Colleen Rennison
Encyclopedia
Colleen Rennison is a Canadian
singer/songwriter and actress of feature films, television movies and television series.
, British Columbia
. She began her acting career with a role in the Canadian indie film Max in 1994. This was closely followed by appearances in a handful of television movies and a guest-starring role on the television series The Outer Limits
. Carpool
, starring Tom Arnold
, David Paymer
and Rachel Leigh Cook, was her first major American feature. Shortly after she landed a role in the John Dahl
-directed Unforgettable
with Ray Liotta
and Linda Fiorentino
, followed by The Story of Us
(1999), directed by Rob Reiner
and featuring Bruce Willis
and Michelle Pfeiffer
, in which she portrays their daughter Erin. Her next major role was playing Mona Hibbard as a young girl (Minnie Driver
played the character as an adult) in the film Beautiful, directed by Sally Field
, also starring Joey Lauren Adams
and Kathleen Turner
.
Rennison continued to work on more Canadian projects such as the short lived but critically acclaimed These Arms of Mine
for CBC
, which landed her a Gemini Award
nomination, and the Emmy Award
winning casting director Coreen Mayrs' independent film A Feeling Called Glory (based on the short story "The Presbyterian Sidewalk" by Barbara Gowdy
), for which Rennison won a Gemini in 2001, making her the youngest ever winner at 13. In 2005, Chris Haddock (of Canadian drama "Davinci's Inquest"), who was familiar with her work, hand selected her to play a variation of Kelly Ellard (convicted killer of Reena Virk) for a recurring role in "Davinci's City Hall". Most recently Rennison has appeared in the films American Venus
, Boot Camp
with Mila Kunis
, and What Goes Up starring Hilary Duff
, Steve Coogan
and Molly Shannon
. Rennison has also appeared in the television series Highlander: The Series
, Poltergeist: The Legacy
, Millennium
, and The Sentinel
. She appeared twice on Stargate SG-1
, once playing Cassandra.
In 2005, Rennison's mother submitted a recording of Rennison to CityTV
, a local station holding a contest. Out of thousands of entries, she was selected along with two other girls to meet with Grammy Award
-winning and multi-platinum-selling producer/composer/songwriter David Foster
at his Malibu, California, home (featured on the reality television
series Princes of Malibu with stepsons Brody Jenner
and Brandon Jenner). This meeting led to a performance later that year at the David Foster and Friends Celebrity Gala to support The David Foster Foundation in Vancouver.
In 2008, Rennison relocated to New York City to begin training at Circle in the Square Theater School in their two-year acting program. She is currently living between Vancouver, New York and Los Angeles, acting, writing and recording music.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
singer/songwriter and actress of feature films, television movies and television series.
Life and career
Colleen Rennison is of Irish, Scottish and French descent. She was born to Pat, a mortgage underwriter, and Cecilia Rennison, a television researcher, and was raised in VancouverVancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
. She began her acting career with a role in the Canadian indie film Max in 1994. This was closely followed by appearances in a handful of television movies and a guest-starring role on the television series The Outer Limits
The Outer Limits (1995 TV series)
The Outer Limits is an American television series that originally aired on Showtime,the Sci Fi Channel and in syndication between 1995 and 2002...
. Carpool
Carpool (film)
Carpool is a 1996 comedy film directed by Arthur Hiller and starring David Paymer and Tom Arnold.-Plot:Workaholic advertising executive of Bauer & Cole, Daniel Miller , has an important business meeting, but finds himself having to drive the neighborhood carpool for his sons, Bucky Miller and...
, starring Tom Arnold
Tom Arnold (actor)
Thomas Dwaine "Tom" Arnold is an American actor and comedian. He has appeared in many films, perhaps most notably True Lies . He was the host of The Best Damn Sports Show Period for four years.-Early life:...
, David Paymer
David Paymer
David Paymer is an American actor and television director, seen in such films as Quiz Show, Searching for Bobby Fischer, City Slickers, Crazy People, State and Main, Payback, Get Shorty, Carpool, The American President, Ocean's Thirteen, and Drag Me to Hell...
and Rachel Leigh Cook, was her first major American feature. Shortly after she landed a role in the John Dahl
John Dahl
John Dahl is an American film director and screenwriter, best known for his work in the neo-noir genre.-Life and career:John Dahl was born in Billings, Montana, the second of four children . Dahl spent his young life in and around Montana all the way up through his college years...
-directed Unforgettable
Unforgettable (film)
Unforgettable is a 1996 thriller with science fiction elements, directed by John Dahl and starring Ray Liotta and Linda Fiorentino. The movie is about a man named David Krane , who is obsessed with finding out who murdered his wife....
with Ray Liotta
Ray Liotta
[File:Ray Liotta is an American actor, best known for his portrayal of Henry Hill in the crime-drama Goodfellas, directed by Martin Scorsese and his role as Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams...
and Linda Fiorentino
Linda Fiorentino
Linda Fiorentino is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in the films Dogma, Vision Quest, Men in Black, After Hours and The Last Seduction.-Personal life:...
, followed by The Story of Us
The Story of Us
The Story of Us is a 1999 American film directed by Rob Reiner, and starring Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer as a couple married for fifteen years....
(1999), directed by Rob Reiner
Rob Reiner
Robert "Rob" Reiner is an American actor, director, producer, writer, and political activist.As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence as Archie and Edith Bunker's son-in-law, Michael "Meathead" Stivic, on All in the Family. That role earned him two Emmy Awards during the 1970s...
and featuring Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
and Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work...
, in which she portrays their daughter Erin. Her next major role was playing Mona Hibbard as a young girl (Minnie Driver
Minnie Driver
Minnie Driver is an English actress and singer-songwriter. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting, as well as for an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for her work in the television series The Riches.- Early life...
played the character as an adult) in the film Beautiful, directed by Sally Field
Sally Field
Sally Margaret Field is an American actress, singer, producer, director, and screenwriter. In each decade of her career, she has been known for major roles in American TV/film culture, including: in the 1960s, for Gidget or Sister Bertrille on The Flying Nun ; in the 1970s, for Sybil , Smokey and...
, also starring Joey Lauren Adams
Joey Lauren Adams
Joey Lauren Adams is an American actress who has appeared in more than thirty films. She is known for her distinctive, raspy voice and for her roles in View Askewniverse films, particularly Mallrats and Chasing Amy, with the latter giving her a Golden Globe for Best Actress nomination.-Career:She...
and Kathleen Turner
Kathleen Turner
Mary Kathleen Turner is an American actress. She came to fame during the 1980s, after roles in the Hollywood films Body Heat, Peggy Sue Got Married, Romancing the Stone, The War of the Roses, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Prizzi's Honor...
.
Rennison continued to work on more Canadian projects such as the short lived but critically acclaimed These Arms of Mine
These Arms of Mine
These Arms of Mine was a Canadian television drama series, which aired on CBC Television in the 2000-01 television season.The show revolved around a group of professional friends in their 30s living in Vancouver, British Columbia...
for CBC
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
, which landed her a Gemini Award
Gemini Award
The Gemini Awards are annual television broadcasting industry awards in Canada.First awarded in 1986, the Geminis celebrate the achievements of TV members of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Essentially, it presents awards for the best television productions in Canada. Awards are...
nomination, and the Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
winning casting director Coreen Mayrs' independent film A Feeling Called Glory (based on the short story "The Presbyterian Sidewalk" by Barbara Gowdy
Barbara Gowdy
Barbara Gowdy, CM is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. Born in Windsor, Ontario, she is the long-time partner of poet Christopher Dewdney and resides in Toronto.-Literary career:...
), for which Rennison won a Gemini in 2001, making her the youngest ever winner at 13. In 2005, Chris Haddock (of Canadian drama "Davinci's Inquest"), who was familiar with her work, hand selected her to play a variation of Kelly Ellard (convicted killer of Reena Virk) for a recurring role in "Davinci's City Hall". Most recently Rennison has appeared in the films American Venus
American Venus
American Venus is a Canadian drama, the film was directed by Bruce Sweeney, and stars Rebecca De Mornay, Jane McGregor, and Matt Craven.-Plot:...
, Boot Camp
Boot Camp (film)
Boot Camp is a 2007 psychological suspense thriller feature film written by Agatha Dominik and John Cox and directed by Christian Duguay.The film's working title was Straight Edge and was shot in Fiji as the first film to utilize the southwest Pacific Ocean island country's five-year-old incentive...
with Mila Kunis
Mila Kunis
Milena "Mila" Kunis is an American actress. Her work includes the role of Jackie Burkhart on the TV series That '70s Show and the voice of Meg Griffin on the animated series Family Guy...
, and What Goes Up starring Hilary Duff
Hilary Duff
Hilary Erhard Duff is an American actress, singer-songwriter, entrepreneur, and author. After working in local theater plays and television commercials in her childhood, she achieved fame playing the title role in the Disney Channel television series Lizzie McGuire. She also reprised her role in...
, Steve Coogan
Steve Coogan
Stephen John "Steve" Coogan is a British comedian, actor, writer and producer. Born in Manchester, he began his career as a standup comedian and impressionist, working as a voice artist throughout the 1980s on satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In the early nineties, Coogan began creating...
and Molly Shannon
Molly Shannon
Molly Helen Shannon is an American comic actress best known for her work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1995–2001 and for starring in the films Superstar and Year of the Dog. More recently, she starred in NBC's Kath & Kim from 2008–2009 and on the TBS animated series Neighbors from...
. Rennison has also appeared in the television series Highlander: The Series
Highlander: The Series
Highlander: The Series is a fantasy-adventure television series featuring Duncan MacLeod of the Scottish Clan MacLeod, as the Highlander. It was an offshoot and another alternate sequel of the 1986 feature film with a twist: Connor MacLeod did not win the prize and Immortals still exist post-1985...
, Poltergeist: The Legacy
Poltergeist: The Legacy
Poltergeist: The Legacy is a Canadian horror television series which ran from 1996 to 1999. The series tells the story of the members of a secret society known as the Legacy, and their efforts to protect humankind from occult dangers...
, Millennium
Millennium (TV series)
Millennium is an American television series created by Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files. Millennium aired on the Fox Network from 1996 to 1999. The series was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, though most episodes were ostensibly set in or around Seattle, Washington...
, and The Sentinel
The Sentinel (TV series)
The Sentinel is a Canadian-produced television series that aired on UPN in the United States from 1996 to 1999. It premiered on March 20, 1996, and ran for 65 episodes . The series later reaired on Syfy.-Plot and characters:...
. She appeared twice on Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1 is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate franchise. The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, is based on the 1994 feature film Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich...
, once playing Cassandra.
In 2005, Rennison's mother submitted a recording of Rennison to CityTV
Citytv
Citytv is a Canadian English language television system owned and operated by Rogers Communications under its Rogers Broadcasting Ltd. division...
, a local station holding a contest. Out of thousands of entries, she was selected along with two other girls to meet with Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
-winning and multi-platinum-selling producer/composer/songwriter David Foster
David Foster
David Walter Foster, OC, OBC , is a Canadian musician, record producer, composer, singer, songwriter, and arranger, noted for discovering singers such as Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, and Charice Pempengco; and for producing some of the most successful artists in the world, such as Céline Dion, Toni...
at his Malibu, California, home (featured on the reality television
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
series Princes of Malibu with stepsons Brody Jenner
Brody Jenner
Sam Brody Jenner is an American television personality. He is the son of Olympic decathlete Bruce Jenner and his former wife Linda Thompson.-Reality television:...
and Brandon Jenner). This meeting led to a performance later that year at the David Foster and Friends Celebrity Gala to support The David Foster Foundation in Vancouver.
In 2008, Rennison relocated to New York City to begin training at Circle in the Square Theater School in their two-year acting program. She is currently living between Vancouver, New York and Los Angeles, acting, writing and recording music.