Karen Gillan
Encyclopedia
Karen Sheila Gillan is a Scottish actress and former model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....

 who is best known for her current portrayal of Amy Pond
Amy Pond
Amelia Jessica 'Amy' Pond is a fictional character portrayed by Karen Gillan in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...

 in the British science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

.

Early life

Gillan was born and brought up in Inverness
Inverness
Inverness is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for the Highland council area, and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands of Scotland...

, Scotland. Her father, Raymond John Gillan, a Day Centre Manager, and mother, Marie Gillan née Paterson, live in Kinmylies
Kinmylies
Kinmylies is an area in the west end of the city of Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. The area sits between the side of the hill Creag Phadraig ; and the Caledonian Canal. The local football team was Caledonian F.C...

. She learned to play the piano when she was seven. She has no brothers or sisters. At a young age, she developed a love for acting, joining several local youth theatre groups and taking part in a wide range of productions at her school, Charleston Academy. When she was sixteen, Gillan decided to pursue her interest in acting, studying at Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

's Telford College
Edinburgh's Telford College
Edinburgh's Telford College, named after Thomas Telford, the great Scottish civil engineer, was established in 1968. The College is a corporate institution governed by a Board of Management whose members are representative of key industrial and commercial sectors, professional organisations and...

. Later, she secured a place at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts drama school
Drama school
A drama school or theatre school is an undergraduate and/or graduate school or department at a college or university; or a free-standing institution ; which specialises in the pre-professional training in drama and theatre arts, such as acting, design and technical theatre, arts administration, and...

 in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 on the BA (Hons) Acting degree course. Her cousin Caitlin Blackwood portrayed the young Amy Pond in three episodes of Doctor Who. Gillan moved to London when she was 18 to study at drama school.

Career

Modelling

Before Gillan appeared on television, she was working in a London pub at 18 after she dropped out of Italia Conti for a TV show - and was scouted by a modelling agency.
Gillan worked as a model in 2007's London Fashion Week for designer Allegra Hicks' autumn/winter catwalk show and the launch party of Nicola Roberts
Nicola Roberts
Nicola Maria Roberts is a British recording artist and entrepreneur. In 2002 Roberts auditioned for the reality televisions series and competition Popstars The Rivals which saw her finish in the final line-up of a girl group named Girls Aloud...

' Dainty Doll Make-Up Range. This was shown in Roberts' episode of the documentary, The Passions of Girls Aloud which premiered on the 4 April 2008. Gillan has stated she wouldn't give up her acting career to return back to modelling. She enjoyed modelling but acting was always her main interest and ambition.

Acting

Gillan's early television acting career included guest appearances on several drama series, with her first ongoing role being a two-year stint as a member of the ensemble cast of the sketch comedy series The Kevin Bishop Show
The Kevin Bishop Show
The Kevin Bishop Show is a sketch comedy written by and starring English comedian Kevin Bishop, part of the Star Stories team. The show was commissioned by Channel 4 for a six part series starting 25 July 2008 at 10pm...

 in which she played multiple characters, as well as celebrities such as Katy Perry
Katy Perry
Katy Perry is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Born in Santa Barbara, California, and raised by Christian pastor parents, Perry grew up listening to only gospel music and sang in her local church as a child. After earning a GED during her first year of high school, she began to pursue a...

 and Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie is an American actress. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011. Jolie is noted for promoting humanitarian causes as a Goodwill Ambassador for the...

. She appeared in Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

's 'Stacked'; she had the role of Ginny. Gillan also appeared on TV in a leading role in a horror project entitled The Well, which was broadcast as a series of episodic short films on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...

, and then later also as a web series on BBC.co.uk. Part of the BBC's multimedia "switch" programming, the short episodes interconnect with online games that further explore the environments presented in the series.

She was cast for the role of the Eleventh Doctor
Eleventh Doctor
The Eleventh Doctor is the eleventh incarnation of the protagonist of the BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. Matt Smith plays this incarnation, replacing David Tennant's Tenth Doctor in the 2010 episode "The End of Time, Part Two"...

'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
The Eleventh Hour (Doctor Who)
"The Eleventh Hour" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD on 3 April 2010....

", which first aired on 3 April 2010. She was confirmed in Issue 420 of the Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...

 to be appearing in the 2011 series. Gillan had appeared in Doctor Who once before in the 2008 episode "The Fires of Pompeii
The Fires of Pompeii
"The Fires of Pompeii" is the second episode of the fourth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 12 April 2008....

" in the role of a Soothsayer.

Gillan made her first theatre appearance playing the role of Shirley in John Osborne
John Osborne
John James Osborne was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor and critic of the Establishment. The success of his 1956 play Look Back in Anger transformed English theatre....

's play Inadmissible Evidence
Inadmissible Evidence
Inadmissible Evidence is a play written by John Osborne in November 1964. It was also filmed in 1968.The protagonist of the play is William Maitland, a middle-aged English solicitor who has come to hate his entire life. Much of the play consists of lengthy monologues in which Maitland tells the...

 along with Douglas Hodge
Douglas Hodge
Douglas Hodge is an English actor, director, and musician who trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.Hodge is a council member of the National Youth Theatre for whom, in 1989, he co-wrote Pacha Mama's Blessing about the Amazon rain forests staged at the Almeida...

. The play debuted at the Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse is a small not-for-profit theatre in the Covent Garden area of London, with a capacity of 251.-About:Under the artistic leadership of Michael Grandage, the theatre has presented some of London’s most memorable award-winning theatrical experiences, as well as garnered critical...

 on October 16th 2011.

Gillan will play model and actress Jean Shrimpton
Jean Shrimpton
Jean Rosemary Shrimpton is an English model and actress. She was an icon of Swinging London and is considered to be one of the world's first supermodels....

 in We'll Take Manhattan which will air in January 2012. She has also been cast as Brittney in a re-working of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet called Romeo & Brittney penned by David Baddiel
David Baddiel
David Lionel Baddiel is an English comedian, novelist and television presenter.-Early life:Baddiel was born in New York, and moved to England when he was four months old. His father, Colin Brian Baddiel, was a Welsh research chemist with Unilever before being made redundant in the 1980s, after...

.

In August 2011, it was announced Gillan will star in an indie comedy called Not Another Happy Ending along with Emun Elliott
Emun Elliott
Emun Elliott is a Scottish actor, known for portraying Dr Christian King in Paradox.-Background:Brought up in Portobello, Edinburgh, Elliott attended George Heriot's School before beginning a degree in English Literature and French at the University of Aberdeen...

. Filming will take place at the end of 2011 into early 2012.

During an interview at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con, Gillan revealed she will be returning to Doctor Who for its seventh series.

Filmography

Television
Year Title Format Role Notes
2006 Rebus
Rebus (TV series)
Rebus is the title of the detective drama based on the Inspector Rebus novels by the Scottish author Ian Rankin set in and around Edinburgh produced by STV Productions for the ITV Network....

 
Detective drama series Terry Cotter
2007–2009 The Kevin Bishop Show
The Kevin Bishop Show
The Kevin Bishop Show is a sketch comedy written by and starring English comedian Kevin Bishop, part of the Star Stories team. The show was commissioned by Channel 4 for a six part series starting 25 July 2008 at 10pm...

 
Sketch show series Various
2008 Coming Up  Drama Anna
2008 Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

 - "The Fires of Pompeii
The Fires of Pompeii
"The Fires of Pompeii" is the second episode of the fourth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 12 April 2008....

"
Science fiction series Soothsayer
2008 Harley Street
Harley Street (TV series)
Harley Street is a British television medical drama shown on ITV in 2008.The series was made by Carnival Films and was set in Harley Street, London...

 
Medical drama series Holly
2010 The Well (TV Series) Horror series Coll Aired on BBC 2, then later a web series on the BBC website
2010–present Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

Science fiction series Amy Pond
Amy Pond
Amelia Jessica 'Amy' Pond is a fictional character portrayed by Karen Gillan in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...

 
Series 5 (2010), Series 6 (2011) & Series 7 (2012)


Feature films
Year Title Format Role
2008 Stacked (TV film) ' Drama film-for TV Ginny Turner
2008 New Town Killers
New Town Killers
New Town Killers is a United Kingdom drama film written and directed by Richard Jobson, starring James Anthony Pearson and Dougray Scott. New Town Killers follows two business men, portrayed by Dougray Scott and Alastair Mackenzie, who play macabre cat and mouse games with people from the fringes...

 
Drama Girl at Bus Station
2010 Outcast  Horror film Ally
2011 We'll Take Manhattan  Drama/Film Jean Shrimpton
Jean Shrimpton
Jean Rosemary Shrimpton is an English model and actress. She was an icon of Swinging London and is considered to be one of the world's first supermodels....

2011 Not Another Happy Ending  Indie comedy Novelist


Theatre
Year Title Format Role Theatre Notes
2011 Inadmissible Evidence
Inadmissible Evidence
Inadmissible Evidence is a play written by John Osborne in November 1964. It was also filmed in 1968.The protagonist of the play is William Maitland, a middle-aged English solicitor who has come to hate his entire life. Much of the play consists of lengthy monologues in which Maitland tells the...

 
Play Shirley Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse is a small not-for-profit theatre in the Covent Garden area of London, with a capacity of 251.-About:Under the artistic leadership of Michael Grandage, the theatre has presented some of London’s most memorable award-winning theatrical experiences, as well as garnered critical...

, London
Gillan's first theatre appearance


Video games
Year Title Format Role
2010 Doctor Who: The Adventure Games
Doctor Who: The Adventure Games
Doctor Who: The Adventure Games is a series of episodic third-person adventure games, based on the BBC TV series Doctor Who and developed by Sumo Digital. Charles Cecil served as executive producer and worked with Sean Millard and Will Tarratt on the design...

: City of the Daleks 
Episodic video game Amy Pond (voice and likeness)
2010 Doctor Who: The Adventure Games: Blood of the Cybermen  Episodic video game Amy Pond (voice and likeness)
2010 Doctor Who: The Adventure Games: TARDIS  Episodic video game Amy Pond (voice and likeness)
2010 Doctor Who: The Adventure Games: Shadows of the Vashta Nerada  Episodic video game Amy Pond (voice and likeness)
2011 Doctor Who: The Adventure Games: The Gunpowder Plot  Episodic video game Amy Pond (voice and likeness)
2010 Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth
Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth
Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth is a video game for the Nintendo DS based on the BBC TV series Doctor Who.The game is written by Doctor Who writer Oli Smith and features Matt Smith and Karen Gillan providing voices for their characters....

 
Video game for Nintendo DS Amy Pond (voice and likeness)
2010 Doctor Who: Return to Earth
Doctor Who: Return to Earth
The game was panned by critics. Official Nintendo Magazine, scoring only 19% and branded 'an insult to Doctor Who fans'.However it ranked at 11 on the UK Wii sales charts for the week....

 
Video game for Nintendo Wii Amy Pond (voice and likeness)
2010 Doctor Who: The Mazes of Time
Doctor Who: The Mazes of Time
Doctor Who: The Mazes of Time is a video game for the Apple IOS platform based on the BBC TV series Doctor Who.It is the first official Doctor Who game to be released through the App Store and was released on the Android platform in August 2011....

 
Video game for iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad Amy Pond (Likeness)

Awards

List of awards and award nominations
Year Award Category Nominated work Result
2010 TV Quick Award Best Actress Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

2010 Cosmopolitan 'Woman of the year' Awards Best Actress Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

2011 SFX Awards Best Actress Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

2011 TV Choice Awards Best Actress Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

2011 Scream Awards
Scream Awards
The Scream Awards is an award show dedicated to the horror, sci-fi, and fantasy genres of feature films. Originally only having Scream Queen and Heroic Performance awards for actors, the personnel awards have expanded to include actors and actresses of all three recognized genres. In addition,...

Best Sci-Fi Actress Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...


External links

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