Carrie-Anne Moss on AllMovie

Exhibiting both grit and steely, almost otherworldly beauty, Canadian actress Carrie-Anne Moss rapidly ascended from obscurity to international stardom as the latex-clad cyber warrior Trinity in the Wachowski brothers' The Matrix. Moss' striking performance led many viewers to question where she had been all these years; like many other fledgling Hollywood actresses, she had done time as a model and an actress in second-rate films while waiting for her big break.

Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, on August 21, 1967, Moss decided that she wanted to be an actress at an early age. The youngest of two children raised by a single mother, she grew up taking acting classes, and at the age of 20, she left Canada to pursue a career as a model. During a modeling stint in Spain, Moss managed to land a role on the TV serial Dark Justice. Upon her return to North America, she moved to L.A. and was cast on the Aaron Spelling series Models, Inc.

After making her film debut in 1996's Sabotage, Moss continued to do TV work (most notably on the Toronto-based F/X: The Series) and appeared in fairly obscure films. Thanks to her starring role in The Matrix in 1999, Moss was soon in great demand. In 2000 alone, she could be seen in no less than four films, including the action comedy The Crew, Red Planet, and as a bartender with questionable motives in director Christopher Nolan's unconventional breakthrough, Memento. Subsequently taking another stab at sci-fi opposite Val Kilmer in Red Planet, Moss would next appear in Lasse Hallstrom's romantic drama Chocolat before stepping back into her vinyl bodysuit for The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions (both 2003).

With the Matrix sequels behind her, Moss next starred opposite Aaron Eackhart in the serial-killer thriller Suspect Zero, a film that failed to excite either audiences or critics. Over the next three years, Moss could primarily be seen in supporting roles in small indie films like Mini's First Time and Fido. And while those films largely failed to garner audience attention, Moss received high marks for the Canadian drama Snow Cake. Also starring Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver, the film netted several 2007 Genie Award nominations, but only won one: Best Supporting Actress, which went to Moss.

2007 also gave Moss her first taste of financial success since the Matrix films with the surprise-hit thriller Disturbia, a thinly-veiled teenage retread of Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece Rear Window. The actress followed this up with the gently tragic, slice-of-life drama Fireflies in the Garden (2008), joining Julia Roberts, Ryan Reynolds and Emily Watson in the story of family members who grapple with their feelings of love and commitment to one another when a devastating crisis occurs. In the years to come, Moss would remain a force on screen, appearing in movies like Love Hurts, and on TV series like Chuck and Vegas.