Early life

Paré was born in Montreal, Quebec, the daughter of Anthony Paré, the former chair of the education department at McGill University, and Louise Mercier, a conference interpreter. She grew up in the Montreal neighbourhood of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and has three brothers. She speaks both English and French. Her family is Catholic.

Paré's father was a drama teacher who toured with a theater company, her mother acted in amateur productions, and her uncle Paul was a comedian with the sketch comedy troupe Radio Free Vestibule. She would watch her father at rehearsals as a child and became interested in acting while helping him learn his lines for a production of The Tempest. She attended Villa Maria, a private Catholic high school in Montreal. She studied drama at TheatreWorks and appeared in over half a dozen amateur theatre productions as a teenager, including roles as Maid Marian in Robin Hood and Lucy in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Career

Paré landed a small role in the television film Bonanno: A Godfather's Story during her final year in high school, which convinced her to pursue acting as a career. She also had small roles in an episode of the horror series Big Wolf on Campus and the 1999 French film En Vacances. She dropped out of the fine arts program at Montreal's Dawson College and pursued acting for two years. At one point, she worked as a photographer's assistant on automotive photo shoots. After Paré auditioned for a bit part for the independent film Stardom (2000), director Denys Arcand chose her to star in the film. She played a naive ice hockey player propelled to international stardom as a supermodel. The comedic satire closed the 2000 Cannes Film Festival with mixed reviews from critics. Paré became the Canadian film industry's "it girl" following the film's release. She was also voted one of the 25 most beautiful people in Canada by a Canadian magazine, but did not take the title very seriously.

Paré next starred in Lost and Delirious (2001), a story of two young lovers set in a girls' boarding school. The film debuted to mixed reviews at the Sundance Film Festival. The performances of Paré and her co-stars were, however, widely praised. Paré appeared in the miniseries Random Passage in 2002, based on a series of award-winning novels by Bernice Morgan. Also that year, she appeared in the miniseries Napoléon as the emperor's mistress and had a cameo appearance as a pop singer in Deepa Mehta's Bollywood/Hollywood (2002). In 2003, she starred in the girl gang thriller film Posers, after which she appeared in the CTV miniseries The Death and Life of Nancy Eaton, in the title role of murdered heiress Nancy Eaton.

Paré made her Hollywood debut in the 2004 film Wicker Park. She starred in Lives of the Saints that year. She was in the mockumentary See This Movie (2004) and had a role on the teen drama series Jack & Bobby that year. The WB series was about two brothers, one whom grows up to be the U.S. President; Paré's character grows up to be the First Lady. Paré shot the CBS pilot Protect and Serve in 2007. She also co-starred in the independent French-Canadian romantic comedy Jusqu'à toi.

Paré had a small role in The Trotsky, a comedy filmed in Montreal in 2008, and filmed Suck, a vampire horror-comedy written and directed by Rob Stefaniuk. She learned to play the bass guitar for the role. Suck premiered at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival as part of the Contemporary World Cinema programme. Paré was nominated for a 2010 Canadian Comedy Award for best female performance in film for the role.

Paré filmed Red Coat Justice in 2009. She played a groupie in the 2010 comedy film Hot Tub Time Machine. That year, she also appeared in the Canadian comedy Peepers. The film, about pleasures in voyeurism, competed in the Just for Laughs film festival in Montreal in July 2010. Also in 2010, Paré joined the cast of the AMC television series Mad Men, playing Don Draper's second wife, Megan Calvet. Paré's character had a prominent role in the Season 5 opener of Mad Men, in which she danced and sang a version of the 1960 Gillian Hills hit "Zou Bisou Bisou". Her recording of the song was subsequently released as a download and on vinyl.

In 2011, Paré appeared in Beholder. The short film, directed by Nisha Ganatra, premiered as part of the ITVS/PBS series FutureStates. She also starred in The Way of the West, a western about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, filmed in a remote location outside of Whitehorse, Yukon, and in the comedic short Sorry, Rabbi, directed by Mark Slutsky.

In 2012, Paré appeared on stage with The Jesus and Mary Chain, singing "Just Like Honey", for two concerts in Buffalo, New York and Toronto. That same year, she filmed the romantic comedy, Standby, in Luxembourg and Ireland; she plays the female lead, Alice. It was released in 2014.

Personal life

In 2007, Paré married writer and producer Joseph M. Smith. They divorced in 2010.

As of May 2012, it was reported that she was dating musician John Kastner. In October 2014, Paré was reported to be expecting her first child with Kastner. On March 19, 2015, Paré gave birth to a son, who was named Blues Anthony Paré Kastner.

Paré is Catholic and a vegan.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Bonanno: A Godfather's Story	Rosalie Profaci	Television film
2000	Stardom	Tina Menzhal
2000	Holiday	Carole
2000	Possible Worlds	Party Guest #1
2001	Lost and Delirious	Victoria "Tori" Moller
2002	Bollywood/Hollywood	Kimberly
2003	Posers	Adria
2003	Death and Life of Nancy Eaton, TheThe Death and Life of Nancy Eaton	Nancy Eaton	Television film
2004	See This Movie	Samantha Brown
2004	Wicker Park	Rebecca
2004	Deadly Friends	Nancy Eaton	Television film
2004	Lives of the Saints	Rita Amherst	Television film
2007	Protect and Serve	Hope Cook	Television film
2009	Jusqu'à toi	Liza
2009	Trotsky, TheThe Trotsky	Laura
2009	Suck	Jennifer
2010	Hot Tub Time Machine	Tara
2010	Peepers	Helen
2011	Sorry, Rabbi	Marie-Helene	Short film
2011	Beholder	Sasha	Short film
2011	Way of the West, TheThe Way of the West	Amethyst
2013	Standby	Alice
2015	Brooklyn	Miss Fortini
2016	Desiree Dream	Samantha Baxter (rumored)	Pre-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	Baby-Sitters Club, TheThe Baby-Sitters Club		Episode: "Mary Anne and the Brunettes"
1999	Big Wolf on Campus	Tanya	Episode: "Time and Again"
2002	Napoléon	Eleanore Denuelle	Episode: "1800-1807"
2002	Random Passage	Annie Vincent (Age 15)	Miniseries
2004-2005	Jack & Bobby	Courtney Benedict	21 episodes
2007	Life	Julia	Episode: "The Fallen Woman"
2010-2015	Mad Men	Megan Calvet Draper	43 episodes
2013	Satisfaction	Robyn	Episode: "First Contact"

Discography

• "Zou Bisou Bisou" - single - music download, vinyl special edition - released March 26, 2012

[ Source: Wikipedia ]