b. February 23, 1970, Montreal, Quebec


Adopted as a child by an alcoholic father and a mother who struggled with suicidal depression, Marie-Josée Croze is a striking performer with an understated, almost unspoken intensity who has admitted a fondness for characters with a dark side, “characters who fight.”

Croze studied visual arts before being attracted to acting while in a theatre class in college. She got her start in 1990 on the Quebec television drama Le Choix and has been acting in Canadian and American films ever since. In 1993 she made her U.S. television debut with the TV movie Zelda and also appeared in George Mihalka’s box-office hit La Florida. She continued working as a supporting player until she garnered international attention after winning a Best Actress Genie for her deeply conflicted performance in Denis Villeneuve’s multiple-Genie-winning Maëlstrom (2000). She was then elevated to leading lady status in such films as Des Chiens dans la neige (2002) and Ascension (2003).

After impressive supporting work in Atom Egoyan’s Ararat (2002) and Vincenzo Natali’s Nothing (2003), her career received a massive boost when she received the award for Best Actress at the Festival de Cannes for her role as a heroin addict in Denys Arcand’s universally acclaimed Les Invasions barbares (2003). Considering her part a supporting one, Croze was not even at Cannes for the awards, and learned of the honour while being interviewed on a live TV talk show in Montreal. She later won a Best Supporting Actress Genie for the role.

Croze has since begun acting more extensively in France and currently splits her time between Montreal and Paris. She has also had supporting roles in Hollywood films such as Battlefield Earth (2000) and Taking Lives (2004) and is currently in pre-production on a film directed by Steven Spielberg about the hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics.