Celebrity crush: Alison Pill

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Here's a former child actress who's worked steadily on television, in movies, and on stage for several years, while still working toward becoming an "overnight success." She may find it next year with Aaron Sorkin on HBO.

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Name: Alison Pill (images | Web site | Twitter)
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario, Canada, according to her Wikipedia profile. Uh-oh. Here comes another invader from Our Strange and Savage Neighbo(u)rs to the North.
Best Known For: You might have spotted her as Kim Pine, drummer for Sex Bob-omb, in the comics-based film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Or maybe you remember her as a political worker in the biopic Milk. Premium cable subscribers might recognize her as a college student with cancer in the psychology drama In Treatment or costumed up in the medieval drama The Pillars of the Earth. You might even remember her opposite Lindsay Lohan in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen; no one's judging you here.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was adapted from the comic
by Bryan Lee O'Malley, but with a different ending.
It co-starred Michael Cera and, more relevant to the
theme here, fellow crush Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

Alison's had a versatile career that's included all these things, plus a regular role on the short-lived religious dramedy The Book of Daniel on NBC, playing Annie Sullivan in the play The Miracle Worker, and more. She'll be seen in 2012 in HBO's More as This Story Develops, an Aaron Sorkin drama loosely based on Keith Olbermann's incarnation as a political pundit and sure to conclude its first season with an episode titled "What Kind of Day Has It Been Today?" as did Sorkin's previous series Sports Night, The West Wing, and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

I'm going to trust the Internet to be right
in saying this is Alison Pill, as face is obscured.

But I digress. You've seen her somewhere, chances are, even if you didn't know the cute seemingly tiny girl's name. (She's actually 5'6.5", IMDB says, but seems smaller. Though I suppose she'll seem like a giant in The Bop Decameron, which co-stars fellow Canadian -- and fellow celebrity crush -- Ellen Page, all 5'1" of her.)
Humble Beginnings: There are a lot of entries listed below; those are all since she turned 18. Before she turned 18, credits that jumped out at me included the Katie Holmes indie film Pieces of April -- worth checking out just because of Holmes' terrific performance -- a Judy Garland biopic (though not as Judy), the mobster mini-series The Last Don II, and an episode of the syndicated horror series Poltergeist: The Legacy.

Plus, she looks like this.

Strange Coinicidence Dept.: Two of her TV guest-star credits -- an episode of CSI and an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent -- also featured guest-starred fellow celebrity crush Jessica Collins, who was in last week's new entry. Odd.
Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: Alison's beauty reminds me at times of fellow crush Lauren Ambrose at times, of Christina Ricci at others, and a tiny bit in a couple of these photos of Anna Chlumsky, though I'd never made that association before. (She also reminds me of a very beautiful friend of mine.) She impressed me in the short-lived Book of Daniel, but her dramatic work on In Treatment -- as a college student with cancer who didn't want to bother her family or friends with the news -- was a revelation, and her performance in Milk was fantastic as well. Scott Pilgrim offered her a chance to do wry comedy of the Aubrey Plaza variety (while Aubrey played a character who was Aubrey Plaza Squared).

Film and TV-movie credits: The Bop Decameron (2012) (Amazon | iTunes) * Thicker (2011) (Amazon | iTunes) * Goon (2011) (Amazon | iTunes) * Midnight in Paris (2011) (Amazon | iTunes) * Portraits in Dramatic Time (Amazon | iTunes) * Scott Pilgrim vs. the World vs. Funny or Die (2010 short) (Funny or Die video) * Scott Pilgrim vs. the Animation (2010 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Amazon | iTunes) * Goldstar, Ohio (2010 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * One Way to Valhalla (Amazon | iTunes) * The Awakening of Abigail Harris (2009 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * Milk (2008) (Amazon | iTunes) * Dan in Real Life (Amazon | iTunes) * Dear Wendy (2005) (Amazon | iTunes) * Plain Truth (2004 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * A Separate Peace (2004 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * What Katy Did (2004 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Crypt Club (2004 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (Amazon | iTunes)

As Queen Maud in The Pillars of the Earth.

Musical credits and voice work: Scott Pilgrim vs. the Animation (2010 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * Scott Pilgrim vs. the World soundtrack (Amazon | iTunes)
TV and Web series credits: More as This Story Develops (2012) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Pillars of the Earth (2010 mini-series) (Amazon | iTunes, part 1 | iTunes, part 2) * In Treatment, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * CSI, season 9: "Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda" (Amazon | iTunes) * Law & Order: Criminal Intent, season 5: "Wrongful Life" (Amazon | iTunes) * The Book of Daniel (2006) (Amazon | iTunes)