Karen Gillan was born and raised in Inverness, Scotland. Her father, Raymond John, a Day Centre Manager, and mother, Marie, live in Kinmylies. At age 16, she decided to pursue her interest in acting, studying the craft at Edinburgh’s Telford College. Later, she secured a place at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts drama school in London on the BA (Hons) Acting degree course. She is the cousin of actress Caitlin Blackwood, who portrayed the young Amy Pond in two episodes of Doctor Who.
Gillan has taken part in numerous modelling events including 2007’s London Fashion Week for designer Allegra Hicks’ autumn/winter catwalk show. She has also modelled for the launch party of Nicola Roberts’ Dainty Doll Make-Up Range. This was shown in Nicola’s episode of the documentary, The Passions of Girls Aloudcitation needed which premiered on the 4 April 2008.
Gillan’s early TV acting career included guest appearances on several dramatic TV series, with her first ongoing role being a two-year stint as a member of the ensemble cast of the sketch comedy series The Kevin Bishop Show in which she played multiple characters, as well as celebrities such as Katy Perry and Angelina Jolie. Gillan also appeared on TV in a leading role in a horror project entitled The Well, which was broadcast as episodic short films on BBC Two, and then later also as a web series on BBC.co.uk. Part of the BBC’s multimedia “switch” programming, the short episodes interconnect with online games that further explore the environments presented in the series.
Her biggest role to date is that of the Eleventh Doctor’s first companion, Amy Pond, on the British sci-fi series Doctor Who in early 2009. She had previously appeared in the episode “The Fires of Pompeii” in a minor role as a member of the Sybilline Sisterhood. She made her first on-screen appearance in the series in “The Eleventh Hour”, which first aired on 3 April 2010. She has been confirmed as appearing throughout the 2010 series of Doctor Who, and was confirmed in Issue 420 of the Doctor Who Magazine to be appearing in the 2011 series.
Can there be any woman between 17 and 30 who doesn’t secretly (or not even that secretly) want, with shivers of yearning, to be Karen Gillan at this moment? Plucked, she freely admits, from obscurity, she’s the new girl, Amy Pond, in the life of the new Doctor, as Matt Smith replaces David Tennant this Easter, and Steven Moffat comes back to the writing.
Karen is, truly and annoyingly, a lucky, pretty, talented, happy, smart, leggy, ordinary, honest, laughing girl, from a very loving family. Born in Inverness 22 years ago, she toyed for a while with a career in music before being told her acting was better than her singing, and heading to London’s Italia Conti school, which she soon quit to take her first TV job, in an episode of Rebus. Suddenly she found herself out of work, out of college, having to take a job in a pub (The Pilgrim in Kennington, you fans might like to know) just to survive. But before long she was talent-spotted for a modelling job, and that was her career for the next couple of years, while trying furiously to get back into acting. She thought she “hadn’t a hope in hell” of securing Amy, so just went for it, without fear.
“Then I got the recall, the second audition. That was when I started sweating. This huge thing. And it was so secretive I couldn’t even tell BBC reception where I was going, had to pretend it was for something called Panic Moon, which is an anagram of companion.” She was the last auditionee, and got the call later that same night that’s still changing her life.
Karen says “To be honest, I wasn’t really a huge follower of Dr Who before I got this part. I mean I knew it was huge, but … I was nothing like my mum, who’s a proper diehard Whovian. She’s got a Tardis money-bag, and Dalek bubble-bath. But having read the first episode I was utterly smitten, and with the character. Amy’s a sassy lady, funny and passionate, and her relationship with the doctor has a really interesting dynamic.” She kisses him this series: does she love him? Karen (who is in real life in a relationship), answers carefully. “She has a love for him, a really deep love for him. But not romantic.
She continues “It’s been an education in itself to work with Matt, who’s so endlessly inventive, bringing something new to it every day rather than falling into the easy default scared-face. That’s one of the challenges; you’re faced with life-threatening situations every episode, but you can’t just widen your eyes all the time. Yes, this doctor is preeeetty good. As, I’ve said, is Amy, and she gets to wear all these small skirts, which I will admit was very cold, but also very cool. They originally wanted to put me in trousers, but I did say I’d like to wear a skirt because – you’ll understand when you watch it. Actually I think I love Amy. I’m in love with her. I want to be her.”
Karen Gillan is yet another to add to the list of true British Babes