Q'orianka Kilcher
At fourteen years old, Q'orianka Kilcher emerged into the front ranks of young actresses with her portrayal of Pocahontas opposite Colin Farrell and Christian Bale in Terrence Malick's 'The New World', an epic about the encounter between English and North American societies in the early 1600s. Her performance won her the National Board of Reviews best breakthrough performance of 2006 and the 2006 Alma Award for best Latin American actress in a feature film, as well as numerous nominations and rave reviews.
Q'orianka was born in Schweigmatt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, to a Peruvian indigenous father of Quechua-Huachipaeri background, and an Alaskan-born mother of Swiss-German origin, Saskia. She was raised in Kapa'a, Hawaii. Having started her performing arts career at six years old, she is not only an award-winning actress with high critical acclaim, an amazing singer, lyricist and expert dancer, but also a committed human rights and environmental activist and fearless, powerful young force, who uses her voice as tool to bring the need for universal dignity, compassion, environmental justice and basic Human Rights, to the attention of the international community.
Traveling frequently to speak at youth events, colleges and Universities Q'orianka has been invited as a featured keynote speaker and workshop facilitator at many international conferences and events for organizations such as Amnesty International, the I.F.G. international Forum on Globalization), Amazon Watch I.F.I.P. (International Funders for Indigenous Peoples) and The United Nations/panel discussions entitled "Indigenous Peoples: Human Rights, Dignity and Development with Identity, in collaboration with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
She also lends her celebrity, voice and energy as spokeswoman, collaborator and supporter to several international and national N.G.O.s and organizations such as Amazon Watch, Youth Ambassador Amnesty International (Global Youth Ambassador for women's Rights) A.I.D.E.S.E.P. (Spokesperson and Voice) Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest Federations) The Community School for the Arts foundation (volunteer/spokeswoman) and Thursdays Child (youth counselor) Turning The Tides ((volunteer/spokesperson) Save America's Forrests I.D.E.M. (South Dakota Youth Project) and is a spokeswoman for the American Literacy Campaign. She is presently working with the National Endowment For The Arts " The Big Read" Campaign, and will be recording a Book Review for the Campaign. Q'orianka is also frequently volunteering her time reading Howard Zinn's "The People Speak" at various open to the community staged readings, and just joined the Cast and Starring-Ensemble for the first "People Speak" Film Series (Starring Matt Damon, Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, David Straithern)
In her free time, Q'orianka is an accomplished singer and song-writer and recently launched her own youth driven human rights and environmental organization on-Q initiative, heading off campaigns to connect young Hollywood with youth activist leaders and projects from around the world, in support of environmental sustainability, corporate accountability, basic human rights and universal dignity and compassion in all its forms.
Through her production company, IQ-Films, Q'orianka is also producing several cause driven documentaries and youth-programming projects.
