Career
Page began acting at age four, appearing in numerous school plays. She first acted in front of the camera in 1997 at age ten in the CBC television movie Pit Pony, which later spun off into a television series. This led to more roles in a number of small Canadian films and television series, notably playing Treena Lahey in season two of Trailer Park Boys. At 16, she was cast in Mouth to Mouth, an independent film shot in Europe.
Page starred in the 2005 movie Hard Candy and gained praise for "one of the most complex, disturbing and haunting performances of the year".[5] She also appeared in X-Men: The Last Stand as Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat), a girl who can walk through walls. In the previous X-Men movies, the part had been used in brief cameos played by other actresses, but never as a main character.
As the title character in Juno, Page garnered substantial praise; A. O. Scott of The New York Times noted her as being "frighteningly talented"[6] and Roger Ebert said, "Has there been a better performance this year than Ellen Page's creation of Juno? I do not think so".[7] Page was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Juno, but lost to Marion Cotillard in La Vie En Rose. The role, however, did win her several other awards, including a Canadian Comedy Award, Independent Spirit Award, and Satellite Award. Page also has starred in Smart People, which premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Although released after Juno, Smart People was shot earlier.[8] Her other film credits include An American Crime, which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival; The Tracey Fragments, which was released in November 2007 in Canada and May 2008 in the U.S.; and The Stone Angel.
In 2007, she was attached to play the title character in an adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre[9][10] and had planned to work on an as-yet unmade film entitled Jack and Diane opposite Olivia Thirlby, with whom she co-starred in Juno[11] but it was announced in August 2009 that her role in Jack and Diane would be played by the actress Alison Pill. Before his death in January 2008, Heath Ledger had discussed with Page the idea of starring in his directorial debut, The Queen's Gambit.[12] In 2008 she was ranked No. 86 on FHM's Sexiest Women in the World list, and No. 93 for 2009.[13] In June 2008, Page was listed in Entertainment Weekly's future A-List stars list.[14]
Page hosted Saturday Night Live on March 1, 2008[15] and on May 3, 2009, she guest starred in the episode "Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D'oh" of the animated series The Simpsons as a character named Alaska Nebraska, a parody of Hannah Montana.[16] She also starred in Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, Whip It, alongside Juliette Lewis, Marcia Gay Harden, Drew Barrymore and Kristen Wiig.[17] The film premiered at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival and had its wide release on October 2, 2009.[18]
She features in Michael Lander's film Peacock, opposite Cillian Murphy, Susan Sarandon, Bill Pullman and Josh Lucas, which was released in 2010 despite an original release date of 2009.[19][20][21] In August 2009, Page began shooting the thriller Inception, a film directed by Christopher Nolan and co-starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ken Watanabe.[22] The film was released on July 16, 2010.[23]
She has starred in the film Super,[24] and will reportedly play Stacie Andree in an upcoming film about Laurel Hester.[25]
As of 2010[update], she serves as a spokesperson for Cisco Systems in a series of ads appearing in three commercials set in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. On May 26, 2010 it was reported in a column on "Deadline Hollywood" and by Entertainment Weekly that Page will star in the new HBO series Tilda alongside Diane Keaton, who plays the title role. Tilda is based on the life of Nikki Finke, the founder of the influential Hollywood blog, DeadlineHollywood.com.[26] Tilda was reportedly dropped by HBO due to friction between the creators.[27] She is also the narrator of the documentary on colony collapse disorder, Vanishing of the Bees.
In April 2011 it was announced that Page would co-star in the Woody Allen film To Rome with Love alongside Jesse Eisenberg, Penélope Cruz, and Alec Baldwin.[28] In June 2012, Quantic Dream announced a video game entitled Beyond: Two Souls in which Page will portray the protagonist Jodie Holmes, with a planned launch date in late 2013.[29][30]
In January 2013, Bryan Singer tweeted revealing that Page will be back to repeat her role as Katherine "Kitty" Pryde in X-Men: Days of Future Past.[31][32] In February 2013, Page confirmed that her directorial debut will be titled Miss Stevens and star Anna Faris.[33]
