Karina Lombard was born on January 21, 1969 in Tahiti, French Polynesia. With a Native American mother and a European father, she is a naturalized US citizen. Her parents separated when she was just a year old, and her father brought her and her siblings to Spain. She has studied in numerous boarding schools across the continent, where she eventually gained proficiency in many languages. She moved to New York when she was 18, intent on pursuing a modeling career.
Lombard’s big break in modeling came when she posed for a campaign for Calvin Klein. One of her photographs made it on a billboard, which soon attracted attention. During the time, she was also training as an actress, having been taught at the Lee Strasburg Theatre Institute and the Actors Studio. She also appeared in productions staged by the Gallery Theatre and the Neighborhood Playhouse.
Lombard made her screen debut in 1987, when she played a role in the miniseries L ?le. She first appeared on a film in 1991, playing a bit role in The Doors; two years later, she snagged a starring role in the drama Wide Sargasso Sea. She appeared intermittently in films during the 1990s, focusing instead on her stage career; her films during the time include The Firm, Legends of the Fall, Kull the Conqueror and Expos?.
She later focused on television, initially playing guest roles in shows such as Early Edition and Rescue Me. In 2004, she took on a role in the drama The L Word, where she played lesbian bar owner Marina Ferrer. She left after the first season, but returned during the fourth. Her next major television role was in the science fiction series The 4400, where she plays Alana Mareva, an art gallery owner who acquires the ability to create alternate realities after she was abducted.
-With me, what you see is what you get.
-I don’t wear perfume and I rarely wear jewelry.
-I can’t kiss ass, I’m very frank and very honest.
-I’m not very good at it. I don’t think I could be in politics. I’d be terrible. I’d be like, ‘Ok cut the crap! Enough’.