Karina Lombard

Karina Lombard

Born Katrina Lombard

January 21, 1969 (1969-01-21) (age 41)

Tahiti, French Polynesia

Early lifeLombard was born in Tahiti. Her mother, Nupuree Lightfoot, is a medicine woman of the Lakota Nation and was an immigrant living in Tahiti. Her father, Henry Lombard, a banker, is a European aristocrat of Russian, and Swiss descent. Lombard is a naturalized U.S. citizen but when she was one year old her parents separated and her father took Karina and her four siblings Helen, Inez, Charles and Denise to live at his estate in Barcelona, Spain. She went on to attend a number of Swiss boarding schools, including in Lausanne, where she has said that "being American Indian meant being treated like a savage".

Over the years she gained proficiency in Spanish, English, Italian, French and German. She came to New York when she was 18 and began modeling and studied acting.

CareerLombard's major break in modeling came about due to a Calvin Klein photo shoot with a Native American theme. One of her photographs was chosen to be a billboard ad.

As an actress her first major film was Wide Sargasso Sea in 1993 followed by The Firm. She then went on to appear in the 1994 film Legends of the Fall. In the 2000s she moved into television, appearing on the first season of The L Word and also in The 4400. She reprised her role as Marina Ferrer in the first episode of Season Four of The L Word and made one more brief appearance later that season as an actress auditioning for Jenny's film Lez Girls. Lombard also made a cameo appearance in the 2008 series finale.

Lombard is currently portraying the recurring character Genevieve on FX's Rescue Me. Genevieve is writing a book about New York City firefighters' experiences during and after the terrorist attack there on 11 Sept 2001.

Her theatre training and stage experience primarily comes from New York City's Gallery Theatre, the Neighborhood Playhouse, the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and the Actors Studio.