Irene Bedard

Actress

Birthday July 22, 1967

Birth Sign Cancer

Birthplace Anchorage, Alaska, U.S.

Age 56 years old

Nationality United States

Height 1.53 m

#20185 Most Popular

1967

Irene Bedard (born July 22, 1967) is an American actress, who has played mostly lead Native American roles in a variety of films.

1985

Bedard graduated from Dimond High School in Anchorage, Alaska in 1985.

Bedard attended The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she studied musical theater.

1993

In 1993, Bedard married musician Denny Wilson.

Between her films, the pair toured for several years with other musicians in a band called "ID," which came from the initials of their first names, Irene and Deni.

1994

In 1994, Bedard appeared in her first role as Mary Crow Dog in the television production of Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee, which depicted the 1970s standoff between the US government and citizens of several Native nations, including many of the Pine Ridge Reservation, at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

For this role, she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film.

She then was a starring cast member in the Paramount+ miniseries The Stand, as Ray Brentner, a gender-swapped version of Ralph Brentner from the 1994 adaptation.

In 2022, she was cast as Yagoda in the 2024 Netflix series Avatar: The Last Airbender and as Sylvie Nanmac in Alaska Daily, the mother of a missing indigenous woman.

1995

She is probably best known as the voice of the eponymous heroine in the 1995 Disney animated film Pocahontas, the direct-to-video 1998 sequel Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World and in the 2018 film Ralph Breaks the Internet.

In 1995, Bedard was chosen as one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People".

1997

In 1997, she co-hosted with Floyd Westerman a benefit for the Dine' People of Big Mountain at The Loft Theatre, in Pasadena.

1998

She is perhaps best known for the role of Suzy Song in the 1998 film Smoke Signals, an adaptation of a Sherman Alexie collection of short stories, as well as for providing the speaking voice for the titular character in the 1995 animated film Pocahontas.

Bedard reprised her role as Pocahontas in the film's direct-to-video follow-up, Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998) and for a cameo in Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018).

Bedard was born in Anchorage, Alaska, and is of Iñupiat and French Canadian/Cree (Métis) heritage and a citizen of the Native Village of Koyuk in Alaska.

2001

In 2001, Irene Bedard hosted the Ninth Annual First Americans in the Arts (FAITA) Awards from the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

2002

In 2002, at the Tenth Annual FAITA Awards, Bedard won Outstanding Guest Performance by an Actress in a TV Drama Series for The Agency.

2005

She appeared in a different take of the story in Terence Malick's 2005 film The New World, as Pocahontas's mother, Nonoma Winanuske Matatiske.

In 2005, she was cast in the television mini-series Into the West as Margaret "Light Shines" Wheeler.

Bedard has been very active in environmental groups to protect sacred lands.

2012

In 2012, the couple divorced following Bedard's allegations of Wilson abusing Bedard.

Denny however, denied all these accusations.

2015

In 2015, she appeared in Chloé Zhao's debut feature film, Songs My Brothers Taught Me.

2016

In 2016, Bedard announced an agreement with the Catawba Nation of South Carolina to join in a production agreement.

2017

In 2017, she appeared as a recurring character in the TV series The Mist.

Bedard made an appearance in the music video for Jay-Z's 2017 song "Family Feud".

2020

In 2020, Bedard played a recurring character in seasons one and two of the drama series FBI: Most Wanted.

In 2020, Bedard was arrested twice in three days.

The first arrest was for alleged domestic violence, assault, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and criminal damaging; the second was for alleged disorderly conduct.

In 2022 she was again arrested for disorderly conduct in Xenia, Ohio.