Wow. What a ride. While we may not be quite through this pandemic nightmare, we are here to tell you that we ain’t beat yet. Also, our Little Bird has officially flown the the coop. The film is finished, (as much as we can say that about any film), and we have started our festival submissions! Better late than never. Fingers crossed we’re coming at you soon with some great news. <3
Beatrice Schneider is an ACTRA Award nominated, second-generation actor, grade 4 French Immersion student and a purple belt in karate. Among others, she has voiced the roles of Julia Child, Carol Burnett, Billie Jean King and Kate Warne – Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum (Brown Bag/PBS), Sweet Pea – Abby Hatcher Fuzzly Catcher (Nickelodeon/Netflix), Owl, Boo and Postcard – Blues Clues and You (Brown Bag/PBS), and will soon appear as Agent Office Supplies – Odd Squad: Mobile Unit (PBS/TVO). She has also appeared in numerous short films including 365 Months, My Grandma Was a Cowgirl and Ship of Theseus. She leads the cast of Little Bird, where she plays a young girl in the foster system trying to find her way home. In addition to karate, Beatrice studies ballet, swimming, singing and piano. She is represented by Newton Landry Management in Toronto.
Arlene Duncan is a singer and actor who works in television, film, theatre, radio…and the web. Selected film & television credits include: In Contempt, Designated Survivor, Suits, Degrassi: Next Generation, Titans, The Romanoffs, A Fighting Man, A Dog’s Story, Emmy award nominated FLINT & the award-winning web series’ But I’m Chris Jericho & Teenagers. Her theatre credits include: Sophisticated Ladies, the Dora Award winning productions of Ain’t Misbehavin’, The Who’s Tommy, and her Dora & Toronto Theatre Critics Award winning role of Caroline Thibodeaux in the Dora Award winning musical Caroline or Change. She is the recipient of the 2012 African Canadian Achievement Award in the Arts category, Dora Award nominee for Mama Euralie in Once on this Island (The Musical Stage Company) and was selected as one of the 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women {2016). Arlene appears as the voice of Officer Rabbit on the popular children’s cartoon, Franklin the Turtle and as Mama Zungu in Bobo & Kipi but is best known for her 6 seasons as Fatima Dinssa in the CBC comedy Little Mosque on the Prairie. Arlene appears as Velma Diggs for a 2nd season in the ground breaking CBC drama Diggstown.
2021 continues to bring success to an over 30 year+ career. This summer finds Jocelyne back as Carole, shooting Season 2 of “C’est comme ca que je t’aime (Season 1 can presently be seen on CBC Gem under “Happily Married”). She can also be found on the set playing a recurring character in the new comedy series “Paris, Paris”. Add to that the tv series “ Virage” and “Zik”, a Canadian indie film in August, and back to having studio fun voicing video games. You can presently catch a number of her performances on a variety of streaming platforms: including the series “Appelle moi si tu meurs” as one of the leads, Angela Vietti (La mama), as Vega, a recurring character on CBC Gem’s “Utopia Falls”, “Ghost Town Anthology” by Denis Coté (premiering at Berlinale), Cannes’ “Coup de Coeur” winner “La Femme de mon Frère” by Monia Chokri, the television hit series “ Schitt’s Creek” ( Netlix), and “La Malédiction de Jonathan Plourdre”. Her numerous films include Leon Marr’s “The Second Time Around”, “Mangiacake”, “Deadfall”, “Guilt by Association” and Sudz Sutherland’s “Love Sex and Eating the Bone”. Other television guest appearances include the PM of France, facing off with Keifer Sutherland on “Designated Survivor, (Netflix) playing alongside Jason Priestly in “Private Eyes”, “Insecurity”, “18 to Life”, “Are you afraid of the dark” and “Urban Angel”(playing on Encore+). Theatre highlights include “Belles Soeurs: the musical”, “The St-Leonard Chronicles” and “Piazza San Domenico” (both by Steve Gallucio), “The Cemetery Club” and ”Beaux Gestes and Beautiful Deeds”. She is a multi-nominated actor and winner of the 2012 Canadian Comedy Award for her brilliant performance of Nicole in Steve Gallucio’s “Funkytown”.
Krista has been acting on stage and screen for over 20 years.
She is an acting coach as well as a Company Member with LS&CO acting studios.
Selected Film/TV: Upcoming roles in the feature film TRIBE, Holly Hobbie (Hulu), Sex/Life (Netflix). Recurring on Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Sex/Life (Netflix), The Actor Who Could Not Cry, The Expanse, Designated Survivor, Spotlight. Awards: ACTRA nomination for Best Actress in SPOONING, Canadian Film Festival Award Win for SPOONING.
Currently lives between Toronto and Los Angeles.
Jess Salgueiro is an actor, singer, playwright and performance artist based in Toronto and Los Angeles.
Recent TV credits include recurring roles on Workin’ Moms (CBC/Netflix), The Boys (Amazon), Mary Kills People (Hulu), Letterkenny (Crave/Hulu), The Strain (FX), Channel Zero (SyFy), Orphan Black (BBC America). Her recent feature film credits include; I’ll Take Your Dead (Black Fawn Films), Mary Goes Round (Dir. Molly McGlynn/TIFF ‘17), Instar Emergence (Dir. Alan Ritchson), Larry (Dir. Jacob Chase), and Mouthpiece (Dir. Patricia Rozema) which premiered at TIFF ‘2018, where she was named one of the year’s TIFF Rising Stars.
This fall Jess can be found starring in a major role on Amazon’s The Expanse. She is currently in production filming two new series for Netflix, Tiny Pretty Things and Jupiter’s Legacy.She runs an online feminist publication called www.bitchesbewitches.com
Greyson and Noah live in Toronto and are experts a keeping their Moms running. They are also very adept at growing up too fast.
Joanna Swan is an actor, singer, producer and fierce advocate for gender equity and diverse representation. After taking over production of the Toronto ACTRA Women’s Committee (TAWC) Short Film Creation Lab in 2017, she executive produced, produced and co-produced five short films (Moon Dog; Shoegazer; Rainbow Baby; Little Bird; Get Outta Here).
Turning her focus to support and promote femme-centric, diverse, 2SLGBTQIAP+ focused stories, she is currently co-producing ‘The Transamorous Trilogy’ by Kiley May (Pt 1. Discretion, Pt 2. Disclosure & Pt.3 Devotion), a trilogy of short films delving into the dating experiences of a two spirit trans woman. Swan has extensive experience working on large scale live and broadcasted music events including The JUNO Awards, The Tragically Hip’s Fully Completely Canadian tour and The Canadian Country Music Association Awards. Some of her on-screen credits include Bomb Girls, Mary Goes Round and Flashpoint.
Swan is the current chair of TAWC, and sits on multiple committee’s at ACTRA Toronto including OutACTRAto, the Constitution & By-Laws Committee, Ad-hoc Committee for Sexual Harassment and the Voice Committee. She is an active member of the Canadian Foundation For AIDS Research (CANFAR) AIDSbeat Committee, helping produce the annual fundraising battle of the bands event, and was one of the organizers for the 2017 #AFTERMETOO Symposium and round table discussions.