Biography

Deborah Kara Unger

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Deborah Kara Unger was the first Canadian accepted into the prestigious Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art. She made her feature film debut in Blood Oath (1990), followed by roles in Christopher Crowe's Whispers in the Dark (1992), Till There Was You (1991), Highlander: The Final Dimension (1994), and the controversial Crash (1996). She acted in the award-winning television drama Bangkok Hilton (1989) with Nicole Kidman and Denholm Elliott, as well as HBO's Hotel Room (1993), directed by James Signorelli, and Showtime's ensemble medical drama State of Emergency (1994).
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous

She fractured a bone in her foot and jumped into a dumpster infested with real rats on the set of The Game (1997).
Her mother is a nuclear scientist and her father is a gynecologist.
Studied philosophy and economics at the University of Victoria before becoming the first Canadian to be accepted into the highly-regarded Australian National Institute of Art, graduating in 1988.
When not working, she divides her time between Vancouver and Los Angeles.
She played the mother in Green Day's American Idiot official music video.

I actually love auditioning because I usually don't get the part. I've tested with Daniel Day-Lewis, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Tom Cruise. So I've gotten to that point, and I understand when I don't get it. There are a lot of very talented people out there.
I'm not investigated as much as I get to investigate other people.
About her role in Crash (1996): Shifted me as an individual? I was almost more inspired as an individual than as an actor.
When I graduated from high school, I had artistic and academic scholarships, and I was trying to figure out what to do. I decided to audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Juillard and the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Sydney, Australia. As it happened, the National Institute's were the first auditions because their seasons are the opposite of ours. I phoned them and said, 'What is required?' and I remember this very, very taciturn secretary said, 'Well, darling, basically you gotta be able to breathe and speak and be believable.' And I thought to myself, Faaaantastic! I happened to get in, and there's about 3,000 people who audition and they accept between 12 and 15 and I was their first Canadian. So I decided to not look a gift horse in the mouth.

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