Claudia Karvan (born May 19, 1972) is an Australian actress popular for her roles in the television series The Secret Life of Us and, more recently, Love My Way. She is also a producer and writer on Love My Way.
She began screen acting in 1983 when she appeared in the movie Molly. In 1987 she went on to appear in Phillip Noyce's Echoes of Paradise and appeared alongside Judy Davis in Gillian Armstrong's High Tide that same year.
In 1993, Karvan won an Australian Film Critic's Circle award for Best Actress for her role in The Heartbreak Kid. Karvan has starred alongside many of Australia's leading men, including Guy Pearce in Flynn (1992) and Dating the Enemy (1996), Ben Mendelsohn in The Big Steal (1990) and Hugh Jackman in Paperback Hero (1999). In 2006, she had a role in Footy Legends, a film about rugby league. She also played the role of Hailey's (Joanna Levesque) mother in the US film Aquamarine.
1996 saw Karvan awarded her first Australian Film Institute award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Television Drama for the GP episode titled "Sing me a lullaby". She also won the award again in 2001 for her role as Dr Alex Christensen in The Secret Life of Us. Karvan was awarded the same honour again in 2005: this time for her role as Frankie Paige in the television series Love My Way. As a producer of Love My Way, Karvan received two further AFI awards in 2005 and 2006 for Best Television Drama Series. She appeared in two Star Wars films (though in one film her scenes were deleted) as Sola Naberrie, the older sister of Padmé Amidala.
She has completed filming Daybreakers, on the Gold Goast, a vampire thriller co-starring Ethan Hawke and Sam Neill and is now filming Long Weekend on Victoria's Wilson's Promontory, co-starring Jim Caviezel and directed by Jamie Blanks.
She was born in Sydney, Australia and attended SCEGGS Darlinghurst. When she was 8 she lived in Bali for a year with her mother and brothers. Her father owned coveted nightspot Arthur's in Sydney's King's Cross. Karvan's partner is Jeremy Sparks. Together they have a four-year-old daughter, Audrey, and on May 18, 2006, Karvan gave birth to their son, Albie. She is also stepmother to Holiday, Sparks' fourteen-year-old daughter from a previous relationship with Australian actress Loene Carmen.
