Biography

Karin Collison

Jump to

Overview

Height
5′ 7″ (1.70 m)

Biography

Raised in England by a single mother, Karin delaPeña Collison was a child actress. She relocated to the United States and explored other careers but ultimately realized that showbiz was her heart. She returned to acting and more recently learned screenwriting under the tutelage of Pilar Alessandra. She treasures her weekly writing group and has won at prestigious screenwriting festivals and competitions including an Academy Nicholl Fellowship. Karin likes to write light-hearted dramas with strong female leads and delights in the good and not-so-good attributes of her characters, which are often inspired by some of her own dubious life choices. She lives and works in NY & LA.
- IMDb mini biography by: Public Relations

Family

Spouse

Self-verified on IMDbPro

Gender / Gender identity
Female

Trademarks

Legs

Trivia

Karin has had seven professional names. When she started acting as a child in the UK, her mother registered her with Actors Equity as Karin Allan, feeling that De la Peña (Karin's maiden name) would be too confusing. When Karin graduated from college, she took her brother's first name and worked as Karin Dominic until moving to the US. Throughout her childhood, people had mispronounced Karin's first name, so when she became a member of the Screen Actors Guild, she decided to change her first name too. She became Elizabeth E. Moore for her first job, but that name was already taken, so she changed it to Elizabeth Dartmoor. After a few years she was tired of people shortening her name to Liz and decided to educate people on how to pronounce Karin, but registered with her married name as Karin Mary Shea. On her return to acting after a long hiatus, she decided to use her maiden name, but to spell it the Portuguese way since that was her heritage. She worked as Karin de la Penha for several years until signing with a new agent who asked her to change her name to something more Anglo, given her current very Anglo look. Hence, Karin Collison (also a family name).
Has often been compared to Helen Mirren throughout her career.
Karin has a history of being featured in opening scenes, on TV and film. The first five minutes of Time After Time start and end with no one but Karin on camera soliciting a would-be john in Victorian London. The scene culminates with Jack The Ripper gutting her in a back alley. Karin has the first line in The Comedian, in a scene opposite Robert De Niro, and the first scene of The Champ (directed by Franco Zeffirelli) was between her and Jon Voight. That scene ended up on the cutting room floor, but the residuals made a nice consolation prize. She was featured in the opening scene of The Great Houdini and hers was the opening scene in an episode of the television series Lethal Weapon.
Karin's actor 'comps' range from Emma Thompson to Holland Taylor with Sharon Stone's balls, Joanna Lumley's bawdiness with a healthy dose of Edie Falco's darkness.