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With an exotically beautiful appearance attributable to her Canadian mother and Uzbekistani-Jewish father, brunette actress Liane Balaban was born in North York, Ontario, in 1980, and grew up in nearby Willowdale, where her parents worked as a medical secretary and a real estate agent. Balaban never seriously intended to become an actress, but a chance encounter with Canuck producer Julia Sereny (April One) -- who reportedly lived in the same neighborhood as her aunt and uncle and became acquainted with the young woman via holiday dinners -- changed all that. Sereny invited Balaban to audition for the low-budget drama The New Waterford Girl (1999), to be directed by Allan Moyle (Pump up the Volume). She not only landed the lead role of doe-eyed teenager Agnes-Marie "Moonie" Pottie in that film, but received a Special Jury Congratulation at the Toronto Film Festival and snagged a nomination at the annual Canadian Comedy Awards. Those successes set the young woman on the path to stardom, and though she spent her...
With an exotically beautiful appearance attributable to her Canadian mother and Uzbekistani-Jewish father, brunette actress Liane Balaban was born in North York, Ontario, in 1980, and grew up in nearby Willowdale, where her parents worked as a medical secretary and a real estate agent. Balaban never seriously intended to become an actress, but a chance encounter with Canuck producer Julia Sereny (April One) -- who reportedly lived in the same neighborhood as her aunt and uncle and became acquainted with the young woman via holiday dinners -- changed all that. Sereny invited Balaban to audition for the low-budget drama The New Waterford Girl (1999), to be directed by Allan Moyle (Pump up the Volume). She not only landed the lead role of doe-eyed teenager Agnes-Marie "Moonie" Pottie in that film, but received a Special Jury Congratulation at the Toronto Film Festival and snagged a nomination at the annual Canadian Comedy Awards. Those successes set the young woman on the path to stardom, and though she spent her first several years as a thespian in mostly Canadian efforts -- such as the 2001 feature After the Harvest and the 2006 miniseries Above and Beyond -- she eventually began to branch out into Hollywood roles, commencing in 2008 with a turn as the bride-to-be daughter of Dustin Hoffman in the low-key romantic drama Last Chance Harvey (2008) and a small supporting turn in the Ryan Reynolds/Isla Fisher romantic comedy Definitely, Maybe (2008). ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
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