Carly Pope was born August 28, 1980 in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is of Italian, Yugoslavian and Irish descent. She started dance training during her childhood days. Carly attended Lord Byng High School, where she participated in an advanced program in drama and was part of the productions The Odd Couple and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Just a day after her high school graduation in 1998, she received news that she would be going to Romania, Europe to work on her debut film Cowboys and Aliens. She studied at the University of British Columbia for a while but eventually moved to New York to pursue a career in acting.
Carly Pope auditioned for the role of Liz on
Roswell but was turned down. She also auditioned for the role of Brooke McQueen on the WB series
Popular but landed the role of Samantha “Sam” McPherson instead. Among her other TV appearances were on the shows Trapped In a Purple Haze, Our Guys, I've Been Waiting For You,
24 and
Tru Calling . She also did voice-overs for Amelia on Disney's animated TV series
Kim Possible . In 2004, she won the Leo Dramatic Series: Best Performance by a Female Award for her portrayal of Maya Kandinski on The Collector.
She starred as Sara Johnson in the 1999 sci-fi movie Aliens in the Wild, Wild West. Among her other film credits are Disturbing Behavior, The Glass House, Window Theory, Finder's Fee, a Tale of Two Wives and Orange County to name a few. She won the 1995 Leo Best Performance by a Female in a Short Drama Award for her work in Sandra Gets Dumped.
Carly was also featured in various magazines such as Teen People, TV Guide, Razor Magazine and FHM: TV Babes Special. In 2000, she was seen on the cover of Teen magazine's March issue.
Garbo is played by Carly Pope on FX's drama series
Dirt . The show focuses on DirtNow's editor-in-chief Lucy Spiller, the people around her and the publication of the first ever glossy tabloid. Garbo, a famous lesbian drug dealer to the stars, is in love with actress Julia Mallory. Garbo's short-lived sexual relationship with Julia is being used by the tabloid to destroy the latter's career.