Polly Shannon grew up in Aylmer, Quebec, with her mother, a Canadian scriptwriter for children's television, and father, Director-General of Health Canada. She was given a deadline of the age of 25 to make it or break it as an actress, and she's more than met that quota. In 1999, alone, she's had hits with
The Girl Next Door (1998) (with
Henry Czerny) and
The Sheldon Kennedy Story (1999) (with
Jonathan Scarfe of
Madison (1993) and
ER (1994) fame), coming a long way from her first role as Nina in the Canadian teen series
Catwalk (1992) in the early nineties.