Nancy Sorel is an award winning American and Canadian actor and voice artist known for
Less Than Kind (2008),
Heaven Is for Real (2014),
Breakthrough (2019),
How It Ends (2018),
The Grudge (2019),
Once Upon a Christmas Miracle (2018),
The Man in the High Castle (2015), and
Barbie: Fairytopia (2005).
Sorel was born on May 14 in Fall River, Massachusetts, USA, the third child of R.N. Diane Sorel Weglowski and toolmaker Alphonse J. Weglowski. She attended B.M.C. Durfee High School of Fall River and went on to receive a degree in Theatre and Film from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. While at U Mass Amherst, she booked her first professional acting gig at the University Playwrights festival with guest artist
Bill Pullman, who inspired her to move to New York City to pursue acting professionally. After earning her degree and moving to New York City, she began acting Off Broadway at the Ernie Martin and Intar Theaters. During this time she also worked in commercials and print, and after a few months in New York she won the role of Coco on the ABC daytime drama "One Life to Live". She then relocated to Los Angeles to star in the NBC daytime series
Generations (1989). During that time she also guest-starred in prime time shows, shows, Movies of the Week and pilots, including
Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990),
Doogie Howser, M.D. (1989),
Murder, She Wrote (1984),
Empty Nest (1988),
The X-Files (1993), and
The Outer Limits (1995). She then went on to play the role of Sammy on Fox's sitcom
Down the Shore (1992).
After shooting numerous projects in Vancouver and spending her early 20s filming back and forth between LA and Vancouver, she eventually called Canada home, where she continued to worked on numerous television projects such as
Hope Island (1999),
Beggars and Choosers (1999),
Seven Days (1998),
First Wave (1998),
The Twilight Zone (2002),
Stargate SG-1 (1997),
Tru Calling (2003),
The 4400 (2004), and many MOWs.
It was in Canada that Nancy met and married her husband, manufacturer, and actor Paul Magel. They have two children. Nancy is best-known for her more-recent projects, including playing Clara Fine in the critically-acclaimed and multi-award-winning HBO series "Less Than Kind", for which she won two Canadian Comedy Awards (2009 and 2010), and an ACTRA Award (2014) and was also nominated for a Canadian Screen Award in 2014 for her role on the series. The following year she was nominated for two more ACTRA Awards, for her performances in the Sony feature film (with Greg Kinnear) "Heaven is for Real", in which she played Dr. Charlotte Slater, and for her portrayal of Marm McGoldrick, the 1860s New York City mob boss on the series "The Pinkertons".
Whether she is playing a Hallmark mom (Kathy Krueger in "Once Upon A Christmas Miracle" 2018), an FBI Agent (Agent Cole in "Grudge" 2019), a recently-widowed schoolteacher grappling with her faith ("Mrs Abbott" Fox 2000's "Breakthrough" 2019) or a 1960s socialite of the Third Reich (Mary Dawson, "Man In The High Castle", season 2 and 3, 2017-2018), Nancy has enjoyed becoming a sought-after veteran of both the US and Canadian film and television industries.