Few actresses have the opportunity to play multiple roles simultaneously. And even fewer capture the moment the way Tatiana Maslany did in her roles as “The Clone Club” on the hit BBC America series, “Orphan Black”. But Tatiana got her start as an actress long before the series launched in 2014 and looking at her history, it’s no surprise the level of success she’s achieved over the course of her career.
Born in Regina, Saskatchewan on September 22, 1985, Tatiana is the oldest of Dan and Renate Maslany’s three children. Tatiana’s mother, Renate, is a professional translator and taught her children German at home from an early age. Tatiana also attended a French Immersion program for elementary school. French Immersion is a type of teaching strategy in which only the primary language (in this case French) is spoken. Children learn by being completely immersed in the new language and that is how Tatiana became functionally tri-lingual. And, surely, this is a skill that helped her to develop her talent for characterization and unique accents later in her career.
It seems that Tatiana has always been drawn to the performance arts and has been actively training for most of her life. She began taking dance lessons when she was only four years old, graduating to theatre and music by the time she reached the ripe old age of nine. As a young girl, Tatiana would travel with her parents to take acting jobs, which was a good experience for her career but made connecting with friends at school difficult. Feeling like a bit of an outsider, Tatiana continued to pursue work in her career.
Tatiana describes her time competing in the high school Canadian Improv Games as “one of the biggest joys of [her] high school experience” and attributes her acting flexibility to the time and effort she put into honing her improv skills. And thanks to the talents she developed during these times, her film career launched in the early 2000s.
Early films in her career included sequels to horror classics Ginger Snaps and Stir of Echoes and even a role in zombie horror master George A. Romero’s “Diary of the Dead”. But horror was just the beginning for Tatiana and in 2010 she had her breakout role, starring as Ruby in “Grown Up Movie Star”.The film presented at The Sundance Film Festival and won a Special Jury Prize for acting. “Grown Up Movie Star” was influential and controversial, but the most important influence that it had for Tatiana was launching her into high-profile roles in the future.
The success of “Grown Up Movie Star” catapulted Tatiana’s career to more A-List projects such as “The Vow” in 2012, which included co-stars Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum, and Jessica Lange. But it was in 2013 that her career-defining role in “Orphan Black” made Tatiana a household name and rocketed her to stardom.
Premiering on BBC America, “Orphan Black” was a science fiction series about a group of women who discover that they are clones and join together to solve the mystery of their origins and who’s after them. Not only was the show well-written and produced, it featured Tatiana in the roles of all the clones and included many scenes in which she was playing up to five characters or more simultaneously. Tatiana’s performances stood out because each clone was obviously and distinctly different in so many ways. Through the course of the series (which had five season) Tatiana created fully realized versions of each of the clones and completely transformed her mannerisms, accents, and personality. Her talent for the project was described by one critic as “Olympic” level acting.
Critics were shocked with Maslany wasn’t nominated for Emmy awards for the first two seasons of the show but she was eventually nominated for Lead Actress in 2015 and 2018 and won the award in 2016. Tatiana did manage to win her share of awards for her performances on “Orphan Black”, including two Critics Choice Awards, a TCA Award, and a Golden Globe. The series itself was also nominated for a number of awards.
“Orphan Black” spawned a Japanese spin-off series, an comic book series, and there is rumored to be a spin-off series in the works at AMC.
Since the series ended back in 2017, Tatiana has continued to perform in films with A-List actors and receives accolades for her performances. She has made news most recently for the rumors and speculation that she will star in a She-Hulk Disney+ series. These rumors seemed to be confirmed by a Tweet from Mark Ruffalo that “welcomed Tatiana to the family” and a Tweet from the series head writer. But as of November 2020, Tatiana denies that she will be starring in the role. Fans suspect she’s simply honoring her NDA (the same thing happened to Jason Momoa and Paul Rudd back in the day). But whether or not Tatiana ends up in the role, it is certain that she has come a long way from improv and television movies to being in conversations with Disney, perhaps the biggest and most well-known studio in the world.
One thing is certain, at 35, Tatiana doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. Her career is as on track as ever and her skill as an actor only seen to be getting better and better. We’re sure to see lots more from her in the future and she’s sure to experience many more successes as she goes. We look forward to seeing where her path takes her and, in the meantime, re-watching “Orphan Black” is always a great way to spend a weekend indoors.
