Mia Kirshner born January 25, 1975 is a Canadian actress and social activist who works in movies and television series. She is best known for her portrayal of Jenny Schecter on The L Word (2004–2009) and for her role in the 2006 crime film The Black Dahlia as Elizabeth Short. Contents * 1 Early life * 2 Career * 3 Philanthropy * 4 In popular culture * 5 Filmography * 6 References * 7 See also * 8 External links Early life Kirshner was born in Toronto, Ontario, the daughter of Etti, a teacher, and Sheldon Kirshner, a journalist who writes for The Canadian Jewish News. Kirshner is a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors; her father was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany in 1946 and met Kirshner's mother, a Bulgarian Jewish refugee, in Israel. Kirshner had a middle class upbringing and studied Russian literature and 20th-century movie industry at McGill University in Montreal. Her younger sister, Lauren Kirshner, a writer, was involved in the I Live Here proje...