Deborah Ann Woll (born February 7, 1985 in New York City, New York) is an American actress.
Woll is perhaps best known for her roles in television, from 2008 to 2014 as Jessica Hamby in True Blood, and from 2015 to 2019 as Karen Page in Netflix's Daredevil, The Punisher and The Defenders.
Selected filmography:
- My Name Is Earl (2008) as Greta
- True Blood (2008 — 2014) as Jessica Hamby
- Catch 44 (2011) as Dawn
- Ruby Sparks (2012) as Lila
- Marvel Cinematic Universe (2015 — 2025) as Karen Page:
- Daredevil (2015 — 2018)
- The Punisher (2017 — 2019)
- The Defenders (2017)
- Daredevil: Born Again (2025)
- Escape Room (2019) as Amanda Harper
- Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (2021) note
- God of War Ragnarök (2022) as Faye
- Quantum Leap (2023) as Carly Farmer
She provides examples of the following tropes:
- Dawson Casting:
- In True Blood, Jessica Hamby is seventeen years old when Bill Compton turns her into a vampire. Woll was 23 when she debuted, and 29 by the time the show concluded.
- While largely averted with Karen Page, her limelight episode in season 3 plays it straight, as a 33 year old Woll is playing a 19 year old Karen in flashbacks.
- Dye Hard: Woll uses her natural blonde color for Karen Page, but those who associate her with Jessica Hamby from True Blood will associate her with the red color she dyed her hair for that part.
- Meta Casting: Her husband EJ Scott is blind as a result of choroideremia, so her casting as the love interest of a blind man in Daredevil falls into this.
- Ms. Fanservice:
- Jessica is one of the few True Blood characters to not do full frontal nude scenes, between Woll having a no-nudity clause in her contract and HBO being wary of the fact that Jessica is perpetually 17. But she does have plenty of lingerie moments.
- Karen gets a few fanservicey moments, such as being briefly wet and naked while changing into one of Matt's dress shirts, or while dancing scantily clad at a frat party in her limelight episode in season 3.
- Star-Making Role: Her role as Jessica Hamby in True Blood was widely praised by fans and critics, making her an
Ensemble Dark Horse and opening lots of doors. - Statuesque Stunner: She's 5′10″.
- Wag the Director: Woll is very open about her dislike for the fact that in the two comic storylines where Karen Page is most prominently featured, bad things happen to her (in Born Again, she became a drug-addicted porn star who sold Matt's identity out to Wilson Fisk for a fix. And in Guardian Devil, she was killed by Bullseye). So when it was decided that elements of these storylines were going to be adapted into the third season of Daredevil, she worked very closely with showrunner Erik Oleson
to ensure Karen's backstory steered towards something that made her more heroic. Although Karen is still a former drug user, it is now something she did while she was in a toxic relationship with a drug dealer, and she kicked the habit after she got her brother killed while driving under the influence. Karen also never sells Matt out to Fisk; Fisk instead figures out through other means that Matt is Daredevil. Meanwhile, Karen's death in Guardian Devil is subverted at the last second by having Dex kill Father Lantom instead.
