Karen Gillan's Real Name: Karen Sheila Gillan

Quick answer: Karen Gillan's documented full name is Karen Sheila Gillan. She was born on November 28, 1987, in Inverness, Scotland. She is a Scottish actress known as Amy Pond on Doctor Who and later as Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy (Biography.com; Variety).

Real name and early life

A Biography.com profile gives her full name as Karen Sheila Gillan, born November 28, 1987, in Inverness, Scotland, the only child of Raymond and Marie Gillan. The Library of Congress heading is "Gillan, Karen, 1987-." She learned piano at 7 and took part in productions at Charleston Academy, the profile says, then studied acting at Edinburgh's Telford College and at Performing Arts Studio Scotland. At 18 she moved to London to study at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts. Because of her height, looks, and red hair, she was recruited by a modeling agency before she was a working actress; she later played 1960s model Jean Shrimpton in the BBC film We'll Take Manhattan.

Career highlights

Early television work included the sketch series The Kevin Bishop Show and The Well, a set of BBC horror shorts. Biography.com also lists the independent comedy Not Another Happy Ending, directed by John McKay, among her early film credits, and notes that she continued to be interested in acting even while she was modeling and working in runway shows and photo shoots. In May 2009 she was cast as Amy Pond, a companion of the Doctor, on Doctor Who, a role Biography.com calls a career breakthrough. She appeared opposite Matt Smith and later told the Daily Mail, the profile says, that she had to pretend her first audition was for something called "Panic Moon," an anagram of "companion." Her first stage appearance was in John Osborne's Inadmissible Evidence at the Donmar Warehouse in October 2011.

In 2014 she played the villain Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy, a turn she discussed in a Variety interview at the time, describing the character as a combat-focused figure in a film that was also comedic. The Doctor Who DVD credits cited by the Library of Congress and the later Marvel role are the parts most searchers associate with her name.

Name notes for searchers

Karen Sheila Gillan is the documented full name; she has been billed as Karen Gillan. The Biography.com profile also notes the nickname Kaz. Searchers looking for any of these forms, or for Amy Pond or Nebula, are usually aiming at the same person.