Liane Balaban is the daughter of a Catholic mother, a medical secretary, and a Jewish father from the former Soviet Republic (now an independent country) of Uzbekistan. Balaban made her debut as the 15-year-old Mooney Pottie, a '70s misfit longing to escape the Cape Breton coal-mining town in Allan Moyle's New Waterford Girl (1999). She made a successful follow-up with Saint Jude (2000) by John L'Ecuyer.