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Although Karyn Dwyer has often been praised for
her all American looks, this gifted actress was
actually born and raised in Newfoundland, Canada.
She has worked in Canadian and American films and
some Canadian television series but so far is best
known for the hit independent film, Better Than
Chocolate.  The petite fiery red head has made a
point of eschewing straightforward pretty-girl
parts in favour of more intriguing ingénues and
as a result, she's built an eclectic résumé;
that runs the gamut from Shakespearean tragedy to
modern day comedy and erotica. Often compared to
Julianne Moore and Kate Winslet, fans agree that
Karyn Dwyer is truly an original.

Born in Newfoundland to an Irish Catholic family
of five children, Dwyer came into her talent at
the early age of 10 when she won the title role 
in Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador's production
of Alice in Wonderland and went on to become a
theatre veteran, while maintaining an A+ average.
Upon graduating high school  with honours, she
turned down a journalism  scholarship to the
prestigious Carlton University in Ottawa and made
the long hike to Toronto for Theatre School. When
money ran out she got an agent and started
appearing regularly in a wide range of film and
television roles. Meanwhile she wrote and starred
in her hilarious one woman show Bad Girls at The
Rivoli, and played Phoebe in As You Like It for
the internationally acclaimed theatre festival
DuMaurier World Stage opposite distinguished stage
veterans Seana McKenna and Albert Schultz.  The
actors had no rehearsal and were given cue scripts
with only their own lines and three words of the
line before, which was their cue to speak.

Her first big break came when after a cross Canada
search, the Newfoundland native won the starring
role in Better Than Chocolate. Still a relative
unknown, she had originally been brought in to
audition for the smaller role of main character's
girlfriend.  She made an immediate impression on
the film's director, Anne Wheeler, who asked her
to do a cold read for the film's main character.
Karyn  beat out more than a hundred other hopefuls
and lit up the screen in the starring role,
propelling Better Than Chocolate to a 30 million
dollar world box office. Young lesbians the world
over both idolized and identified with Dwyer. 
Internet voters loved her performance in the
stunningly memorable erotic body painting
sequence, rating her lesbian love scenes the
hottest ever. Better Than Chocolate ranked 31 on
The Hollywood Reporters list of best independent
films that year. It won numerous awards and earned
Karyn a loyal cult following when it became one of
Canada's highest grossing English speaking movies
of all time.  The Chicago Tribune raved, "The
highlight of the movie is unquestionably Dwyer's
performance as Maggie. She brings a sexy
intelligence to the role of a floating 19 year old
trying to find a place to land that keeps us
rooting for her…It may well be that Better Than
Chocolate will be remembered as the film that kick
starts her career."

Dwyer immediately followed it up with a big budget
American comedy, Lorne Michael's Superstar. In it
she as a mean cheerleader opposite Molly Shannon
and Will Ferrell. But then tragedy struck. The
oldest of five siblings, Dwyer had already lost
her father to cancer when she was 10. Now, after
the swell of unexpected attention surrounding
Better Than Chocolate and Superstar, Dwyer's
brother tragically passed away. She then spent the
next three years advocating programs to fight her
brother's illness and was eager to spend time with
her family and retreat into theatre and critically
praised but little-seen independent short films.

On stage, she played the title role in Native
Earth's Romeo and Juliet, performance artist Sooze
in Eric Bogosian's Suburbia and originated the
role of Carrie, a junkie prostitute in the
extremely innovative and experimental Exercises in
Depravity, opposite R.H. Thompson performed in the
bathroom of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Dwyer
joked, "Exercises in Depravity was big hit. We
were sold out every night... Of course, there was
only room for 12 audience members." One night,
during the monologue where Dwyer's character burns
out her own eyes, an audience member fainted and
had to be carried out. Other audience members
assumed it was part of the show.

The little-seen but critically praised independent
short films award winning shorts Pony, Polished
and Dying Like Ophelia really opened eyes to
Dwyer's ability. She delivered on her earlier 
promise with another endearing performance in Pony
 based on White Biting Dog by  two time Governor
General Award winning playwright Judith Thompson
as a dead girl who tries to ease her father's
grief.  Her understated and subtle performance in
Polished garnered praise from critics such as Film
Threat who said "What shines best (no pun
intended) is shoe shiner Karyn Dwyer. She has all
the characteristics of the typical working class
stiff with a likeable honesty." But it was her
gritty and heart wrenching performance in Dying
Like Ophelia based on Lion in the Streets also by
Thompson, that cemented the fact that Dwyer had
indeed matured into a genuinely gifted actor. For
it she temporarily gained weight to convincingly
transform herself into a young single welfare
mother dying of cancer who yearns for a beautiful
death like Mallais' famous painting of Ophelia and
tries to persuade her mortified friend to help her
carry out her plans. In real life, Dwyer
volunteers for a telephone support line in Toronto
and has received extensive training in suicide
prevention.

Her extraordinary performances in low budget
Dogma-styled features Flit and The Right Way are
admired on the underground film screening circuit
but producers are waiting to release them.

Although she has so far eschewed more mainstream
production  she continues to gain critical acclaim
and increasing underground popularity if the
steadily growing number of fan sites dedicated to
her is any indication, playing roles, both large
and small, in independent film and highly
innovative theatre productions. She continues to
select somewhat dark, idiosyncratically funny
roles that surprise critics and audiences alike.
When asked about her selection, she insists that
she has no agenda but merely tries to pick to the
best scripts available and work with people she
respects.

Most recently she teamed up with Anne Wheeler
again to guest star in the awarding winning
Canadian series This is Wonderland. Reportedly,
when Wheeler offered her the role she told Dwyer
she wanted her to look completely unrecognizable
from Better Than Chocolate. Dwyer eschewed
personal vanity and bravely decided to cut her
trademark red ringlets short on half her head and
shave the other half her head for an asymmetrical
effect appropriate for this extreme character that
only the likes of Dwyer could pull off. Although
the show's style is very theatrical, her
performance was so rooted in the truth it allowed
her to believably take the character to many
extremes, both hilarious and poignant for a bold
and accomplished performance.

Despite much curiosity about her love life, Dwyer
has managed to stay out of celebrity gossip rags.
She is quoted as saying, "I prefer to keep my
private life private. When an audience watches me,
I want them to be able to see the character I'm
playing, and not be thinking about whether I'm
dating Ellen Degeneres or Ben Affleck... But I am
thinking about "coming out" as a straight woman."

Although she seems to be more focused on her craft
than her stardom, Karyn's warmth and exceptional
ability to connect with audiences will always keep
her in demand by directors concerned with talent
and originality.

==See also==
* List of actresses
* List of people

==External links==
* http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0245507/ Karyn Dwyer
at IMDB.com
*
http://worldfilm.about.com/od/canadianactresses/in
dex.htm
* http://www.karyndwyer.info/ Fan Site
* http://www.karyndwyer.info/ngallery/ Karyn Dwyer
Gallery
* http://www.karyndwyer.org/ Official Fan Club
* http://www.bomis.com/rings/karyndwyer/ Karyn
Dwyer Web Ring


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