Pollyanna McIntosh grew up in Portugal and Colombia before returning to her birthplace of Scotland, where she first began performing, on stage, at The Edinburgh Festival. At 16, she left for London and soon became involved in indie filmmaking (her first paid gig was as a stoner in Irvine Welsh's Acid House (1998)) and theatre, both as an actress and director. A move to Los Angeles in 2004 brought on more theatre, including a production of "The Woolgatherer", in which she directed Anne Dudek (a regular on Mad Men (2007)/Big Love (2006)) and David Dayan Fisher (a regular on 24 heures chrono (2001)/NCIS: Enquêtes spéciales (2003)) to great reviews. She then landed her first US movie role as the manipulative, born-again Christian, "Stacy", in Headspace (2005). It was as the wild "Thumper Wint" in the comedy, Sex and Death 101 (2007) (Simon Baker/Winona Ryder), by Fatal Games (1988) writer Daniel Waters, that the critics began to take note of her talent, citing a unique blend of powerful sexuality and irreverent humor. Her darker side was shown to devastating effect in the noir thriller, 9 Lives of Mara (2007), where she played "Mara", a child's nightmare of a stepmother. Now living between LA and London, her recent work has had great variety. Exam (2009) is a Brit thriller in which she plays an ambitious businesswoman hiding a secret to win a coveted job. BAFTA-nominated as Outstanding British Debut and winner of Best Independent at the Santa Barbara Film Fest, Pollyanna's performance in Exam (2009) was noted as "smart, sassy and sexy in equal parts....the emotional center of the film" by Empire Magazine with Screen International praising her capacity to find the "emotional vulnerability" of her seemingly tough and ambitious character and GQ simply stating "stunning Pollyanna McIntosh is an enormously talented actress". Como Quien No Quiere La Cosa (2013) (As if you Don't Like it!), is a hilarious South American farce in which she plays Brit comedian Trevor Lock's disgruntled wife. Shot in Peru, she speaks Spanish throughout. Shot in Peru, the film will debut in the US and Europe in 2012. In Cadavres à la pelle (2010) (number 1 comedy in the UK winter 2010), directed by John Landis, she plays dippy best friend, "Mary", to Isla Fisher's "Ginny", with Simon Pegg, Andy Serkis, Jessica Hynes, Tom Wilkinson and Tim Curry. Her demanding turn as the lead in Lucky McKee's The Woman (2011) made shock waves at Sundance 2011, brought rave reviews and topped the New York Times readers' favorite movies poll. For her performance, she was awarded three Best Actress awards, including Total Film's Frightfest Award and Fright Meter's. As the female lead in the BBC political comedy, Bob Servant Independent (2013), starring Brian Cox, she played the professionally critical "Philippa Edwards", a very different sort of scary. Two upcoming features once again show diversity: Love Eternal (2013), a drama in which she plays the female lead as suicidal grieving mother "Naomi Clarke", and in the raucous upcoming Ordure! (2013), starring opposite James McAvoy and Jamie Bell, the adaptation of Irvine Welsh's balls-out novel, she plays the lusty "Size Queen". White Settlers (2014) is a just-completed thriller set in her birthplace of Scotland. It will be out in early 2014.
