Biografia
Kira Guloien grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where she trained as a competitive singer and dancer from a young age. Her mother had a fifty-year career as a double bassist with The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and her father is a Juno Award-winning jazz saxophonist and member of The Order of Canada. At 16, Kira was chosen from a nationwide audition as a top 12 finalist on CBC TV's first season of Triple Sensation. Selected by a celebrity panel including Garth Drabinsky, Marvin Hamlisch, Sergio Trujillo, Adrian Noble, and Cynthia Dale, she had the unique chance to study with world-class coaches and artists such as Chita Rivera and Joel Grey during a month-long master class in Toronto.
After finishing high school, Kira returned to Toronto to study acting at Ryerson Theatre School. While still a student, she began working professionally, notably starring in Hometown at the Blyth Festival. Shortly after graduating, she was honored to play the lead role in the world premiere of Judith Thompson's Elektra in Bosnia and later performed at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.
In spring 2013, Kira started rehearsals for one of her dream roles at Canada's premier theatrical institution, The Stratford Festival. She starred as Mrs. Walker in Tommy, working under the direction of the original Broadway creative team, including multi-Tony Award-winning director Des McAnuff and The Who's legendary guitarist and composer Pete Townshend. Her portrayal of Tommy's mother earned rave reviews, with Toronto Star critic Richard Ouzounian calling her a "masterpiece of tortured sensuality."
In 2015, Kira made her Broadway debut in the original cast of Doctor Zhivago – The Musical at The Broadway Theatre. Since then, she has enjoyed a varied career across musicals, film, television, and concerts. She appeared in the Pre-Broadway production of Hadestown, which won eight Tony Awards including Best New Musical; Garth Drabinsky's Sousatzka, starring Tony winners Victoria Clark and Judy Kaye; and Theatre Calgary's The Louder We Get, directed by Emmy Award winner Lonny Price.
Other notable stage credits include Ghost Quartet (Crow's Theatre & Eclipse), Grey Gardens (Musical Stage Company), Dr. Silver: A Celebration of Life (Musical Stage Company & Outside the March), Hello Again (Artillery Collective), Nine (Podium Concert Productions), Marathon of Hope (Drayton Entertainment), Smokey Joe's Cafe (Drayton Entertainment), Damn Yankees (Drayton Entertainment), Jacob Two-Two (YPT), and City of Angels (Theatre by the Bay).
Her film and television work features Jupiter’s Legacy (Netflix), Murdoch Mysteries (CBC), Coroner (CBC), Glass Houses (The Movie Network), The Listener (CTV), A Northern Song (Forever Epic Films), and Night Cries (Good Soldier Films).
Kira has received a Dora Award nomination for Outstanding Performance in a Musical and won the Toronto Theatre Critics Awards for Best Ensemble in 2019 and 2020. She also earned a My Entertainment World Award for Best Actress in a Musical, The Jean Chalmers Guthrie Award, and The Lou Taube Memorial Award.
She has performed in prestigious Canadian concert halls, including Koerner Hall, sharing the stage with musical theatre icon Colm Wilkinson and Des McAnuff, and The Winspear Centre, where she was guest soloist with The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra conducted by Steven Reineke of The New York Pops. Additionally, she has been a guest soloist twice at New York’s renowned supper club Feinstein’s/54 Below.
