Carmen Moore

Early life

Carmen Moore is of mixed blood including Wet'suwet'en and is a member of the Hagwilget Village First Nation in Hazelton, British Columbia. She was born in Burnaby, British Columbia and grew up in Coquitlam, British Columbia. She attended Port Moody Senior Secondary School. In 1991 she joined the Spirit Song Native Theatre Co., and worked with them for 9 months. Her first professional theatre gig was with Theatre New Brunswick's Young Company tour in 1992 and got rave reviews. Carmen was nominated for a Jessie Richardson Award for Best Supporting Actress in Fend Players' Danceland in 1993. She continued her work in theatre, as well as auditioning for TV and film. For Firehall Arts Centre's Someday she was nominated for another Jessie, this time for Best Actress.

Career

Carmen has worked steadily in TV and film since 1995. She was nominated for the American "First Americans in the Arts" award, for her role as Chewlynndit in the made for TV movie Brothers of the Frontier (1996). She played Dawn Star, the wife of Sir Ben Kingsley's character "The Great Zamboni", in the movie Spooky House, and in 2004 she worked with world renowned director John Woo for the television film The Robinsons: Lost in Space.

In 2005 first gained recognition for the Citytv and Bravo comedy-drama television show Godiva's. She portrayed the character the Simone, the mysterious, sexy bartender of a restaurant in Yaletown, Vancouver, British Columbia. Carmen was nominated for her performance at the 2006 Leo Awards for Best Lead Performance by a Female in a Dramatic Series for Godiva's.

Moore won the Women in Film and Video's Artistic Merit Award for her portrayal of Rebecca in the Canadian independent feature Unnatural & Accidental, which received honorable mention for Best Canadian Film in the 2006 Vancouver International Film Festival and was featured at TIFF that year. She was also honoured with the UBCP/ACTRA Lorena Gale Woman of Distinction Award in 2014.

In the 2010s Moore landed her best known roles to date. From 2011 to 2015 she was the lead of the gritty APTN TV show Blackstone in the role of Leona Stoney. For this she won three Leo Awards for Best Lead Performance by a Female in a Dramatic Series, in 2011, 2014, and 2016. Moore was also nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role in 2011, was nominated for a 2016 UBCP/ACTRA Award for Blackstone and was nominated for a 2017 Canadian Screen Award. She portrayed the role of Loreen Cassway on the CBC series Arctic Air from 2012 to 2014, for which she was nominated for the Best Supporting Performance by a Female in a Dramatic Series in 2012.

She acted in both shows simultaneously.

Moore is also known for her many roles in the Sci-Fi genre, and 2015 saw her in the role of Special Agent in Charge Sue Adair in Fox's Second Chance

Producing/Directing career

Carmen has dabbled in the producing and directing side of the industry. She was associate producer on Two Indians Talking, and producer on White Indians Walking, both written by Andrew Genaille. Her directing debut happened in 2015 on the short film Ariel Unraveling, a BravoFACT Award winner.

Personal life

Moore divides her time between Vancouver and Los Angeles.