Raised in Seattle, Wash., Misty Upham -- born July 6, 1982, in Kalispell, Mont. -- joined a community theater group at age 13 and never looked back. By the following year, she was writing and directing short skits and performing on tours throughout the Northwest. While in high school, she was accepted into several local theater companies.

In 2002, Upham made her big-screen debut in the Chris Eyre-directed Skins, the first of many roles to draw on her American Indian heritage. That same year, she made her small-screen debut in another Eyre project, the TV movie Skinwalkers.

Two more TV movies and a film followed before Upham cut her long hair and gained weight to take on the role of a Mohawk Indian mother and widow who keeps her family afloat by smuggling illegal immigrants across the border in Frozen River (2008) -- a role for which she received an Independent Spirit Award nomination.