Toronto, ON (November 15, 2017) — Canadian performers will honour British Columbia-born actor Molly Parker with the 2018 ACTRA National Award of Excellence on Saturday, January 27, 2018, at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. The award recognizes an ACTRA member’s career achievements, and contribution to their fellow performers and Canada’s entertainment industry.
“Molly Parker is a deeply-gifted actor known for her challenging and diverse roles,” said ACTRA National President David Sparrow. “From her roles on hit TV shows to her work on indie features and award-winning films, Molly’s work is passionate and detailed.”
“I am honoured to receive this award from ACTRA in recognition of my work as a performer and member of our industry,” said Ms. Parker. “I cannot imagine doing this work without the support of our union. Our collective agreements make it possible to set boundaries in what is a gooey business, and I am particularly grateful for the work ACTRA does to protect our child actors. ACTRA empowers actors!”
Molly Parker is an award-winning actor known for her many roles in both TV and film. South of the border, she appeared as House Majority Whip Jackie Sharp in the Netflix series House of Cards, for which she received an Outstanding Guest Actress Emmy nomination in 2016, and as Alma Garrett in the HBO series Deadwood. Parker’s acting talents have been recognized in Canada and the U.S. with multiple award wins and nominations for her performances: the Canadian indie feature Kissed (1997 Best Lead Actress Genie Award); The Center of the World (2001 Best Female Lead Independent Spirit Award nomination); the Bruce Sweeny-directed Last Wedding (2002 Best Supporting Actress Genie Award); Men with Brooms (2003 Best Lead Actress Genie Award nomination); Marion Bridge (2004 Best Supporting Actress Genie Award nomination); Who Loves the Sun (2007 Best Female Performance Beverly Hills Film Festival win and Best Lead Actress Genie Award nomination); and, most recently, Weirdos (2017 Best Supporting Actress Canadian Screen Award).
Other television credits include: Swingtown (CBS); The Firm (NBC); Dexter (Showtime); Six Feet Under (HBO); and Twitch City (CBC). Feature credits include: Bruce Macdonald’s Trigger; Jeremy Podeswa’s The Five Senses; Sturla Gunnarson’s Rare Birds; Rodrigo Garcia’s Nine Lives; Ewan McGregor’s American Pastoral; and Istvan Szabo’s Sunshine. Molly’s most recent work includes David E. Kelley’s series Goliath; the feature, based on Stephen King’s 2010 novella of the same name, 1922; and the remake of science fiction series Lost in Space.
This year, Molly made her writer/director debut with the short film Bird, starring Amanda Plummer, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival as well as the Vancouver and Calgary International Film Festivals.
Molly joins our list of past ACTRA National Award of Excellence winners with recent recipients including Kim Coates (2017), Neve Campbell (2016) and Jason Priestley (2015). For the full list of past recipients, please visit http://bit.ly/2AdoXyC.
ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) is the national union of professional performers working in the English-language recorded media in Canada. ACTRA represents the interests of 23,000 members across the country. Canadian performers will be celebrating ACTRA’s 75th anniversary in 2018.
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Media contact: Carol Taverner, Public Relations Officer, tel: 416-644-1519, ctaverner@actra.ca