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Malin Maria Akerman (born Åkerman; 12 May 1978) is a Swedish-American actress. In the early 2000s, she had several small television and film parts in both Canadian and American productions, including The Utopian Society (2003) and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004). Following a supporting role on the HBO mockumentary sitcom The Comeback (2005), she gained her first co-starring roles in the romantic comedies The Heartbreak Kid (2007) and 27 Dresses (2008). Akerman's big screen breakthrough came in the 2009 superhero film Watchmen as Silk Spectre II, for which she earned a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She had supporting and starring roles in the box office hits The Proposal (2009), Couples Retreat (2009), Rock of Ages (2012), and Rampage (2018). Her other works include the critically acclaimed films I'll See You in My Dreams (2015), The Final Girls (2015), and To the Stars (2019). On television, she received critical praise for her lead role on the short-lived ABC comedy series Trophy Wife (2013–2014). She was also part of the main cast on the Adult Swim comedy series Childrens Hospital from 2010 to 2016, and the Showtime drama series Billions from 2016 to 2019. Apart from acting and modelling, Akerman had a brief music career in the early 2000s as the lead vocalist for alternative rock band the Petalstones, which released its debut studio album in 2005. She subsequently left the project to focus on her acting career. She has been married twice, first from 2007 to 2014 to Petalstones drummer Roberto Zincone, with whom she has a son, and, since 2018, to English actor Jack Donnelly. Early life Akerman was born in Stockholm on 12 May 1978, the daughter of aerobics teacher and part-time model Pia (née Sundström) and insurance broker Magnus Åkerman. When she was two years old, the family moved to Canada after her father was offered a job there. Four years later her parents divorced and her father moved back to Sweden. She was raised as a Buddhist. After her mother remarried, they moved to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. Her mother divorced again in Åkerman's teenage years. Åkerman attended many different schools, including Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School in St. Catharines, Ontario. She visited her father in Falsterbo during school breaks and talked to him regularly over the phone. She cites her parents as "supportive, positive influences" in her life.Akerman's mother introduced her to modelling while she was still in primary school. At age 16, she was discovered by Ford Models in a shopping mall in St. Catharines. She was signed to the agency and later won a contract with skincare company Noxzema. She soon moved to Toronto while attending North Toronto Collegiate Institute and later Dante Alighieri Academy. At the age of 18, inspired by the "helplessness" she sometimes felt during her childhood, she decided to become a child psychologist. She supported her education by modelling for television commercials and catalogue layouts. While studying for a year at York University in Toronto, she was simultaneously offered guest roles on television as a result of her exposure in commercials. She saw the acting roles as further opportunities to pay for her education but found herself enjoying acting, and later dropped out of school to become an actress. She moved to Los Angeles in 2001 to pursue her acting career full-time. Career Early roles (1997–2008) Akerman made her acting debut on the Canadian science fiction series Earth: Final Conflict in 1997 in a smaller role as a robot. She originally landed a role on an MTV pilot with Rachel McAdams but the project was never picked up by the network. In 2000 she guest starred on Relic Hunter and had a smaller role in the American film The Skulls. The following year she made appearances on the series Doc, Twice in a Lifetime and Witchblade. In 2001 she moved to Los Angeles, California, in hopes of pursuing a broader acting career. At first, she worked as a waitress and stayed at a friend's house. In 2002 she received a role in the film The Utopian Society. The film was edited by Francesco Sondelli, guitarist for alternative rock band Ozono. Sondelli asked Åkerman to help the band with song lyrics and later asked her to sing. Åkerman subsequently became the band's singer, and they changed their name to the Petalstones. The band's debut album Stung was released in August 2005, but Åkerman eventually left to focus on her acting career. She described her singing as "sort of a self-made, self-taught, if-you-can't-hit-the-note-scream-it kind of thing". In 2004 she got a small role in the film Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, but considered moving back to Canada as most of her auditions failed. She was then cast in a supporting role as Juna on the HBO television series The Comeback, with Lisa Kudrow in the main role. Kudrow played a former sitcom star who tried to restart her career. Akerman's appearance on the show garnered media attention and resulted in her being offered more roles. A year later, she guest starred on an episode of Love Monkey and two episodes of Entourage. Before the Entourage episodes aired, she landed a role in the 2007 comedy film The Brothers Solomon. The film was a box office bomb and received largely critical reviews.Akerman signed up for a role opposite Ben Stiller in the comedy film The Heartbreak Kid, directed by the Farrelly Brothers, in 2006. She played Lila, the newly wedded wife of Stiller's character. The film follows the couple's honeymoon in Mexico, where Stiller's character falls in love with another woman and realizes that the marriage was a mistake. A remake of the 1972 film of the same title, it was released in October 2007 to generally poor reviews, as critics deemed it "neither as daring nor as funny" as the directors' earlier films. Akerman's performance garnered more positive reviews; Desson Thomson of The Washington Post called her a "fabulous comic partner" to Stiller, while Roger Moore of Times Herald-Record asserted that she had outperformed him. The film grossed US$14 million in its opening weekend in the United States, and went on to gross US$127 million globally.In 2007, Akerman joined the cast of 27 Dresses, a romantic comedy film directed by Anne Fletcher with Katherine Heigl in the lead role. The film follows Heigl's character Jane, who has always been the bridesmaid and dreams of her own wedding. Åkerman played Jane's sister Tess. The film was shot during the summer of 2007, and was released in January 2008 to weak critical reception as it was considered "clichéd and mostly forgettable". The film was more successful commercially, with a gross of US$160 million. Akerman played the title role in Bye Bye Sally, a short film directed by Paul Leyden and based on Lisa Mannetti's short story Everybody Wins. The film premiered at the 2009 Newport Beach Film Festival. Breakthrough with Watchmen (2009–2011) In 2009, Akerman starred as Silk Spectre II .... Discover the Alex Altman popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Alex Altman books.