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Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Karin moved to Canada with her family as a child and grew up in Edmonton, Alberta where she originally trained as a dancer. After graduating from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Arts, she moved to Vancouver, British Columbia to pursue a career as an actor.
Karin’s extensive screen credits include “Maurice the Orangutan” in Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes, the lead role of “Mary Leonard” in the feature film Cable Beach (for which she received a Philip Borsos award), supporting roles in many other features and guest star and recurring roles on numerous tv series such as Snowpiercer, Big Sky, The Good Doctor, X-Files, The Twilight Zone, The Baby Sitters Club, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Beyond, Lucifer, The Magicians, Travelers, Bates Motel, I Zombie, When Calls the Heart, Continuum, Intruders, Supernatural and many more. For a complete resume of screen credits please see Karin Konoval on IMDB.
Karin has received numerous awards for her work in theatre, performing lead roles in contemporary classics like August, Osage County to a wide range of musicals such as Sweeney Todd, The Threepenny Opera, Guys And Dolls and many others. She has especially enjoyed performing the music of Stephen Sondheim, Kurt Weill, Jacques Brel and Leonard Cohen.
Karin’s writing has been published in various anthologies and literary magazines, and broadcast on CBC Radio. As an artist she creates series of paintings that tell a story. She has had many solo exhibits of her work for a growing audience. Karin’s first illustrated book, Jeffrey Takes a Walk in December, was published in 2015. It is available through Friesen Press, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Chapters Indigo.
Becoming acquainted with orangutans and studying their behavior for her role as “Maurice” sparked a profound personal interest. Karin has continued to learn much more about these compelling great apes and the challenges facing their conservation.