Born in Stockholm, Sweden, on May 12, 1978, Akerman's family moved to Toronto, Canada, when she was two years old. The blonde tot began modeling and appearing in television commercials at age five and by high school, Akerman was balancing class work with summers spent modeling in Europe. She was the winner of the Ford Supermodel of Canada Search when she was 17, spending the next several years in print and television commercial modeling before deciding to parlay her experience into acting. She landed a guest spot on the Canadian sci-fi series "Earth: Final Conflict" (CTV, 1997-99; The New Net, 1999-2002) and appeared in other television projects including "Relic Hunter"(1999-2002) before a flurry of auditions led to a move to Los Angeles in 2001. Small film appearances in "The Utopian Society" (2003) and the cult comedy "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" (2004) led to Akerman’s first big break in the HBO series "The Comeback," a show-within-a-show in which she was cast as an ingénue starlet sharing the spotlight with a neurotic, washed-up actress (Lisa Kudrow).
When “Comeback” failed to find an audience and was cancelled after only 13 episodes, Akerman made a pair of guest appearances on the show’s former lead-in, “Entourage” (HBO, 2004-) and rebounded with a high profile role opposite Ben Stiller in the Farrelly Brothers comedy, “The Heartbreak Kid” (2007). Critics slammed the remake of the 1972 Neil Simon classic, but Akerman’s performance as a whirlwind bride who turns out to be an abysmal match for the straight-laced Stiller led to another blockbuster comedy, “27 Dresses” (2008), where she played the sister of an “always” bridesmaid (Katherine Heigl) who is set to wed her sister’s secret crush – her boss. From her comic success, Akerman turned around to give a surprising performance as one of a team of vigilante superheroes in the dark comic book adaptation “Watchmen” (2009). Unrecognizable in a black wig and mask, the actress returned to the blonde, romantic comedy fold in two more films in 2009, beginning with “Couples Retreat,” where she played opposite Vince Vaughn as one of four married couples attending a hybrid island vacation/therapy retreat. Akerman revisited wedding hijinks with “The Proposal” (2009), an out-of-control little-white-lie comedy starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds.