=> Native American / First Nation Females <=

Kimberly is a Native American actor who has enjoyed a long career in film, television, and theatre. Some of Kimberly's recent credits include playing "Auntie B" in FX on the breakout comedy RESERVATION DOGS, "Katie Clarke" opposite Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer in the lauded Amazon/BBC limited series THE ENGLISH , the "Head Ranger/Mom Skycedar" in Netflix's hit animated series SPIRIT RANGERS and "Ellie Yankton" in Bethesda's epic role-playing game, STARFIELD. Recent film credits include the critically acclaimed feature, MONTANA STORY opposite Haley Lu Richardson and Owen Teague, the gritty revenge thriller CATCH THE FAIR ONE opposite Emmy nominee Kali Reis, and THE GLORIAS, where Kimberly plays legendary Cherokee Chief Wilma Mankiller opposite Julianne Moore as Gloria Steinem. Upcoming credits include recurring roles in HBO's much-anticipated IT prequel WELCOME TO DERRY, Netflix's THE ABANDONS, and the feature film KEEP QUIET opposite Lou Diamond Phillips. On stage, Kimberly originated the role of "Johnna" in Tracy Letts' Tony Award-winning play AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY (Chicago, Broadway, London, Sydney) and also starred in MANAHATTA (The Public Theater, NY) and THE FRYBREAD QUEEN (Native Voices, LA). Kimberly's Indigenous heritage is Colville (enrolled) and Salish, and she is married to composer and musician, Johnny Guerrero. The couple have worked for years in tribal communities mentoring youth and supporting wellness through the creation of original films, online content, and music, and she currently serves as a Professor at UC Riverside in the film/theatre department.

Geraldine Keams was born in Arizona, USA. She is an actress, known for Reservation Dogs (2021), Rutherford Falls (2021) and Dark Winds (2022).

Tamara Podemski is a multi-disciplinary artist born and raised in Toronto to an Ojibway mother from Treaty 4 Territory in Saskatchewan and an Ashkenazi father from Israel. She is a graduate of the Claude Watson School for the Performing Arts where she studied theatre, dance and music throughout its 10-year program.

Though she is best known as a screen actress, Tamara's stage career has spanned over 25 years as an actress, singer, dancer and choreographer, most notably starring on Broadway in the musical RENT. She also has independent recording career, having wrote and released 3 albums [2 in Anishinaabemowin and 1 in English under her own record label, Mukwa Music].

Tamara made her biggest mark in Sterlin Harjo's film "Four Sheets to the Wind" when she won the Special Jury Prize for Acting at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, followed by an IFC Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 2008. After returning to the stage, she earned a Jessie Theatre Award nomination for her role in Marie Clements' play "The Edward Curtis Project" and, under the direction of Jani Lauzon, Tamara starred in Colleen Wagner's Governor General's Award-Winning Play "The Monument," which was hailed as one of the "10 Best Theatre Productions of 2018" by the Globe & Mail. Recently, she joined the all-Indigenous cast of Keith Barker's "This is How We Got Here" which won a 2020 Dora Award for Outstanding New Play. Behind the camera, Tamara is the writer and story producer of the documentary TV series Future History (directed and produced by her sister, Jennifer Podemski) and was nominated for Best Writing in a Factual Series at the 2020 Canadian Screen Awards. Tamara recently won an 2021 ACTRA Award for "Outstanding Female Performance" and a 2021 Canadian Screen Award for "Best Supporting Actress - Drama" for her role as Alison Trent in CBC's "Coroner."

As a community worker, she has travelled the globe sharing her cultural and creative experiences through workshops, keynotes and panel discussions. Having grandparents who are both Holocaust survivors and Residential School survivors, she speaks openly about issues of intergenerational trauma, reconciliation, inherited legacies and the importance of creating safe spaces for dialogue, education and collaboration.

Princess Daazhraii Johnson is known for Molly of Denali (2019), True Detective (2014) and Gath & K'iyh: Listen to Heal (2024).

Irene Bedard (born July 22, 1967) is an Alaska Native actress enrolled in the Native Village of Koyuk who has played many aboriginal American characters in a variety of television shows and films. She is best known for her voice role as the title character in the Disney animated film "Pocahontas," and the cult-classic "Smoke Signals" as Suzy Song. She is known for bringing a powerful emotional presence to her characters.

Bedard was born in Anchorage, Alaska, raised primarily in Alaska, but also spent a few years as a child in Washington state. Her father was Bruce Bedard, and mother was Carol Bedard, and she is their oldest of four - Leslie Bedard, Joseph Bedard and David Bedard are her younger siblings. She is Inupiaq and Yup'ik on her mother's side and Cree on her father's side. She graduated from Anchorage's Dimond High School in 1985, and then earned a Musical Theatre degree from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Bedard's son Quinn Wilson was born in 2003.

Her first role was as Mary Crow Dog in the television production, "Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee," which depicted the 1970s stand-off between police and aboriginal Americans, many of the Pine Ridge Reservation, at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. She received a Golden Globe nomination for the role. Besides the first Disney Pocahontas movie, she also voiced the sequel "Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World." Bedard was the physical model for the character. She appeared in a different take of the Pocahontas story in Terrence Malick's 2005 film "The New World," as Pocahontas' mother Nonoma Winanuske Matatiske. In 2005 she was cast in the television mini-series Into the West, portraying the half-Lakota, half-white Margaret "Light Shines" Wheeler. In 2011 Bedard portrayed the Messenger in the Academy Award-nominated film, "Tree of Life." In 2018, Bedard reprised her voiced role of Pocahontas for Disney's "Ralph Breaks the Internet."

Her television roles span from 1995, including Stephen Spielberg's "Into the West," "The Spectacular Spider-Man," "Longmire," "Westworld," and "FBI: Most Wanted." She has performed in two Stephen King series, 2017's "The Mist" as Kimi Lucero, and 2020's "The Stand" as Ray Rentner. In the 2017 she portrayed the future Co-President of the United States for the Jay-Z music video "Family Feud," directed by Ava Duverney.

Bedard's decades of creative work includes singing, theatre, spoken word, producing television and movies, speaking, and teaching. She fosters a passion of many creative disciplines, and is a great lover and adopter of non-human animals. Bedard was chosen in 1995 as one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People." She's served on the American Indian Enterprise and Business Council to the United Nations and is involved in frequent activist work around the environmental and aboriginal issues.

Happy Frejo is known for My Darkest Hour (2006), Violet (2015) and The Veil (2017).

Misty Anne Upham, born in Kallispell, Montana, grew up in south Seattle, the fourth of five children. She began her career at the age of thirteen when she joined a community theater group, Red Eagle Soaring. What began as a summer workshop soon turned into a full-time job. By the age of fourteen she was writing and directing short skits and performing on tours throughout the northwest. In the next four years she would be accepted to several Seattle theater companies, all while attending high school. Her first break came in 2001 when she landed the role of Mrs. Blue Cloud in Chris Eyre's sophmore project Skins (2002), where she portrayed a victim of domestic abuse on the Pine Ridge reservation. She also had a large role in the family drama August: Osage County (2013), playing Johnna Monevata, a live-in housekeeper.

Misty died in 2014, in Auburn, Washington, of blunt-force trauma.

Delanna Studi was born on 4 June 1976 in Muldrow, Oklahoma, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for DreamKeeper (2003), Edge of America (2004) and Shameless (2011).

Born in Keshena, Wisconsin, Tousey is a Menominee and Stockbridge-Munsee Native American, raised on both the Menominee and Stockbridge-Munsee reservations. A professional dancer and actress, Tousey began doing pow wows as a small child but did not perform on stage until she attended the University of New Mexico. She initially entered the university's law program, planning to specialize in federal contracts and Native American law, but later changed her major to English, and began taking theater arts courses. After graduation, Tousey enrolled in the graduate acting program at New York University's Tisch School of Arts.

Casey Camp-Horinek is known for Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024), The Windigo (2024) and Barking Water (2009).

Native American Actress.Navajo/Apache/Zia Nation born in Arizona raised in New Mexico/Denver Co. Started in theater and moved to Television and Film.Acting is her Passion she continues to follow her dream with all the film and Television coming to New Mexico. Working with the best film has to bring from Breaking Bad to Longmire to The Night shift, to Better Call Saul she has learned and played with the best.

Actress Tantoo Cardinal is a Member of the Order of Canada, one of the country's highest civilian honors. The order recognizes Cardinal for her contributions to the growth and development of Aboriginal performing arts in Canada.

Arguably the most widely recognized Native Actress of her generation, Cardinal has appeared in numerous plays, television programs, and films, including Legends of the Fall, Dances With Wolves, Black Robe, Loyalties, Luna, Spirit of the Whale, Unnatural & Accidental, Marie-Anne, Sioux City, Silent Tongue, Mothers & Daughters, and Smoke Signals. Recent work includes the films Eden, Maina, Shouting Secrets and From Above.

Her stirring performance in Loyalties earned her a Genie nomination, American Indian Film Festival Best Actress Award, the People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival, plus Best Actress Awards at International Film Festivals in Zimbabwe and Portugal.

Cardinal was recently honored with the 2015 ACTRA Award of Excellence; other honors include Best Actress - Elizabeth Sterling Award in Theatre for All My Relations, and First Americans in the Arts Totem Award for her portrayal of the character Katrina in Widows at the Forum Stage in Los Angeles. She won the American Indian Film Festival's Best Actress Award as well as the first Rudy Martin Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Native American in Film for Where the Rivers Flow North, a Gemini Award for North of 60, and a Leo Award for Blackstone.

Her television credits include recurring roles on the series: Blackstone, The Killing, Arctic Air, Strange Empire, The Guard, North of 60, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, The Lightening Field, Street Legal, The Campbell's, Gunsmoke, Tom Stone, Myth Quest, Lonesome Dove, and Renegade Press.com. MOW's include Full Flood, The Englishman's Boy, Dreamkeeper and the PBS documentary Nobody's Girls.

For her contributions to the Native Artistic community, Cardinal won the Eagle Spirit Award. She has also been honored with the MacLeans' magazine Honor Roll as Actress of the Year, the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Toronto Women in Film and Television, an International Women in Film Award for her lasting contribution to the arts, and induction to the CBC/Playback Hall of Fame.

Crystle Lightning, the Canadian Screen Award Winner for "Best Actress in a Drama Series" 2021, is an Indigenous Actress from the Enoch Cree Nation in Alberta. She began her career at age nine when she landed her first lead role in the feature: 3 NINJAS: Knuckle Up and has been working in the industry ever since.

Crystle's film and television appearances include "Yellowstone" on Paramount +, "Outlander" on Starz, "Trickster" (series lead) on The CW, "The Good Doctor" on ABC, "Rutherford Falls" on Peacock, "Ghosts" (recurring) on CBS, and recently the #1 Series on Amazon Prime TV "Three Pines" on Prime TV. This year, you will see Lightning in "Spirit Rangers" on Netflix, George R. R. Martin's "Mary Margaret Road Grader," directed by Steven Paul Judd, "Fancy Dance," directed by Erica Tremblay and "Bass Reeves" on Paramount +.

Lightning is co-creator and star of the all-Native, hit musical "BEAR GREASE," an Indigenous twist to the 1978 Classic, "Grease," marking her directorial debut.

In addition to acting, Lightning is a Hip Hop recording artist and a member of the award- winning group "LightningCloud." She has won Power 106's "Who's Next?" and Hot 97's "Battle for the Best." Additionally, she has recorded with a myriad of artists including Cypress Hill and Timbaland and toured with legends like Kendrick Lamar, Asap Rocky and Nicki Minaj.

Now, Crystle lives in Treaty 6, Alberta with her husband, son and 3 dogs.

Cindy Long is a Native American and is an enrolled tribal member of the Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma and a descendant of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

Cindy grew her love of the arts as a young child. She learned to play the violin and as a young dancer, she was awarded a partial scholarship to learn Classical Russian Ballet. She attended the Tulsa School of Ballet under the tutelage of the renowned Native American Prima Ballerina, Mrs. Moscelyn Larkin and her husband Mr. Roman Jasinski. Her dance skills afforded her the opportunity to perform on the AEA stage show "Spirit of Pocahontas".

Prior to starting her acting career, Cindy worked within the Information Technology field for over 35 years.

Cindy continues to study the Sanford Meisner Method, Voice Over and Commercial acting, and she has her own in-home studio for Video and Voice Over production. Cindy was quickly picked up by several talent agencies, has been in several independent, short and feature films. She is currently working as a Producer and Casting on a new TV show called Big Sky, as well as other film projects.

Sahar Khadjenoury is known for Juarez 2045 (2017), The AUX: Aboriginal Unity Experience (2015) and 5th World (2005).

Michelle Thrush is a Canadian actress and First Nations activist for Aboriginal Canadians and the other Indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Thrush, who is Cree, was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, by parents she admits were chronic alcoholics. She recalls being called "Squaw" at Bowness High School and bullied because of her parents' illness. In grade nine she changed schools and attended Calgary's Plains Indian Cultural Survival School. There she felt accepted for the first time. She learned about herself, her language, culture, singing and drumming. She remembers: "They filled in a lot of the voids that my soul was just begging for." Her childhood hardships affected her profoundly. Though she acted in her first film at 17 with a role of Sally Littlefeathers in Isaac Littlefeathers (1984), it did not occur to her it could be a career. She planned to become a social worker and help children. She met Gordon Tootoosis, a First Nations actor, who told her: "If [acting] is what your heart wants, you need to follow it and be true." At this point her parents were sober. With no other ties to Calgary, at age 20 she moved to Vancouver and found an agent.

Thrush has said it's been only the last 20 years that Indigenous people have been able to tell their truth through their own stories, though she credits such luminaries as Tantoo Cardinal and Graham Greene for kicking down the doors for Indigenous people in the industry.

Thrush has had a prolific career since its beginning in the 1980s. She began her acting career in film while attending high school. She got her first theatre job when she moved to Vancouver at age 20. She had a small part in the play The Ecstasy of Rita Joe. She portrayed numerous recurring and guest roles in the television series Madison (1993), Northern Exposure (1990), North of 60 (1992), Highlander (1992), Forever Knight (1992), Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy (1998), Moccasin Flats (2003) and Mixed Blessings (2007).

She has starred in many notable films throughout her career, particularly in films that deal with issues about Indigenous peoples of the Americas, ranging from Canadian Aboriginals to Native Americans/American Indians (U.S.). These include Isaac Littlefeathers (1984), Unnatural & Accidental (2006), Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007), Skins (2002), Dead Man (1995), DreamKeeper (2003) and Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (2013).

Thrush has also won numerous awards and special recognition, including multiple Awards for her role of Gail Stoney on the dramatic series Blackstone, such as Best Performance by an Alberta Actress 2015 Rosie Awards for the role in Deeper & Deeper (2014), Best performance by an Alberta Actress at the 2014 AMPIA Awards for the role in Never Gonna Stop (2013), and Best Performance by an Actress in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role in 2011 CSA (Gemini) Awards for the role in Suffer the Children (2011) and Best Guest Performance by a Female in a Dramatic Series at the 2011 Leo Awards in Vancouver for the role in Arctic Air (2012).

In 2011, Thrush wrote the one-woman play Find Your Own Inner Elder. She has performed the show, most often under the title Inner Elder, across Canada. It premiered at One Yellow Rabbit's High Performance Rodeo in Calgary in 2018 and has since been performed with Nightwood Theatre and Native Earth Performing Arts in Toronto (2019). Inner Elder is a structured monologue which recounts Thrush's personal life and experiences.

Despite the credits and the awards, her desire to help children has never faded. In fact, she says acting has opened the door to helping in a way that social work could not. For the past 10 years, Thrush has traveled to aboriginal communities and shelters across Canada to perform as Majica, a therapeutic healing clown. Majica performs for young kids and teenagers, and also has a show for parents. "Beyond film, my passion in life is working with our families and helping to defragment the damage that was done through residential schools to our families," she says. "You cannot disconnect the child from the parent without huge damage being done. When it happens generation after generation, it destroys the family system."

Elaine Miles was born on 7 April 1960 in Pendleton, Oregon, USA. She is an actress, known for Northern Exposure (1990), Smoke Signals (1998) and Wyvern (2009).

Shirley Cheechoo was born in 1952 in Eastmain, Quebec, Canada. She is an actress and director, known for Backroads (2000), Silent Tears (1997) and Sweet Blood: Live Well with Diabetes (2009). She is married to Blake Debassige. They have one child.

Gail Maurice is a fluent Cree/Michif speaking actor and an award-winning filmmaker. She created her own company Assini Productions to tell stories that highlight strong Indigenous female leads. She translates and speaks her language whenever she can on the big and little screen.

She translated and played the role of Ida, in Night Raiders. She translated/co-wrote and played the role of Meetos, in Quebexit and won Best Screenplay at the Whistler Film Festival 2020.

ROSIE is her debut feature film.

Georgina Lightning brings a long track record of creative experience in the film industry as an actor, producer, director and acting coach on such projects as: Dreamkeepers, Backroads, Johnny Greyeyes, Christmas in the Clouds, Tecumseh, the Oath and Smoke Signals among countless others. Lightning has also guest starred in T.V. episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger and West Wing.

Lightning's directorial debut Older Than America has won over 23 awards to date and is inspired by stories told to her by many of her family members and friends who attended the Indian Boarding schools. Most recently Lightning co-founded Tribal Alliance Productions, a production company committed to producing media that matters told from a native prospective. A long time advocate of Native Indian advancement in the film industry, Lightning also formed Native Media Network, a group dedicated to the promotion and advancement of Native Indian talent.

Shishonia Livingston is a Los Angeles based comedian, actor and writer. As a stand-up comic she has performed her own original material widely at theaters, colleges and clubs across the US and Canada. Also her improv and sketch comedy background began at IO West, Second City and Groundlings. She has a degree in performance and writing from California Institute of the Arts.

Nôses Kisik-Papimohtew (Mother Walks-in-the-Sky), also known as Roseanne Supernault, is a classically trained Actress who was raised on East Prairie Métis Settlement, and also hails from the Whitefish Lake Atikameg First Nation in the Treaty 8 territory of Canada. Born in the Treaty 8 territory to a Politician Father and Artist Mother, her eclectic upbringing included classical training in art, theatre, and dance; practicing and sustaining her cultural hunting & land rights as a Cree Metis; and being exposed to the politics and social justice movements of Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Her life took a sharp turn into arts when she was discovered by a Los Angeles Casting Director at 13 and thereafter signed to a Talent Agency - she has worked steadily as a performer and has seen her profile rise steadily since.

Recognizable from the APTN hit series, "Blackstone," where her haunting performance has garnered her several accolades; the historical, pre contact epic, "Maina," where she plays the title character, for which she received the Best Actress Award at American Indian Film Festival; and the groundbreaking Feature, "Rhymes For Young Ghouls," by Jeff Barnaby, that premiered at Toronto International Film Festival and was named TIFF Top 10.

She can be seen in several book-to-film adaptations, such as "Neither Wolf Nor Dog," where she plays twins across Dave Bald Eagle, Christopher Sweeney, and Tatanka Means; and "Juliana and the Medicine Fish," across from Adam Beach, and Emma Tremblay. She appears in Sky1's "Jamestown" among a star studded English & Native American cast, produced by the makers of "Downton Abbey." She attended Cannes International Film Festival with sci-fi, "The Northlander," - for which she was also nominated for the Best Actress Award at the American Indian Film Festival.

Recently, she plays the lead role of Jo in CTV Comedy's #1 hit series "Acting Good," which also streams on Crave; she plays across stand up comedian Paul Rabliauskas. She also appeared in the Canadian hit film "Guitar Lessons," which had an immensely successful theatrical run. And she is in production with her feature film directorial debut, "Dusk & Dawn," a dark comedy ensemble piece which she also wrote and produced.

She has been nominated for and received multiple acting awards, namely Best Actress for her performances in "Maina," "Blackstone," "Every Emotion Costs," and Best Supporting Actress for "Rhymes For Young Ghouls." She was recently nominated for an A.M.P.I.A Best Actress/non-Binary award for her performance in Berkley Brady's directorial debut "Dark Nature," where she plays a soldier with PTSD who suffers against a dark entity while on a healing retreat in the Rocky Mountains.

Her stage performance in "Dreary and Izzy," where she played a First Nations woman with FASD, has garnered her rave reviews from various critics. She continues on her storytelling journey as a producer and filmmaker, through her film production companies Flying Up Moon, and Magnate.

Supernault is trained in Theatre, Film, and Television. She graduated from 4 years at Victoria School of the Arts an institution focused on not only the history of the arts, but the execution and constant immersion in the field; this is where she discovered her passion.

Rachelle White Wind Arbez is known for XIII: The Conspiracy (2008), Elijah (2007) and Moccasin Flats (2003).