Child acting Her first appearance on screen was at the age of four, as Molly in the film
One Magic Christmas. She was in the pilot episode for
Friday the 13th – The Series and appeared in a small role in William Fruet's sci-fi horror film
Blue Monkey, both in 1987. At age of eight, she was cast as
Ramona Quimby in the television series
Ramona, based on
Beverly Cleary's books. That same year, she played one of the lead characters in
Terry Gilliam's
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Polley burst into the public eye in 1990 as Sara Stanley on the popular CBC television series
Road to Avonlea. The series made her famous and financially independent, and she was hailed as "Canada's Sweetheart" by the popular press. The show was picked up by the Disney Channel for distribution in the United States. At the age of 12 (around 1991), Polley attended an awards ceremony while wearing a peace sign to protest the
first Gulf War. Disney executives asked her to remove it, and she refused. This soured her relationship with Disney, but she continued on
Road to Avonlea until 1994. The show ran until 1996; Polley did return as Sara Stanley for an episode in 1995 and for the series finale. In 1994 Polley made her theatre debut at the
Stratford Festival playing Alice in
Alice Through the Looking Glass, an adaptation of
Lewis Carroll's book of the same name. Polley ended her run early, claiming complications from scoliosis. In 2022 she revealed she had in fact been suffering from intense stage fright, something that continued to plague her into adulthood.
Adult acting Polley appeared as Lily on the CBC television series
Straight Up, which ran from 1996 to 1998, winning the
Gemini Award for Best Performance in a Children's or Youth Program or Series for her role. By age thirteen, however, Polley was dissatisfied with her juvenile acting career. Her experience with director Atom Egoyan in a small but critical role in his sophisticated adult drama
Exotica turned things around, as she revealed in a 2022 conversation with the director, filmed for Criterion's
Exotica Blu-ray. Polley's subsequent role as Nicole Burnell in Egoyan's 1997 film
The Sweet Hereafter brought her considerable attention in the United States; she was a favourite at the
Sundance Film Festival. Her character in the film was an aspiring singer, and on
the film's soundtrack, she performed covers of
The Tragically Hip's "
Courage" and
Jane Siberry's "
One More Colour" and sang the film's title track, which she co-wrote with
Mychael Danna. In 1998, Polley appeared in the critically acclaimed film
Last Night. The following year, she starred as part of the ensemble cast in the film
Go. She was cast in the role of Penny Lane in the big-budget 2000 film
Almost Famous, but dropped out of the project to return to Canada for the low-budget
The Law of Enclosures. Her role in the 2003 film
My Life Without Me garnered the
Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in 2004. In the same year, she starred in a lead role in the
remake of Dawn of the Dead, which was a departure from her other indie roles. In 2005, she starred in
The Secret Life of Words, opposite
Tim Robbins and
Julie Christie. She was nominated for the
European Film Award for Best Actress by the
European Film Academy for her role as Hanna. In 2006, Polley took a role on the acclaimed series
Slings and Arrows during its third and final season. Polley's father, Michael Polley, was a regular on the show during its entire three-season run. She served as a member of the 2007
Cannes Film Festival jury. In 2008, Polley appeared as
Nabby Adams in the
HBO miniseries based on the life of John Adams. Polley played Elise in
Jaco Van Dormael's
Mr. Nobody, which was released in 2010. Critical response has praised the film's artistry and Polley's acting. Later that year, she also appeared in a cameo role in
Bruce MacDonald's film
Trigger. '' at the
2009 Toronto Film Festival . While Polley did not officially retire from acting, after 2010 it would be fifteen years before she appeared onscreen again, with her focus transitioning into a writing and directing career. In 2025 she played a guest role as herself in an episode of the television series
The Studio, having been recruited by series creator
Seth Rogen, a friend and prior collaborator. Polley described the role as an "opportunity to let out a lot of the frustrations I’ve ever had as a director—to finally let them out onscreen," adding that she appreciated the chance to act in a comedy.
Directing In 1999, Polley made her first short film,
The Best Day of My Life, Polley wrote and directed her second feature,
Take This Waltz starring
Michelle Williams,
Luke Kirby,
Seth Rogen, and
Sarah Silverman, which premiered at the
Toronto International Film Festival in 2011. Her documentary film
Stories We Tell premiered at the
69th Venice International Film Festival in competition in the Venice Days category, and its North American premiere followed at the
2012 Toronto International Film Festival. The critically acclaimed documentary examined family secrets in Polley's own childhood. In 2017, Polley executive produced the film
A Better Man (2017). In late 2012, Polley announced that she would be adapting
Margaret Atwood's novel
Alias Grace. Polley first wrote to Atwood asking to adapt the novel when she was 17. They held off for 20 years until she was ready to make the show. In August 2014, during a profile of her work as a director, Polley announced that
Alias Grace was being adapted into a six-part miniseries. In June 2016, the
series was confirmed with Polley writing and producing. The series premiered in 2017 on
CBC Television in Canada; it streams on
Netflix globally, outside of Canada. It received positive reviews from critics. In March 2015, she was hired to potentially write and direct a new adaptation of
Little Women. Her involvement in the project ultimately never went beyond initial discussion. In her 2022 essay collection
Run Towards the Danger, Polley revealed she had been working on a second draft of the
Little Women screenplay when she had a traumatic head injury resulting in
post-concussion syndrome that left her with symptoms for four years so she was temporarily unable to work until she found effective treatment through
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's concussion program. It was subsequently announced in June that, due to scheduling conflicts, Polley would no longer be directing
Looking for Alaska. In an interview, Polley stated that she takes pride in her work and enjoys both acting and directing, but is not keen on combining the two:I like the feeling of keeping them separate. I find that really gratifying. I can't imagine combining those. For me, I love the feeling of using different parts of my brain separately. In a 2015 retrospective of the movie
Go, Mike D'Angelo of
The A.V. Club commented that Polley's decision to go into directing had "deprived the world of many potentially great performances", calling her a "superb actor". In December 2020, it was announced Polley would direct
Women Talking based upon the
novel of the same name by
Miriam Toews for
Orion Pictures. It premiered at the
49th Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2022, and went into wide release on December 23, 2022. It was released to widespread acclaim, with 90% of critics giving it a positive review on
Rotten Tomatoes. Shirley Li of
The Atlantic called it "vibrant cinema," while Anna Bogutskaya of
Time Out said that it "imagines female emancipation as an honest, raging, caring experience." Polley won the
Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay at the
95th Academy Awards, and the film was also nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Picture. In 2023, Polley was revealed to be in talks to direct
Disney's live action adaptation of
Bambi, but in March 2024, it never came to fruition due to Polley reportedly no longer being attached as a director.
Writing Polley has written numerous essays over the years about her experiences as a child star. In 2022, she released her first book of essays, the autobiographical,
Run Towards the Danger which contains six essays that examine aspects of Polley's career on stage, screen, and on film, detailing her roles in a
Stratford Festival production of
Alice Through the Looking Glass, as well as her breakout roles in
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and the TV series
Road to Avonlea. The book also alleged for the first time that Polley had been a victim of
Jian Ghomeshi who she says sexually and physically assaulted her when she was 16 and he was 28. ==Political and social activism==