Deborah Kara Unger was the first Canadian accepted into the prestigious Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art. She made her feature film debut in Prisoners of the Sun, followed by roles in Christopher Crowe's Whispers in the Dark, Till There Was You, and Highlander: The Final Dimension. She acted in the award-winning television drama Bangkok Hilton with Nicole Kidman and Denholm Elliott, as well as HBO's Hotel Room, directed by James Signorelli, and Showtime's ensemble medical drama State of Emergency.



Studied philosophy and economics at the University of Victoria before becoming the first Canadian to be accepted into the highly-regarded Australian National Institute of Art, graduating in 1988. She fractured a bone in her foot and jumped into a dumpster infested with real rats on the set of The Game (1997).