As Carol’s endlessly cheerful hive-mind handler on Apple TV’s “Pluribus,” Karolina Wydra has been an absolute revelation. But this isn’t her first time making waves on the small screen.
Though some “Pluribus” fans might be meeting Wydra for the first time, she’s actually had an extensive career packed with prominent TV credits. But before “Pluribus,” it had been a full five years since Wydra appeared in any project, and she didn’t even have Hollywood representation when she was offered a chance to audition for showrunner Vince Gilligan.
The audition “came at a time that I didn’t have an agent or a manager,” Wydra told The Hollywood Reporter in a recent interview. “If it wasn’t for” the show’s casting directors, who knew Wydra from a 2016 horror movie called “Incarnate” she appeared in, “I wouldn’t be here. They searched me out and contacted me. Vince told me they looked for my character for a very, very long time. They searched the world, and they couldn’t find her.”
She had been a big fan of Gilligan’s work, too, she added: “The whole thing was so surreal, and getting the role was wild… I still feel like I’m dreaming in the best way.”
So what other TV shows had Wydra appeared in before “Pluribus”? Join us as we do a deep dive into her pre-Zosia acting career.
Wydra had roles on True Blood, House, Justified, and more
A native of Poland who began working as a model in her teens, Wydra transitioned to acting, with her first significant TV role coming in 2011, when she played massage therapist Dominika on the Fox medical drama “House,” marrying Hugh Laurie’s character Gregory House and appearing in the final two seasons. Then in 2013, she joined the cast of HBO’s supernatural hit “True Blood” as vampire Violet, making her debut in Season 6. Violet was killed off, though, in the seventh and final season when Hoyt shot her through the heart.
In 2014, Wydra recurred on the FX neo-Western “Justified” as Mara Paxton, helping Walton Goggins’ Boyd Crowder fake his death in Season 5. Then the following year, she was part of the main cast of the ABC crime drama “Wicked City,” playing undercover cop Dianne — but that show was quickly axed after airing just three episodes.
Wydra later played a con artist named (appropriately enough) Karolina in Season 1 of the Prime Video dramedy “Sneaky Pete” — which was co-created and executive-produced by Gilligan’s “Breaking Bad” star Bryan Cranston. She also played journalist Sasha Barinov in Season 2 of the ABC thriller “Quantico” and appeared in episodes of Showtime’s “Twin Peaks” revival and CBS’ “MacGyver” reboot.
Most recently, Wydra joined the cast of ABC’s Marvel TV series “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” in 2019 as Izel, a mystical entity capable of destroying planets. That was Wydra’s final TV role, though… until “Pluribus” came along and took her career in a whole new direction.
Did you recognize Wydra from a previous role? Or did “Pluribus” introduce you to her? Sound off in the comments!
