Born Malin Maria Åkerman
May 12, 1978 (1978-05-12) (age 33)
Stockholm, Sweden
Occupation Actress, model, singer
Malin Maria Åkerman (born May 12, 1978) is a Swedish–Canadian actress and model born in Stockholm, Sweden. She moved to Canada at the age of two and as a child appeared in several television commercials before going on to win a modeling contract at age sixteen. Åkerman's subsequent acting career began with her debut on the Canadian television series Earth: Final Conflict in 1997, followed by many small television and film parts, including The Utopian Society (2003) and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004).
Åkerman gained her first starring role as Lila in The Heartbreak Kid (2007), opposite Ben Stiller and the following year played a supporting role in the romantic comedy 27 Dresses (2008) with Katherine Heigl. In 2009, Åkerman got her big break when cast as Silk Spectre II in the superhero film Watchmen, for which she received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Other notable films include The Proposal, Couples Retreat, and The Bang Bang Club.
How I Met Your Mother star Josh Radnor wrote and directed the film happythankyoumoreplease, in which Åkerman co-starred as Annie, a woman living with alopecia who has a tendency to date the wrong men. She wore a bald cap to cover her hair, but had to shave off her eyebrows. Radnor originally sent her the script and offered her a different role but after reading it Åkerman felt that she wanted to play the Annie character only to discover that she had already been cast. She did not like the role she had been offered, as she felt that she had done it before. However, the actress who was cast as Annie quit and Åkerman got the role. She did research to understand what it was like to have alopecia before playing the part. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2010 and received an audience award for Favorite U.S. Drama. In April 2010, it was announced that Åkerman, alongside Jason Lewis and Chris Kattan, would guest star on an episode of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. The episode, entitled "The Wedding Bride", aired on May 17, 2010 and sees Åkerman in a fictional film based on characters from the series. The comedy television series Childrens Hospital also premiered on the Cartoon Network block Adult Swim in 2010, and features Åkerman as Dr. Valerie Flame. The series started off as a web production created by Rob Corddry. Previous web episodes premiered on television on July 11, 2010, while the new episodes with Åkerman among others added to the cast premiered on August 22, 2010.
In 2010, Åkerman played a supporting role in the comedy film Elektra Luxx, which tells the story of a retired porn star of the same name, played by Carla Gugino. It was directed and written by Sebastian Gutierrez and serves a sequel to 2009's Women in Trouble. Åkerman played Trixie, a drug-store clerk who falls in love with Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character. She was offered the role when she went to the screening of Women in Trouble when Gutierrez told her that he had written a sequel, and had a part in mind for her. She then read the script and accepted the part. The film was shot in just ten days and premiered on March 11, 2011 on limited release. It received mixed reviews from critics, reaching a score of 50 out of 100 based on 12 critical reviews, according to the film review aggregator Metacritic. Critics described the film as a "bizarre sex comedy full of meandering subplots, some occasional wit, and, unfortunately, not a whole lot of funny jokes." In the film The Bang Bang Club, Åkerman starred in the lead female role as Robin Comley, a film premiered during the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival and premiered in the US at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, 2011. She also co-starred in the romantic comedy film The Romantics.
Åkerman will star opposite Bruce Willis and Forest Whitaker in the upcoming Catch .44 for which filming began on July 11, 2010. In September 2010, Variety reported that Åkerman will star opposite Ethan Hawke in the thriller The Numbers Station. The same month, it was announced that she would star opposite Jennifer Aniston in Wanderlust and in the independent film Criminal Empire for Dummy's with Gary Oldman and Milo Ventimiglia. Åkerman replaced Lindsay Lohan as the title character in Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story, based on the life of porn star Linda Lovelace. Other upcoming projects include Medallion and The Giant Mechanical Man.
Malin Akerman at Comic Con in SD |
     |
