Caitlynne Medrek | |
---|---|
Born | |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 2001–present |
Caitlynne Medrek (born November 19, 1989) is an international, award winning Canadian actress. [1] She spent the first half of her career living and working in professional theatre around Canada, but has since set her sights on creating a cinematic career by performing in Film and Television. A Canadian College of Performing Arts alumna, Medrek is a true triple threat. She is best known for her roles in Heartland (Seasons 15 & 16) as Ms. Clarissa, Fargo, Season 3 as Grace Stussy, and Claire in the award-winning series, Out with Dad. She has had an incredible voice acting career with notable roles like Dawn in Total Drama: Revenge of the Island , Mikoto in My-HiME , Miu Matsuoka in Strawberry Marshmallow , and Pan in Dragon Ball GT . Her latest mainstream voice work include: The Haunted House: The Secret of the Ghost Ball (Netflix), Kongsuni (Netflix), Cardfight!! Vanguard , Arthur , and Gintama . She can be seen in the final season of Hell on Wheels , Season 2 of Wynonna Earp , Season 3 of Fargo as Grace Stussy, Season 3 of The Detour and recently, Seasons 15 and 16 of Heartland , Season 2 of Tribal and Season 2 of Yellowjackets . Caitlynne is also in production for two Feature Films set for 2023 release.
She is also known in the world of web series for playing Claire Daniels, one of the main roles of many-times-awarded LGBT webseries, Out with Dad , for which she received nominations and awards. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Born on November 19, 1989, in Calgary, Alberta to a father of Polish descent and a mother of Ukrainian descent, Medrek started performing at ten years of age doing community theatre, and quickly moved into the professional theatre world at age twelve. [6] She kept up dance skills in a variety of styles including Ukrainian dance and competed at various festivals throughout the province in solo, duet and trio events. She was a member of the Young Canadians of the Calgary Stampede and at age 15 competing in Calgary's "Youth Talent Showdown" competition at the Calgary Stampede where she won 2nd runner-up. That same year she placed first at the Kiwanis Music Festival and went on to win first place in Provincials for Musical Theatre in Edmonton.
In 2006, she was cast as Amber in the Rod Lurie-directed film Resurrecting the Champ . Medrek has voiced characters in a variety of anime works, often with the Calgary-based Blue Water Studios and Ocean Productions. In Summer 2007, she was a member of the Charlottetown Festival Young Company Training Program and a cast member of Alberta Fusion. She graduated in April 2008 from the Canadian College of Performing Arts (CCPA), where she received the Arnold Spohr Scholarship.
On leaving college, she worked regional theatre contracts until she decided to move to Toronto, Ontario. [7]
In December 2008, she was seen in Saskatoon-based Persephone Theatre's A Christmas Carol as 'Want'. [7] She spent July 2009 performing with Globus Theatre, in Bobcaygeon, Ontario, playing the lead in Neil Simon's I Ought To Be in Pictures, [8] later that year appearing in the title role in Canada's debut of the off-Broadway show Pinkalicious the Musical . [6] Caitlynne performed the role of Pinkalicious for 2 years.
In January 2010, she starred as 'Anne Frank' in The Diary of Anne Frank, and completed the run of "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" as "Logainne Schwarzy" with Fallen Rock Productions, in the spring. In the summer she went on to play Charlie Brown's sister, Sally, in "Dog Sees God". While maintaining her theatre career, Medrek had been cast as a regular in the animated television series Total Drama: Revenge of the Island as a contestant named Dawn, broadcast on Fresh TV and Teletoon, as a guest in the animated television series Skatoony and in the highly acclaimed web series, Out With Dad and Clutch, Season 2 . In 2013 she starred in Blood Riders: the Devil Rides with Us which premiered at the Blood in the Snow Film Festival in Toronto, Ontario.
Caitlynne decided to move back to Alberta in 2014 to seek out future theatre and film opportunities in her home Province. Since the fall of 2014, she was cast as "Hope" in "Urinetown", as "Kensington" in "Becky's New Car", as "Violet Beauregard" in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", as "Betty Parris" in Theatre Calgary's "The Crucible", as "Belle" in Disenchanted and "Gertrude McFuzz" in "Seussical, the Musical". She had also taken an interest in directing and assistant-directed "Hana's Suitcase" with StoryBook Theatre and made her directing debut in the fall of 2017 with "Pinkalicious" for StoryBook Theatre. In the summer of 2015, she was cast in Episode 10 of AMC's highly acclaimed Hell on Wheels. Since 2015, her film career has excelled further, along with more voiced anime projects for Netflix, a role on Season 2 of Wynonna Earp, a principal role in Season 3 of The Detour and a recurring role on Season 3 on the highly acclaimed series Fargo, as Grace Stussy.
In 2016, she started her own Princess Party Company named YYC Princess which has become Calgary's first and foremost princess company. [9] In this realm, she has become a motivational speaker in following your dreams and recently spoke in Calgary at Pechakucha and is a frequent guest speaker at Calgary Comic Expo. She is a weekly actor in Dirty Laundry, Calgary's longest running 100% improvised weekly soap opera.
2019 brought the role of Mrs. Wilkinson to Caitlynne in Theatre Calgary's production of Billy Elliot the Musical . Caitlynne was recently awarded the Betty Mitchell Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for her role in Billy Elliot.
In 2020, Caitlynne was named by Avenue Magazine in Calgary as one of Calgary's own "Top 40 under 40". She was also named as Broadway World's "Performer of the Decade" for her role in Theatre Calgary's production of Billy Elliot the Musical .
Caitlynne Medrek has received the following nominations and awards: [2]
Awards | Total | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nominations | Awards | Nom. | Aw. | Nom. | Aw. | Nom. | Aw. | |
Indie Soap Awards | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | tbd |
LA WebFest | --- | 1 | Sel. | --- | Sel. | 1 | --- | --- |
Faith Susan Alberta Watson, better known as Alberta Watson, was a Canadian film and television actress.
The Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) is a film festival held annually in Calgary, Alberta, in late September and early October.
Melissa O'Neil is a Chinese Canadian actress and singer. In 2005, O'Neil won the third season of Canadian Idol. As an actress, she is known for her roles as Two / Rebecca / Portia Lin in the science fiction series Dark Matter and as Officer Lucy Chen in the police procedural drama series The Rookie.
Peter James Edward Oldring is a Canadian actor and comedian.
Sally Julia Dexter is an English actress of stage and screen. She won the 1987 Olivier Award for Most Promising Newcomer for Dalliance. Her other West End stage credits include the musicals Oliver! (1994), Sister Act (2010) and Billy Elliot the Musical (2013). Her television credits include the ITV soap operas Night and Day (2001–2003) and Emmerdale.
Shelley Alice Thompson is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her character Barbara Lahey on the hit mockumentary program Trailer Park Boys.
Angela Fusco is a Canadian actress.
Fargo is an American black comedy-crime drama television series created and primarily written by showrunner Noah Hawley. It is based on the 1996 film of the same name written and directed by the Coen brothers. The Coens, whose other films also heavily influenced the series, were originally uninvolved with the series, but joined as executive producers after being impressed by Hawley's script for the first season. The series premiered on April 15, 2014, on FX.
Ronald Pederson is a Canadian, Métis actor, comedian and theatre director who has worked extensively throughout Canada and in the United States. He has performed at most of Canada's major theatres including The Stratford Festival, The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, The Citadel Theatre, Alberta Theatre Projects, The Arts Club, The Vancouver Playhouse, The Young Centre, The Canadian Stage Company, The Tarragon Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Soulpepper and The SummerWorks Festival. Pederson is an alumnus of Toronto’s The Second City and has also worked extensively in television and may be best known for his Canadian Comedy Award-nominated work and his three seasons on Fox Television's MADtv.
Carrie Alexandra Coon is an American actress. On television, she has starred as Nora Durst in the HBO drama series The Leftovers (2014–2017) and as Gloria Burgle in the third season of the FX anthology series Fargo (2017). She won a Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress for The Leftovers and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress for Fargo. She also starred in the second season of the anthology drama series The Sinner (2018), and has played aspiring socialite Bertha Russell in the HBO series The Gilded Age since 2022. For the latter, she has received another Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress.
Kate Conway is a Canadian actress and producer. She is best known as the star of the web series Out With Dad.
Will Conlon is a Canadian actor, best known for his role on Out With Dad.
Lindsey Middleton is a Canadian actress. She is known for her role in the web series Out With Dad and its subsequent spin-off series Vanessa's Story and Counselling Vanessa.
Wendy Glazier is an English-speaking Canadian actress. She is mainly known in the world of web series as Theresa LeMay, one of the main roles in the many-times-awarded LGBT web series Out With Dad.
Wynonna Earp is a Western horror television series. Developed by Emily Andras, the Canadian-American program is based on the comic book series by Beau Smith. Melanie Scrofano plays the titular character, the great-great-granddaughter of legendary lawman Wyatt Earp. In the series, Wynonna returns to her hometown of Purgatory, near the Canadian Rockies, where she battles revenants, the reincarnated outlaws that Wyatt killed.
The third season of Fargo, an American anthology black comedy crime drama television series created by Noah Hawley, premiered on April 19, 2017, on the basic cable network FX. The season had ten episodes, and its initial airing concluded on June 21, 2017. As an anthology, each Fargo season possesses its own self-contained narrative, following a set of characters in various settings in a connected shared universe.
Shaun Johnston is a Canadian movie and theater actor best known for his role as Jack Bartlett on the CBC drama Heartland, which debuted in October 2007. He co-founded the Shadow Theatre in Edmonton and made his first professional forays in Alberta's thriving theatre scene.
Karen Robinson is a British-Canadian film, television, and stage actress. She won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Performance in a Guest Role in a Drama Series at the 7th Canadian Screen Awards in 2019 for her appearance on the television series Mary Kills People. She also won a 2021 Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the Schitt's Creek cast.
Amelia Eve Gibson is an English actress. She is best known for portraying Kelly Neelan in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street (2019–2022), and Ruby Sunday in the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who (2023–present).
Clare McConnell is a Canadian actress from Calgary, Alberta, best known for her recurring roles as Dennas in Star Trek: Discovery and Effie Newsome Crabtree in Murdoch Mysteries.