Mia Kirshner

Mia Kirshner (born January 25, 1975) is a Canadian actress, writer and social activist. She is known for television roles as Mandy in 24 (2001–2005), as Jenny Schecter in The L Word (2004–2009), as Amanda Grayson in Star Trek: Discovery (2017–2019), and as Isobel Flemming in The Vampire Diaries (2010-2011). Her film credits include Love and Human Remains (1993), Exotica (1994), The Crow: City of Angels (1996), Mad City (1997), Not Another Teen Movie (2001) and The Black Dahlia (2006).

Kirshner was born in Toronto, Ontario, the daughter of Etti (Henrietta),[1] a teacher, and Sheldon Kirshner, a journalist who wrote for The Canadian Jewish News.[2][3] Kirshner is a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors;[4] her father was born in the displaced persons camp at Bad Reichenhall in Germany in 1946, and met Kirshner’s mother, a Bulgarian Jewish refugee, after they escaped to Israel.[5][4] Kirshner’s paternal grandparents were Polish Jews.[6][7] Kirshner had a middle class upbringing[8] and attended Forest Hill Collegiate Institute but later graduated from Jarvis Collegiate Institute. Kirshner studied Russian literature and the 20th-century movie industry at McGill University in Montreal. Her younger sister, Lauren Kirshner, a writer, was involved in the I Live Here project