Biography
Exhibiting both grit and steely, almost otherworldly beauty, Canadian actress Carrie-Anne Moss rapidly ascended from obscurity to international stardom as the latex-clad cyber warrior Trinity in the Wachowski brothers'
The Matrix. Moss' striking performance led many viewers to question where she had been all these years; like many other fledgling Hollywood actresses, she had done time as a model and an actress in second-rate films while waiting for her big break.
Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, on August 21, 1967, Moss decided that she wanted to be an actress at an early age. The youngest of two children raised by a single mother, she grew up taking acting classes, and at the age of 20, she left Canada to pursue a career as a model. During a modeling stint in Spain, Moss managed to land a role on the TV serial
Dark Justice. Upon her return to North America, she moved to L.A. and was cast on the
Aaron Spelling series Models, Inc.
After making her film debut in 1996's
Sabotage, Moss continued to do TV work (most notably on the Toronto-based F/X: The Series) and appeared in fairly obscure films. Thanks to her starring role in
The Matrix in 1999, Moss was soon in great demand. In 2000 alone, she could be seen in no less than four films, including the action comedy
The Crew,
Red Planet, and as a bartender with questionable motives in director
Christopher Nolan's unconventional breakthrough,
Memento. Subsequently taking another stab at sci-fi opposite
Val Kilmer in
Red Planet, Moss would next appear in Lasse Hallstrom's romantic drama
Chocolat before stepping back into her vinyl bodysuit for
The Matrix Reloaded and
The Matrix Revolutions (both 2003).
With the
Matrix sequels behind her, Moss next starred opposite Aaron Eackhart in the serial-killer thriller
Suspect Zero, a film that failed to excite either audiences or critics. Over the next three years, Moss could primarily be seen in supporting roles in small indie films like
Mini's First Time and
Fido. And while those films largely failed to garner audience attention, Moss received high marks for the Canadian drama
Snow Cake. Also starring
Alan Rickman and
Sigourney Weaver, the film netted several 2007 Genie Award nominations, but only won one: Best Supporting Actress, which went to Moss.
2007 also gave Moss her first taste of financial success since the
Matrix films with the surprise-hit thriller
Disturbia, a thinly-veiled teenage retread of
Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece
Rear Window. The actress followed this up with the gently tragic, slice-of-life drama
Fireflies in the Garden (2008), joining
Julia Roberts,
Ryan Reynolds and
Emily Watson in the story of family members who grapple with their feelings of love and commitment to one another when a devastating crisis occurs. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide