Alison Pill (born 27 November 1985; age 39) is a Canadian actress who played Doctor Agnes Jurati in the first and second seasons of Star Trek: Picard.
Besides Patrick Stewart, she is the only actor to appear in every episode of seasons 1 and 2.
She is perhaps best known for her roles in the film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) and the series The Newsroom (2012-14) and American Horror Story (2017).
Early life and work[]
Pill was born in Toronto, Canada to an Estonian father. She was encouraged from a young age to pursue an acting career and attended Vaughan Road Academy in its Interact program, designed for studying dance, music, athletics, and theatre. She appeared as a background child performer in an episode of Kung Fu: The Legend Continues and debuted as a child actress at the age of eleven in an episode of The New Ghostwriter Mysteries.
She continued her career as a child actress with appearances in episodes of Fast Track (starring Keith Carradine and Duncan Regehr, with Fred Williamson), PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal (with Matt Frewer), The Last Don II (1998, with Kirstie Alley, Jason Isaacs, and Larissa Laskin), and the TV movies Degas and the Dancer (1998) and Stranger in Town (1998).
As a teenager, Pill continued to appear in numerous TV movies along with a number of television guest-appearances and film roles. She played Judy Garland's daughter, Lorna Luft in the TV movie Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (2001), with Victor Garber playing her father, Sid Luft. Her other TV movie credits include What Katy Did (1999, with Dean Stockwell), Baby (2000, with Keith Carradine), the educational film The Dinosaur Hunter (2000, with Christopher Plummer), The Other Me (2000, with Mark L. Taylor, directed by Manny Coto), and The Pilot's Wife (2002).
She also had a small role in the film Skipped Parts (2000, with Michael Greyeyes) and co-starred in the comedies Fast Food High (2003, with Kevin Tighe) and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004, with Carol Kane, Sheila McCarthy, and Kyle Kass). She guested in episodes of Poltergeist: The Legacy and Traders (starring Bruce Gray).
Television work[]
Already a busy actress as a child and teen, Pill's career continued steadily as an adult. In 2006, she guest-starred in an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent and in 2008, an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (starring Paul Guilfoyle, Wallace Langham and Liz Vassey, with Michael Ensign and Michael G. Hagerty, co-written by Naren Shankar).
In 2006, Pill co-starred with Susanna Thompson, Fran Bennett, and Gillian Jacobs in the controversial drama series The Book of Daniel which was cancelled after eight episodes filmed and only four aired due to religious groups' protests. In 2009, she had a recurring role in the US version of In Treatment and in the next year, a co-starring role in The Pillars of the Earth.
From 2012 to 2014, Pill co-starred as reporter Maggie Jordan in The Newsroom, where guest stars included Stephen Root, Lauren Tom, Derek Webster, Deborah Strang, Don McManus, and Ron Ostrow. In 2017, Pill co-starred in the seventh season of American Horror Story, with Nanrisa Lee and John Carroll Lynch in guest roles.
Between the first and the second seasons of Picard, Pill appeared in a major supporting role in Hulu's Devs (2020, served by digital VFX company Double Negative) where she played a similar part as scientist Katie. The similarities with Picard did not end there as the major theme of the series was furthermore revealed to revolve around the preservation of a consciousness in an artificial construct, comparable to the one Data had been preserved in, in the Picard first season finale "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2".
In 2021, Pill co-starred in the first season of Amazon Prime's Them, with Tim Russ, Dominic Burgess, and Bonnie Gordon guesting. In 2023, she co-starred in Hello Tomorrow!.
Film work[]
Besides her television work, Pill also appeared in numerous feature films. She played activist Anne Kronenberg in Milk (2008, with Cully Fredricksen, Kelvin Yu Kelvin Han Yee). She gained wider recognition with her turn as drummer Kim Pine in the cult fantasy comedy film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010, with Bill Hader).
Her further film credits include two films by Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris (2011) and To Rome with Love (2012), Snowpiercer (2013), Cooties (2014, with Rainn Wilson), Hail, Caesar! (2016, Clancy Brown, Dennis Cockrum, Patrick Fischler, Robert Picardo, and Clement von Franckenstein), Miss Sloane (2016, with Grace Lynn Kung and Andrew Moodie), and Vice (2018, with Don McManus and Tyler Perry).
Pill also appeared in Trap (2024, with Vanessa Smythe) and Young Werther (2024, with Amrit Kaur).
Star Trek: Picard regular cast |
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Appearances as Agnes Jurati[]
- PIC:
- "Remembrance" (Season 1)
- "Maps and Legends"
- "The End is the Beginning"
- "Absolute Candor"
- "Stardust City Rag"
- "The Impossible Box"
- "Nepenthe"
- "Broken Pieces"
- "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1"
- "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2"
- "The Star Gazer" (Season 2)
- "Penance"
- "Assimilation"
- "Watcher"
- "Fly Me to the Moon"
- "Two of One"
- "Monsters"
- "Mercy"
- "Hide and Seek"
- "Farewell"
Additional characters[]
