Amanda Stepto | |
---|---|
Born | Amanda Felicitas Stepto July 31, 1970 |
Education | Etobicoke School of the Arts |
Alma mater | University of Toronto |
Occupation(s) | Actress, DJ |
Years active | 1986–2010 |
Known for | Playing Christine "Spike" Nelson in the Degrassi franchise |
Television | Degrassi Junior High , Degrassi High , Degrassi: The Next Generation |
Amanda Felicitas Stepto (born 31 July 1970) is a Canadian former actress [1] who is best known for her role as Christine "Spike" Nelson in the Degrassi television franchise. With no previous acting experience, Stepto rose to prominence playing the character in the critically and commercially successful CBC series Degrassi Junior High (1987–89) and its follow-up Degrassi High (1989–91).
Spike's controversial teenage pregnancy storyline, as well as her spiked hairstyle, gave Stepto significant media attention in Canada. Degrassi Junior High was largely truncated and later dropped by the BBC in large part due to episodes about Spike's pregnancy. As part of the Playing With Time Repertory Company, Stepto was made a Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF Ontario. In the early 1990s, Stepto was a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood and was sponsored by the organization for a controversial 1993 tour of Albertan high schools.
Having left acting in the 1990s due to typecasting and loss of interest, Stepto returned to reprise the role of Spike as an adult in the first seven seasons of Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001–08). Degrassi remains her only major acting role, and as of 2018, she no longer acts. She was praised for her performance and was nominated for a Young Artist Award (as part of an ensemble) and a Gemini Award.
Stepto was born on 31 July 1970 in Montreal, Quebec, [2] the daughter of a young local woman and an "American jazz musician just passing through". [3] Her birth mother put her up for adoption at three months old. [4] [3] She was raised in Meadowvale, Mississauga. [5] On a 2016 episode of Damian Abraham's podcast Turned Out A Punk, Stepto recalled that her first exposure to punk rock was an outdoor concert by the English new wave band The Police, dubbed the "Police Picnic", which took place in Oakville, Ontario in August 1981. [6] Stepto recalled that she was transfixed by the punks in the audience and developed an interest in the genre and aesthetic. [6]
She attended the Etobicoke School of the Arts for three years, where she majored in dance and minored in drama, [7] and later a school in Mississauga while on starring on television. [8] While attending Etobicoke, Stepto learnt of an open audition for Degrassi Junior High from her drama teacher. [8] [note 1] She was the only student to act on it. [8] She did not have a resume or professional headshots, [8] [9] and was required to send in a photo of herself to the production company. Stepto's parents felt her punk hairstyle was not suitable for television, and she argued with them over it. [10] Insisting she keep her hair spiked, she told her parents: "If they don't like me, fuck them!". [10] She was subsequently accepted. [9]
When her character became pregnant, fans mistook her for being pregnant in real life, and would often send the actress toys. [11] She was also often asked for advice from parents and teenage mothers on sex and pregnancy as if she was a counselor. [11] [12] In the United Kingdom, where Degrassi Junior High experienced its highest viewership, the BBC refused to air "It's Late" along with several other episodes, [13] shortly before Stepto was expected to promote the series in London. [14] Stepto was critical of the BBC's decision when speaking to the British press. Speaking to the Daily Mirror on 13 May 1988, Stepto called the ban "kinda silly", and elaborated: "The issues we've been dealing with in the episodes they wouldn't show happen everywhere and people are going to find out about them sooner or later." [15] She also explained that the show intended to educate its viewers on the subject and did not encourage it at all. [16] Stepto later said that the English press tried to make her "talk shit" about the BBC. [17]
Stepto was among the cast of Degrassi that were named UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors by the Ontario branch of UNICEF Canada in 1989. [18] [19] Along with cast member Pat Mastroianni, Stepto visited the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York City, and met with other ambassadors. [18] She served as the narrator for the UNICEF video The Degrassi Kids Rap On Rights. [20] In 1991, Stepto was one of the main six actors to host an episode of Degrassi Talks , a documentary series in which cast members interviewed teenagers and young adults across Canada about various topics. Stepto's episode focused on sex, and highlighted issues such as teenage pregnancy, safe sex, and abortion. In the episode, Stepto interviews a young woman who gave her baby up for adoption, an experience which had a profound impact on her. [21]
Outside of Degrassi, Stepto appeared on stage in the play Flesh and Blood, written by Colin Thomas, about several young adults dealing with AIDS; [22] [23] the play won a Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award for playwriting in 1991. [22] [24] Reviewing the production for the Toronto Star, Geoff Chapman opined that Stepto had "little chance to make her role count", and criticized her "indistinct diction", [25] while Stewart Brown of the Hamilton Spectator said she was "too soft-spoken and understated in her first appearance in professional theatre". [26]
Following the end of Degrassi, Stepto indicated to the Calgary Herald in 1992 that she was interested in further pursuing her acting career, and stated that she was particularly interested in playing destructive, "psychotic" characters. [27] However, she was largely typecast because of Degrassi, [28] and she later admitted to sabotaging her own auditions, as she disliked many of the roles she was offered. [29] In one instance, she did not want to audition for the YTV musical drama series Catwalk, which she derided as a "cheesy low-budget show", [12] but did not explicitly turn it down because she felt intimidated by her agent, and instead deliberately ruined the audition. [12] she later explained that this, among other things, may have been a factor in her lack of success post-Degrassi. [29]
In 1992, she was appointed a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood in Alberta. [30] Stepto visited Calgary as a representative of the organization in September 1992, [31] and that same month, appeared in television, radio, and print advertisements promoting the "Just Talk About It" campaign. [32] Starting from May 1993, Stepto undertook a 37-stop tour of schools across the province to promote a campaign by Planned Parenthood; a viewing of the Degrassi Talks episode she hosted was optional. [33] On 28 April 1993, the Calgary Herald reported that three Albertan schools had refused Stepto's presentation, though two of the schools denied this, claiming that they were never made aware of the program. [34]
In 1995, she starred in a supporting role in the Su Rynard short film Big Deal So What, playing the friend and colleague of the protagonist. [35] She eventually left the acting business to concentrate on school. [12] At the 2022 Toronto Comicon, Stepto explained that she had extreme difficulty pursuing a career in acting following the show; the roles she was offered were usually similar to Spike, and she was directly rejected for being too well-known as Spike. [36] Additionally, she said that producers would constantly tell her that she was "too short", "too fat", or "cheeks are too full", [36] and eventually she was "tired of all that bullshit" [36] and left the acting business to pursue other endeavors. [36]
Stepto reprised her role as Spike on Degrassi: The Next Generation, of which primarily featured her character's daughter, Emma Nelson, as a central character; she made occasional appearances as Spike until the 2010 television film Degrassi Takes Manhattan . Degrassi remains Stepto's only major acting role; she made brief cameo appearances in the medical drama Strong Medicine , and the science fiction series ReGenesis .
As of 2018, Stepto is no longer active as an actress. [1] In December 2023, she attended the induction of Degrassi into Canada's Walk of Fame. [37]
Stepto was acclaimed for her "honest" [38] portrayal of Spike, and the character has been cited as a "fan favourite", [39] a "trailblazer", [40] and because of her character's daughter's role in Degrassi: The Next Generation, important to the franchise's continuity. [38] Even prior to The Next Generation, Ian Warden of The Canberra Times described Spike as a "lynchpin" of the series. [41] She was frequently recognized and mobbed by fans. [42] She would also receive threats of violence from other girls whose boyfriends were attracted to her. [43] [44]
A significant part of Stepto's public image was her large spiked hairstyle, which became a trademark of her Degrassi character, [45] [46] and contributed to the media attention Stepto received in the late 1980s. Described as "outrageously-coiffed", [47] she stated in 2005 that it was achieved using "lots of Final Net". [48] She stated that she developed the hairstyle years before Degrassi, [49] citing Colin Abrahall, vocalist of the UK82 band GBH, as her chief stylistic inspiration. [50] In 1988, Edmonton Journal staff writer Bob Remington quipped that her hairstyle resembled "a science experiment in electromagnetism". [51] Stepto often received unwanted attention and even harassment in public because of this hairstyle, [48] and faced a dilemma following her rise in public profile; speaking to The Grid in 2012, she stated: "I realized I couldn’t [continue to] tell people to fuck off and stop staring at me—they were staring at me because I was on the show." [52]
On Turned Out A Punk, she stated that her hairstyle and fashion sense resulted in her being kicked out of various shopping centres, and recounted the experience of being asked to leave the Toronto Eaton Centre for apparently "lolling around", despite carrying hundreds of dollars worth of items. [53] In the foreword to the Degrassi Talks: Sex print adaptation, she told journalist Catherine Dunphy that she was given a strike at school by her ballet teacher, because the hair "didn't go with the pink getup". [8] According to Stepto, these experiences directly influenced a storyline on Degrassi Junior High, in which Spike attempts to get a job at a local diner, but is mocked by the manager because of her hair. [48]
Stepto graduated from the University of Toronto with a bachelor's degree in history and political science. [54] In the late 1990s, she had a brief stint teaching English in Japan. [12] [54] She is an advocate for animal rights [27] and a vegetarian. [55] On the Turned Out A Punk podcast, she cited Morrissey, as well as the Smiths album Meat Is Murder , as having helped affirm her beliefs. [56] During the 1990s, she was the manager of the clothing store Shakti, located in the Kensington Market, [12] [54] and operated a jewelry booth at Lollapalooza with co-star Cathy Keenan. [12] In 2009, she began performing as a DJ in Toronto under the name "DJ Demanda" with former co-star Stacie Mistysyn, who went under the name "Mistylicious". [57] [58]
As of 2017, Stepto resided in Ireland, [59] and as of 2018, resided in Mississauga, Ontario. [1]
For Degrassi, Stepto was nominated twice. In 1990, along with her co-stars, she was nominated for the Young Artist Award for Outstanding Young Ensemble Cast for Degrassi Junior High. [60] In 1992, she was nominated for the Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role for Degrassi High. [61] [62] [63] She appeared as a celebrity presenter at the ceremony. [64]
Year | Work | Role | Ref | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1992 | School's Out | Christine "Spike" Nelson | TV movie | |
1996 | Big Deal So What | Ruth | Short film | [35] |
2010 | Degrassi Takes Manhattan | Christine "Spike" Nelson | TV movie |
Year | Work | Role | Notes | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|
1987–1989 | Degrassi Junior High | Christine "Spike" Nelson | [65] | |
1989–1991 | Degrassi High | [66] | ||
1992 | Degrassi Talks | Self | 6 episodes | [67] |
2000 | Strong Medicine | Mary | Episode: "Pilot" | |
2001–2010 | Degrassi: The Next Generation | Christine "Spike" Nelson | 122 episodes | [67] |
2006 | Degrassi: Minis | 1 episode | ||
2007 | Degrassi: Doing What Matters | Self | Television special | |
ReGenesis | Leslie McCaine | 2 episodes |
Year | Work | Role | Ref |
---|---|---|---|
1991–1992 | Flesh And Blood | Sherri | [23] [22] |
Degrassi Junior High is a Canadian television series created by Kit Hood and Linda Schuyler. The second series in the Degrassi franchise and the first to be set in a universe that has spanned multiple decades, it aired on the CBC from 18 January 1987 to 27 February 1989, and on PBS in the United States starting from September 1987. A non-union show, it was primarily produced by Playing With Time with involvement from WGBH. Although not generally acknowledged by the mainstream, it has been frequently referred to as a pioneer of the teen drama genre that prefigured later and better-known series such as Beverly Hills, 90210 and Dawson's Creek.
Degrassi is a Canadian teen drama television franchise created by Kit Hood and Linda Schuyler. Spanning five main series from 1979 to 2017, it follows the lives of youths in Toronto. With the exception of the first series, the franchise takes place in the same fictional timeline, with the titular school as the central setting. Outside of television, the franchise comprises companion novels, graphic novels, documentaries, soundtracks, and non-fiction works.
Degrassi High is a Canadian television series created by Linda Schuyler and Kit Hood. The third entry in the Degrassi teen drama franchise and the direct continuation of Degrassi Junior High, it aired on the CBC for two seasons from November 6, 1989 to February 28, 1991 and on PBS in the United States starting from January 13, 1990. Like its predecessor, it was a non-union show produced by Playing With Time with involvement from WGBH.
Degrassi Talks is a Canadian non-fiction documentary television miniseries and part of the Degrassi franchise created by Linda Schuyler and Kit Hood. Running six episodes from February 29 to March 30, 1992, it featured actors from Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High taking the role of journalists and conducting interviews with other teenagers and young adults across Canada on various topics addressed by the series such as abuse, substance addiction, homophobia, and teenage pregnancy. It combined candid and man-on-the-street interviews as well as relevant archive footage from the television series and on-screen statistics. Each episode was hosted by an actor whose character had some relation to the focused subject.
Stacie Moana Mistysyn is an American and Canadian actress who is best known for her role as Caitlin Ryan throughout multiple incarnations of the Degrassi teen drama franchise, from Degrassi Junior High through Degrassi: The Next Generation. She previously played Lisa Canard in The Kids of Degrassi Street from 1982 to 1986.
Pasquale Mastroianni, known professionally as Pat Mastroianni, is a Canadian actor who is best known for his role as Joey Jeremiah in the Degrassi television franchise, playing the role as a student in Degrassi Junior High (1987–89) and Degrassi High (1989–91), and then reprising the role as an adult on Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001–06). In 1988, he received a Gemini Award for Degrassi Junior High.
Philip Neil Hope, better known and credited as Neil Hope, was a Canadian actor who was best known for portraying Derek "Wheels" Wheeler on the CBC teen drama series Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High from 1987 to 1991, and Robin "Griff" Griffiths in The Kids of Degrassi Street from 1985 to 1986. He also reprised the role of Wheels for two episodes of Degrassi: The Next Generation in 2001 and 2003.
School's Out is a Canadian drama television film based on the Degrassi teen drama franchise created by Linda Schuyler and Kit Hood in 1979. It was directed by Hood and written by Yan Moore, based on a story by Moore, Schuyler and Hood. It aired on CBC Television on January 5, 1992, and served as a finale to the series Degrassi High and its predecessor Degrassi Junior High, which are collectively known as the Degrassi Classic era of the franchise.
Joseph "Joey" Jeremiah is a fictional character from the Degrassi teen drama franchise. He is portrayed by Pat Mastroianni. He debuted in the first episode of Degrassi Junior High and appeared throughout Degrassi Junior High, Degrassi High, and the first five seasons of Degrassi: The Next Generation. As one of the main focus characters of the original two series, his role primarily concerns his friendship with Archie "Snake" Simpson and Derek "Wheels" Wheeler, his on-and-off romantic relationship with Caitlin Ryan, and in The Next Generation, his relationship with his stepson Craig Manning.
Caitlin Ryan is a fictional character from the Degrassi teen drama franchise. Portrayed by Stacie Mistysyn, Caitlin is a main character on both Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High, which chronicle her maturation from a seventh grader to a high school graduate. Mistysyn returned to play an adult Caitlin on Degrassi: The Next Generation, in which Caitlin was a recurring character. Mistysyn won a Gemini Award for her portrayal of the character in 1989.
Derek Wheeler is a fictional character from the Degrassi teen drama franchise. He was portrayed by Neil Hope. He appears throughout Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High, with two cameo appearances in Degrassi: The Next Generation. His role throughout the former two series primarily concerns his friendship with Joey Jeremiah and Archie "Snake" Simpson, and later the death of his adoptive parents in a traffic collision with a drunk driver. Throughout the series, he plays with Joey and Snake in a band called The Zit Remedy, who are always seen performing one song.
Christine "Spike" Nelson is a fictional character from the Degrassi teen drama franchise. Portrayed by Amanda Stepto, Spike appeared throughout Degrassi Junior High (1987–89), Degrassi High (1989–91), and the first nine seasons of Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001–10). Starting as an unnamed extra before being given a name and storyline, Spike's character largely revolves around her teenage pregnancy and motherhood.
"Mother and Child Reunion" is the two-part pilot episode of the Canadian teen drama television series Degrassi: The Next Generation, which premiered on October 14, 2001 on the CTV Television Network. The episode was written by story editor Aaron Martin and series co-creator/creative consultant Yan Moore, and directed by Bruce McDonald. As with the majority of Degrassi: The Next Generation episodes, "Mother and Child Reunion" takes its title from a pop song, "Mother and Child Reunion", written and performed by Paul Simon.
"Accidents Will Happen" is a two-part episode from the third season of the Canadian television series Degrassi: The Next Generation. In Canada, the first part aired on CTV on 26 January 2004, and the second part aired on 9 February. The two-part episode follows Manny Santos discovering she is pregnant and ultimately deciding to get an abortion.
"It's Late" is the 11th episode of the first season of Canadian teen drama television series Degrassi Junior High. It originally aired on the CBC in Canada on April 5, 1987. After a careless night with Shane at a classmate's party, Spike fears she is pregnant. Meanwhile, Arthur gives continuously bad romantic advice to his friend Yick.
"A New Start" is the two-part premiere episode of the Canadian teen drama series Degrassi High. It aired on CBC in its hour-long form on 6 November 1989, and on PBS in the United States on 13 January 1990. The episode was written by Yan Moore and directed by Kit Hood. It is the first of three episodes of Degrassi that depict abortion, followed by 2003's "Accidents Will Happen" from Degrassi: The Next Generation and 2017's "#IRegretNothing" from Degrassi: Next Class.
Spike is a novel based on the Canadian television series Degrassi Junior High. It was published by James Lorimer & Company in December 1988 as part of a series of novels focusing on individual characters from the show. The novel centres around Christine "Spike" Nelson, who deals with teenage pregnancy and motherhood and its effects on her social life. The book expands upon the storylines of several key episodes about the character.
The first season of Degrassi Junior High, a Canadian teen drama television series, aired in Canada from January 18, 1987, to May 3, 1987, consisting of thirteen episodes. The series follows the lives of a group of seventh and eighth grade school children attending the titular school as they face various issues and challenges such as child abuse, homophobia, teenage pregnancy, and body image. Filming for the season began on 8–10 July 1986 in Etobicoke, Ontario and wrapped in the winter of 1986.
The second season of Degrassi Junior High, a Canadian teen drama television series, aired in Canada from January 4, 1988, to April 18, 1988, consisting of thirteen episodes. The series follows the lives of a group of seventh and eighth grade school children attending the titular school as they face various issues and challenges such as child abuse, homophobia, teenage pregnancy, and body image.
"Bye-Bye, Junior High" is the sixteenth episode of the third and final season of Canadian teen drama television series Degrassi Junior High. It originally aired on CBC Television in Canada on February 27, 1989. It was written by Yan Moore and directed by Kit Hood. The episode takes place at the end of the school year as graduation approaches; despite the fallout from the death of his parents at the beginning of the season, Derek "Wheels" Wheeler manages to pass, but Christine "Spike" Nelson, who is raising her daughter Emma, must make up for poor grades over the holidays, something which she does not react well to. At the graduation dance, a fault in the boiler room causes a fire to spread throughout the school, razing it to the ground.
Stepto, whose character had the biggest and best (and currently pink) hair no longer acts and is enjoying life in Mississauga.
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has generic name (help)And her punk hairstyle is the trademark of her character Spike on the CBC show Degrassi Junior High.
Stepto is actually 18 and hasn't been pregnant. But the trademark haircut is real.
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