes. She was a supporting cast member in the Showtime drama Ray Donovan, and stars as Dr. Jane Mathis in the 2017 horror thriller Clinical.

Jaimi Paige is known for Control (2019), An Invitation to Tea (2020) and Desolation (2017).

Fiona Dourif is an American actress and producer. She began her career as a segment producer for documentaries on The History Channel and TLC. Her first acting role was HBO's Deadwood. She went on to appear in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, Gus Van Sant's When We Rise, and has portrayed Nice Pierce in the last two installments of the Child's Play franchise. She went to college in Ireland and lives in Los Angeles.

Lee Eddy is an actor, writer, voice actor, and comedienne based in Austin, TX. Recent work includes Mo Amer's A24/Netflix comedy series MO (2024), Richard Linklater's rotoscoped feature Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood (2022), FreeForm's television series Cruel Summer (2021), Amazon's young adult series Panic (2021), and Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon (2023). Upcoming work includes Macon Blair's Toxic Avenger and her directorial debut with her original award-winning short film You're Invited to Tuscan's 5th Birthday Party!

Marianne Raigipcien Jean-Baptiste is an English actress. She is known for her role in the comedy-drama Secrets & Lies (1996), for which she received acclaim and earned nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and the Golden Globe and BAFTA Award in the same category. Baptiste is also known for her role as Vivian Johnson on the television series Without a Trace (2002) from 2002 to 2009, and has since starred in such television shows as Blindspot (2015) (2015-2016) and Homecoming (2018) (in 2018).

Ava Preston ( born June 2, 2004) is a Canadian actor/voice actor. An accomplished young performer even before becoming a teenager, Ava first broke into the business landing the role of Caroline Kennedy in the mini-series, The Kennedys, at the age of six. There has been no stopping her since as this led her to several guest-starring roles in acclaimed series such as Odd Squad, Reign, and in the Netflix series, Grand Army. Garnering stellar reviews for her first leading role in the feature, Ill Take Your Dead, Ava has easily transitioned into leading role territory. She attends a prestigious performing arts high school and in her downtime enjoys travel, outdoor activities and spending time with her family and two Boston terrier pups.

Katharine Isabelle was born Katharine Isobel Murray in Vancouver, British Columbia to Graeme Murray, an art director and production designer who has won two Emmy Awards for his special effects work on the television series The X-Files (1993) and Gail Murray, an amateur Vancouver writer and producer. Isabelle is the sister of journalist and former child actor Joshua Murray.

Breaking into acting in 1989 with parts in the films Cousins (1989), Cold Front (1989) and The Madonna (1989) episode of MacGyver (1985), Isabelle quickly proved herself as a skilled actress.

In 1992, she played the role of Erica Sanderson in Knight Moves (1992). American audiences took notice of her as Lindsay Clark in the teen thriller Disturbing Behavior (1998).

In 2000, Isabelle landed the lead role in the cult-favorite Ginger Snaps (2000), where her stand-out performance will leave a mark in the minds of viewers.

Continuing her busy career, she portrayed Tia in Bones (2001), Paige Fleming in Turning Paige (2001) and Tanya Francke in Insomnia (2002), opposite Al Pacino.

Throughout the 2000s, Isabelle appeared in several horror and slasher films, including Carrie (2002), Spooky House (2001), Freddy vs. Jason (2003), opposite Robert Englund as well as Ginger Snaps II: Unleashed (2004) and Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004).

She was also in varied independent films, among which Falling Angels (2003), On the Corner (2003), The Last Casino (2004), Everything's Gone Green (2006), the short film Favourite People List (2009), and Frankie & Alice (2010).

Isabelle has guest-starred in numerous popular television series throughout her career, some notable ones being The X-Files (1993), Da Vinci's Inquest (1998), Smallville (2001) and Supernatural (2005).

In 2008, she received the Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series for her role as Norma Carlyle in the praised TV adaptation The Englishman's Boy (2008).

In 2012, Isabelle starred in the controversial horror film American Mary (2012) which earned her special mention at the Austin Fantastic Fest in addition to a Festival Trophy Award for Best Actress, a Special Award for Best Actress, a Fright Meter Award for Best Actress and a Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Leading Actress.

Followed appearances in 13 Eerie (2013), Torment (2013) and Lawrence & Holloman (2013) for which she obtained a Leo Award nomination for Best Supporting Performance by a Female in a Motion Picture.

She also caught the eye of many with her magnetic portrayal of Margot Verger in the second and third seasons of the critically acclaimed NBC TV series Hannibal (2013).

In 2014, she reunited with American Mary (2012) creators Jen Soska and Sylvia Soska in See No Evil 2 (2014).

In 2015, Isabelle starred in the thriller film 88 (2015) and the horror film The Girl in the Photographs (2015). That year, she could also be seen in the indie film How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town (2015), alongside Jewel Staite, Lauren Lee Smith and Ennis Esmer.

Natalie Dormer born February 11, 1982 is an English actress. She is best known for her roles as Anne Boleyn on the Showtime series The Tudors (2007-10), as Margaery Tyrell on the HBO series Game of Thrones (2012-14), Irene Adler on the CBS series Elementary (2013-15), and as Cressida in the science-fiction adventure films The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014) and Part 2 (2015). She has been nominated for Best Performance at the Gemini Awards for her work in The Tudors. She has also been nominated for a Screen Actor's Guild Award for her performance in Game of Thrones.

Helena Bereen is known for Hunger (2008), The Devil's Doorway (2018) and Don't Leave Home (2018).

From the age of five, Linda Blair had to get used to the spotlight, first as a child model and then as an actress, when out of 600 applicants she was picked for the role of Regan, the possessed child, in The Exorcist (1973). Linda quickly rose to international fame, won the Golden Globe, and seemed to be set to take the Academy Award for that role, but when it leaked how some parts of the role were not performed by her (the demonic voice was dubbed by Mercedes McCambridge, and eight seconds of a stunt dummy were used) that dream broke, and with that disappointment probably came the first blow to what looked like the beginning of an A-list career.

Over the next few years she had no trouble securing lead roles in a number of pictures, including the highly successful television films Born Innocent (1974) (the #1 TV movie of that year) and Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic (1975), as well as the Exorcist sequel Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977). However, when she was peer pressured into buying cocaine at the age of 18, it led to an arrest and subsequent sentencing to three years probation. The much-publicized drug bust caused Linda to be blacklisted in Hollywood, and her career was soon reduced to B-movies and occasional TV guest appearances only.

Although her career never returned to its former glory, Linda proved to be a good sport about embracing the change, and out of the '80s emerged lead roles in two cult classics: the women-in-prison film Chained Heat (1983) and the femme fatale vigilante action film Savage Streets (1984). She continued acting in numerous films throughout the '80s and '90s, including the Exorcist spoof Repossessed (1990). In 1997, she also took to the Broadway stage and starred as "Rizzo" in the revival of "Grease." She received widespread mainstream attention again in the 2000's with the theatrical re-release of the Exorcist, followed by a hosting job on the hit Fox Family TV series Scariest Places on Earth (2000), which ran for six years and followed Linda as she visited notorious "haunted" locations around the world.

Linda was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Elinore, a real estate agent, and James, an executive headhunter. She has a brother, Jimmy, and a sister, Debbie. Linda has been a Hollywood icon for over 40 years, but it is her first love of animals that has ultimately taken center stage in her life. She now runs the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation, a non-profit 501C3 tax deductible organization dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating abused, neglected, and abandoned animals from the harsh streets of the Los Angeles area, as well as from the overcrowded and overwhelmed city and county animal shelters. She works and lives on the 2-acre rescue sanctuary full-time in California, which was featured on The Today Show in a segment titled "From Devil to Angel." Of course, she also makes frequent appearances at horror fan conventions to celebrate the legacy of The Exorcist (1973) .

Alexis Kendra graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Hollywood. Some roles include "Susie Friend" in Wendy Wasserstein's Uncommon Women and Others, "Mandy", in Patricia Burke Brogan's Eclipsed, and "Anne" in James Sherman's Magic Time. On graduating from AADA, she joined the midsummer Shakespeare program at Oxford, accredited by the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and run in association with UCLA and Yale School of Drama where she joined productions of Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, and The Taming of the Shrew. Some other theatre credits include Michael Weller's Moonchildren, and Tennessee William's Summer and Smoke. Alexis has also appeared in several notable TV shows and feature films including Criminal Minds and Days of Our Lives. One recent feature titled Goddess of Love is one she co- wrote, produced and starred in. This film has began its festival run with the World Premiere at Film4 Frightfest and is now available worldwide. Alexis recently wrote and produced the film Viper starring Missi Pyle and Omar J. Dorsey. Her latest film The Cleaning Lady is one she wrote, produced and played the burn-victim antagonist in.