Thora Birch is an American actress who began her career as a child star in the late 1980s. She gained early recognition for her roles in films such as Paradise and Hocus Pocus. Her breakout performance came in 1999 when she played Jane Burnham in the Academy Award-winning film American Beauty. This role earned her a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In 2001, she starred as Enid in the cult classic film Ghost World, which garnered her a Golden Globe nomination. Throughout the 2000s, she appeared in various independent films and television projects. Birch took a brief hiatus from acting in the early 2010s to focus on her personal life and education. She returned to the screen with roles in films like The Etruscan Smile and the television series Colony. From 2019 to 2020, she played the role of Gamma in the popular AMC series The Walking Dead. In 2021, she made her directorial debut with the television film Mistletoe Secret. She continues to work in both film and television, maintaining a career that spans over three decades. Birch is known for her preference for complex, unconventional roles in independent cinema.