Background
Ethnicity:
Anna's father Hans Torv is of Estonian descent, but was born in Stirling, Scotland.
Anna Torv was born in Melbourne and moved to Sydney, but the majority of her growing up years was spent on the Gold Coast.
Career
While studying at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Australia, Anna made her professional debut as the lead in The Credeaux Canvas theatre production. For her it “was the perfect experience to finish NIDA and come straight into a paid acting role.”
It didn’t take long for Anna to land her first role in television, playing the character of Irena Nedov in the Australian TV Series ‘Young Lions’ which lasted for twenty-two episodes in 2002.
Anna next moved to Adelaide to shoot the film Travelling Light and in 2003 toured Australia on stage playing Ophelia in Hamlet.
She returned to Melbourne for her role as Nikki on ‘The Secret Life Of Us’ (2004-2005) for which she filmed twenty episodes. Right after ‘The Secret Life of Us’ she filmed a movie called The Book of Revelation, which premiered in September of 2006 and in the same year she played Anya in The Cherry Orchard for the Sydney Theatre Company, directed by Howard Davies.
Anna moved to London but struggled to find work and lived off her credit card until she landed the role of Alex in the BBC series ‘Mistresses’. It happened then that she was discovered by J.J. Abrams who wanted her for his new TV project ‘Fringe’, a new science fiction drama in which Anna plays the lead role, Olivia Dunham.