Thora Birch

Thora Birch, born March 11, 1982 is an American actress. In 1988 she made her debut in a film with Purple People Eater. For the performance, she was awarded the Young Artist Award as "Best Young Actress under nine years of age". Birch rose to prominence as a child actress and appeared in films such as All I Want for Christmas (1991), Patriot Games (1992), Hocus Pocus (1993), Monkey Trouble (1994), Now and Then (1995) as well as Alaska (1996).Her debut role in the film industry came in 1999 when she played Jane Burnham in the highly acclaimed film American Beauty, for which she was awarded a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Birch then appeared as Enid in the cult classic Ghost World (2001), getting a nomination to the Golden Globe for Best Actress. Birch received an Emmy Award for her performance in Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story in 2003. Birch was also on Dungeons & Dragons (2000) (2001), The Hole (2004), Silver City (2004), Dark Corners (2006) and Winter of Frozen Dreams (2009). Birch has also appeared as Whisperer Mary / Gamma in season 10 of The Walking Dead (2019-2020). Birch was born in Los Angeles, the eldest child of Jack Birch and Carol Connors. Birch who's family had the surname Biersch is German-Jewish, and Scandinavian. Birch also has French-Canadian, French-Canadian, and Italian roots.  Her name, "Thora," is an abbreviation of Thora, the Norse god of thunder and lightning ("Thor") (which would be her name had she had been a child. She has a younger brothernamed Kian Bolt Birch.Birch's parents were former film actors, who both participated in the film Deep Throat. Based on their own experiences working in the entertainment industry and their own experience, they were hesitant initially to promote Thora. However, Thora's photograph was viewed by agents after a babysitter saw her imitation commercials. The first time she got noticed was around the age of 4, when her babysitter took her along to an audition for the Quaker Oats commercial.