Editor’s note: This is the latest installment in a recurring series where a Pucks and Rec writer will select the top contemporary actor from each city in a hockey league. This week, we focus on the current markets in the OHL Midwest Division. All filmography and award information was found on the Internet Movie Database.
Erie: Allison McAtee
While she spent little time in her native city, McAtee has achieved more as an actor than any other living candidate.
Laura Kightlinger has seen multiple rounds of action on Will & Grace, including one so far since the revival. But that and other sparse TV and movie roles come in part from her presence as a producer.
Conversely, McAtee has made the meat of her resume in front of the camera. And she has a rich record as a ringer for hardware-caliber primetime dramas.
Between 2008 and 2013 alone, she answered calls from three versions of CSI plus Nip/Tuck, Castle, The Mentalist, NCIS and Californication. The latter series cast her in a different role for two episodes in a span of three years.
Guelph: Neve Campbell
This past summer witnessed a tempest of speculation, as House of Cards viewers debated the status of LeAnn Harvey.
Campbell herself, who has played Harvey for 25 episodes (or Chapters), addressed the ambiguous accident to Entertainment Weekly. Naturally, she was mum on any specifics.
Additional developments since that June interview have caused the hit Netflix series more upheaval. But for what it’s worth, IMDB currently has Harvey credited for “Chapter 66,” slated to premiere on an unspecified date in 2018.
If her character does, in fact, live on, it would continue a pattern in Campbell’s career. She repeatedly escaped onscreen death in the Scream series, and has told of a frightful real-life on-set encounter with a bear.
Come what may, there will be just as much of a life after LeAnn for Campbell as there was one after Sidney Prescott. After two-plus years of strictly focusing on House of Cards, she is set to branch back out to the big screen. She is playing the wife of Dwayne Johnson’s character in this summer’s action thriller, Skyscraper.
Kitchener: Brendan Meyer
Between Meyer, Kristin Booth and Jeremy Ratchford this unofficial race unfolded as a compelling three-party derby. All three Kitchener/Waterloo-area products have won awards, and all three have landed guest spots on high-end American programs.
But only Meyer can claim to have done both in one gig. He claimed a Young Actor Age 16-19 prize from the 2014 Vancouver Joey Awards for his appearance on CSI.
The comparatively fresh-faced Meyer was then a core cast member on a web-only offshoot of AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead. Shortly after the short-order Flight 462 series closed up shop, he reprised his role as Jake Powell on the main edition.
Elsewhere, Meyer has earned nods for a Canadian Screen Award via Mr. Young and Motive. Though he has yet to prevail in that guild, he is still merely 22 years of age and has a lofty ceiling. In the year ahead, he is slated to have three more projects released to the universe.
London: Ryan Gosling
It bears mentioning that Rachel McAdams, our pick for Toronto in two prior editions of this series, is also a London native. But since her time in the provincial capital qualified her for another honor, London is up for grabs.
With Gosling — McAdams’ co-star in The Notebook — the home of Dale Hunter’s junior-hockey powerhouse has produced yet another Hollywood gem. Gosling was up for his second Academy Award last year for his co-starring role in La-La Land. The same performance yielded his first Golden Globe victory after four previous nods.
His other Golden Globe- or Oscar-nominated works speak to nothing short of A-list versatility. Gosling has garnered acclaim for everything from the drama Half Nelson to the romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love.
Most recently, while it will not yield major hardware, his performance in Blade Runner 2049 drew its share of positive reviews. For one, AARP declared it “exceptional, more than equaling Harrison Ford’s performance as Rick Deckard in the original film.”
Owen Sound: Jessica Cameron
As many as 11 projects are in Cameron’s queue. Two are in pre-production, four in post-production, two filming, two announced and one completed.
Cameron’s niche for horror flicks has drawn recognition at festivals in four countries. In her homeland, Truth or Dare took the best feature title at the 2014 Calgary Horror Con. The same project was up for prizes at similar conventions in Buenos Aires and London.
Below the border, Truth or Dare, Mania and The Black Dahlia Haunting have combined for nominations and coronations at 11 different horror or independent film festivals.
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