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 WHL B.C. Division. All filmography and award information was found on the Internet Movie Database.
Kamloops: Benjamin Ayres
As part of Saving Hope’s regular ensemble, Ayres saw five years of binational mainstream action on CTV and NBC. When the series, which ended this past summer, was launching, he also starting nabbing nominations from major guilds at home.
With a recurring role on Less Than Kind, Ayres earned consideration for a 2012 Leo and 2013 Canadian Screen Award. He was previously up for a Leo in 2008 for his part on the short-lived jPod.
This year, Ayres had started another recurring role, playing the ex-boyfriend and current colleague of Kristin Kreuk’s protagonist on Burden of Truth. To date, he has appeared in seven of the CBC series’ first 10 episodes.
Kelowna: Evangeline Lilly
Per the first sentence of Lilly’s IMDB bio, she “was discovered on the streets of Kelowna, British Columbia by the famous Ford modeling agency.” Her work there helped defray her tuition at the University of British Columbia. Although, she went pro early when the casting team of ABC’s Lost came calling.
Midway through the drama’s six-year run, Lilly stood out as a 2007 Golden Globe nominee. She was also up for a Saturn in the “best actress on television” category after each season.
While Lilly has yet to win any major individual awards, her ornate career has continued via The Hurt Locker, The Hobbit and Ant-Man. The latter two combined to put her back on the ballot at the 2014, 2015 and 2016 Saturns.
Honorable mention: Taylor Kitsch, a Genie nominee in 2012 who has also turned heads with X-Men and Friday Night Lights.
Prince George: Grace Dove
Among active entertainers who have lived in Prince George, Baldeep Singh has amassed a handful of jump-off-the-page TV guest spots. Programs summoning him for cameos have included Sons of Anarchy, Modern Family, Scorpion and Criminal Minds.
But the magnitude of those roles combined cannot match that of Dove’s part in The Revenant. At the time of the film’s release, a feature in the Prince George Citizen on the homegrown supporting actress ran under the cut-and-dry headline, “Rising star.”
Granted, she has only appeared in two short films in the two-plus years since portraying Leonardo DiCaprio’s onscreen wife. But Dove’s awaited follow-up could come as early as this year. She is on the playbill for the upcoming thriller, How it Ends, opposite the likes of Forest Whitaker.
Vancouver (Langley): Amanda Crew
After 15 years at the Pacific Coliseum, the Giants moved outside city limits to the Langley Events Centre last season. Accordingly, we are able to recognize a fresh face rather than repeat this honor with Ryan Reynolds.
As her first bid to prove there is life beyond Silicon Valley, Crew will costar opposite Adam Brody in the upcoming horror film Isabelle.
This project will essentially round out Crew’s first decade living and working south of the border. In that time, she has garnered a slew of U.S. talk-show invitations. But her native land, where she launched her career in a Langley grade-school production of Dragon Tales, has bestowed all of the hardware.
For the part of Monica Hall, Crew has grossed two Golden Maples. She was victorious in 2015 among TV actresses on an American series, then as a U.S. series newcomer in 2016. In addition, five projects have yielded six nominations and two wins at the Leos between 2007 and 2015.
Victoria: Priscilla Faia
Between 2005 and 2013, Ryan Robbins won five Leos out of 13 nominations for 10 projects. He has more recently seen one-shot cameos on such U.S. series as the rebooted X-Files.
But speaking of more recent, Faia has the fresher hardware among Victorians in this business. The Leos considered her for a supporting actress honor in 2016 two years after the CSAs did the same. Both were assessing her performances as Chloe Price on Rookie Blue.
Concomitant with her first Leo nomination, Faia moved on after Rookie Blue closed up shop in 2015. She has been a staple on the romantic dramedy series, You, Me, Her, since its 2016 inception. And last year, her job as Izzy brought her back to the Leo ballot, though she finished as a runner-up again.
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