Kirshner was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the daughter of Etti, a teacher of English, and Sheldon Kirshner, a journalist who wrote 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 studied Russian literature and 20th-century Read more...

In 1993, Kirshner played a dominatrix in Denys Arcand's movie Love and Human Remains and won a Genie nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role. The year after she starred in Atom Egoyan's Exotica. In 1996, she appeared in The Crow: City of Angels.

Kirshner appeared in the first three episodes of 24 as bisexual terrorist Mandy in 2001. She would later reprise the role Read more...

Kirshner has finished working on the book I Live Here, which she co-produced with ex-Adbusters staffers Paul Shoebridge and Michael Simons, as well as writer James MacKinnon. In the book, women and children refugees from places such as Chechnya, Juárez (Mexico) and Malawi, Africa will tell their life stories. The book features original material from well-known comic and graphic artists, including Read more...