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 Central Division. All filmography and award information was found on the Internet Movie Database.
Calgary: Elisha Cuthbert
Nothing has changed here since we covered Calgary in our lists of actors representing NHL Pacific Division cities. We invite you to revisit that post to read up on Cuthbert’s credentials.
Edmonton: Michael J. Fox
As with Calgary, we have already touched on Alberta’s other joint NHL-WHL city. Fox will be hard to catch for the foreseeable future.
Kootenay (Cranbrook, B.C.): Brent Carver
Primarily a stage actor these days, Carver ended a three-year hiatus from the screen in 2017, guest-starring in an episode of Save Me. The “Neck Trauma” episode of the CBC comedy series is more than other contemporary Cranbrook actors can claim of late.
One-time child actor Brooklynn Proulx has not logged a new credit since the age of 12 in 2011. Jeremy Raymond was a 2004 Gemini nominee, and has at least seen steady cameo action every year since 2009. With that said, his roles have been generally small and sporadic.
Meanwhile, Carver was up for a Daytime Emmy in 2007, and has garnered three Geminis out of five nominations. He last won in 2004 for his lead male role in the TV film, Elizabeth Rex.
Lethbridge: Kari Matchett
Though born in Saskatchewan, Matchett spent the better part of her upbringing in Lethbridge. She subsequently touched other bases in her native land, and has since kept Canadian viewers watching her journey across the continent. Case in point: A 2011 Montreal Gazette headline celebrating her first crack at a multi-season mainstream series.
Matchett’s highlights south of the border have included a four-year run as a supporting staple on Covert Affairs. With No. 3 billing on the cast, she was one of three actors to appear in each of the show’s 75 episodes. She has also logged recurring or one-off guest spots on 24, ER, Criminal Minds and Elementary, just to name a few.
A 2001 Gemini winner, Matchett returned to the ACTRA Toronto ballot last year for her supporting part in Maudie. She had earned a previous nod from the game guild in 2003 for a regular role on A Nero Wolfe Mystery.
Honorable mention: Gavin Crawford, an ornate performer and writer who rose to fame through his eponymous show (2000-2003). Along with This Hour Has 22 Minutes and a smattering of subsequent projects, that has fetched him an ACTRA, a Canadian Comedy Award, a Canadian Screen Award and two Geminis.
Medicine Hat: Jadyn Wong
The daughter of Medicine Hat restaurateurs, Wong first contemplated acting after moving north to attend the University of Calgary. There, as she has explained in multiple interviews, she was barred from auditioning for not majoring in theatre.
Nonetheless, she absorbed enough from the sidelines to catch a break in 2006. By the turn of the decade, she was getting regular work, including a guest spot on Rookie Blue in 2011.
By 2014, she had a co-starring role as Happy Quinn on CBS’ Scorpion. Amidst the show’s now-four-season run, Wong has also seen occasional action in films. Most recently, she took part in the highly acclaimed and decorated 2016 Mexican movie, You’re Killing Me Susana.
Red Deer: Jacob Blair
Blair grew up a prototypical Canadian farm boy north of his native city in Ponoka County. And eerily enough, like Wong, he pursued performing arts after initially studying commerce in college.
Per his official website, Blair had taken multiple drama electives, “hoping to raise his GPA.” By the end of his first semester, he was hooked, and turned an academic chore into a full-fledged endeavor.
In the 11 years since graduating, he has aggregated roles in 41 TV shows or movies. Besides that peerless quantity among fellow Red Deer natives, the quality shines through with his casting in a who’s who of projects.
Though generally minor, his film credits have included 2012 and The A-Team. Meanwhile, on the small screen, his name sits on the all-time rosters of Fringe, Flashpoint, Suits and Rookie Blue.
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