Don McKellar | |
---|---|
Born | |
Alma mater | University of Toronto |
Occupation(s) | Actor, writer, filmmaker |
Years active | 1986–present |
Spouse |
Don McKellar CM (born August 17, 1963) is a Canadian actor, writer, playwright, and filmmaker. He was part of a loosely-affiliated group of filmmakers to emerge from Toronto known as the Toronto New Wave.
He is known for directing and writing the film Last Night , which won the Prix de la Jeunesse at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, as well as his screenplays for films like Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould , The Red Violin , and Blindness . McKellar frequently acts in his own projects, and has also appeared in Atom Egoyan’s Exotica and David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ and Crimes of the Future .
He is also known for being a fixture on Canadian television, with series including Twitch City , Odd Job Jack , and Slings & Arrows , as well as writing the book for the popular Tony Award-winning musical The Drowsy Chaperone . He is an eight-time nominee and two-time Genie Award winner.
McKellar was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Marjorie Kay (Stirrett), a teacher, and John Duncan McKellar, a corporate lawyer. [1] [2] [3] [4] He attended Glenview Senior Public School, Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute and later studied English at the University of Toronto's Victoria College.[ citation needed ]
McKellar married his longtime partner, Canadian actress Tracy Wright, on January 3, 2010. Wright died of cancer on June 22, 2010. [5]
McKellar was a founding member of Toronto's Augusta Company, [6] along with his future wife Tracy Wright and Daniel Brooks.
McKellar made his first screen appearance in 1989 in Bruce McDonald's film Roadkill , for which he also wrote the screenplay, earning Genie Award nominations for best supporting actor and best screenwriter, attracting the attention of many in Canada. Roadkill also won the Toronto-Citytv Award for best Canadian feature. McKellar collaborated again with McDonald for his 1991 film Highway 61 , writing the screenplay and starring as the barber Pokey Jones. McKellar's work again solicited wide praise, earning him a second Genie nomination for best screenwriter and a nomination for best actor. McKellar and McDonald also spawned the cult classic television series Twitch City , in which McKellar starred as Curtis, a television addict and shut-in.
Since his entry into Canadian cinema, McKellar has been involved in numerous projects. He appeared in Atom Egoyan's films The Adjuster (1991) and Exotica (1994), the latter of which earned him the Genie for best supporting actor. McKellar collaborated with François Girard, authoring the screenplays for his films Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1992) and the Academy Award winning (Best Original Score) The Red Violin (1998), in which McKellar starred alongside Samuel L. Jackson. He also appeared alongside Jude Law and Jennifer Jason Leigh in David Cronenberg's 1999 film eXistenZ . In 2008, he wrote and co-starred in the screen adaptation of José Saramago's 1995 novel Blindness .
McKellar is also a filmmaker in his own right; his directorial debut, Last Night (1998), which he also wrote and starred in, garnered impressive critical acclaim, winning the Prix de la Jeunesse at the Cannes Film Festival and the Claude Jutra Award at the Genies. His second film, Childstar , opened in 2004 at the Toronto International Film Festival to enthusiastic reviews.
On television, McKellar played Oliver Tapscrew in the 2001 TV children's drama series I Was a Rat . He also starred for four seasons in The Comedy Network animated sitcom Odd Job Jack (2003–2007) as the titular hero Jack Ryder. [7] In 2006, he appeared in Ken Finkleman's miniseries At the Hotel , received a Gemini Award nomination for his role as socialist politician Clarence Fines in Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story and hosted the CBC Radio One series High Definition .
McKellar appeared in all three seasons of television's Slings & Arrows as theatre director Darren Nichols. The show is co-written by Bob Martin, his collaborator on the musical The Drowsy Chaperone , for which McKellar won the 2006 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical. Martin and McKellar also cocreated the Canadian television sitcom Michael, Tuesdays and Thursdays , which debuted on CBC Television in fall 2011. [8]
In 2016, McKellar was made a Member of the Order of Canada "for his contributions to Canadian culture as an actor, writer and director". [9]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1989 | Roadkill | Russel, the Serial Killer | Also writer |
1991 | The Adjuster | Tyler - The Young Censor | |
1991 | Highway 61 | Pokey Jones | Also writer |
1992 | Giant Steps | Real Estate Hucker | |
1992 | Blue | — | Short film; director and writer |
1993 | Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould | Concert Promoter | Also writer |
1993 | Coleslaw Warehouse | — | Short film |
1994 | Exotica | Thomas | |
1994 | Camilla | Security Guard | |
1994 | Arrowhead | Ray Bud | Short film; Mockumentary |
1994 | Dance Me Outside | — | Writer |
1995 | When Night Is Falling | Timothy | |
1996 | Never Met Picasso | Jerry | |
1996 | Joe's So Mean to Josephine | Mike | |
1997 | Bach Cello Suite #4: Sarabande | Max | Short film |
1998 | Last Night | Patrick Wheeler | Also writer and director |
1998 | The Red Violin | Evan Williams | Also writer |
1998 | Elimination Dance | Male Dance Partner | Short film; also writer and director |
1998 | The Herd | Himself | Documentary |
1999 | Existenz | Yevgeny Nourish | |
2000 | waydowntown | Brad | |
2000 | You Tell Me | — | Short film |
2000 | This Might Be Good | Projectionist | Short film |
2000 | A Word from the Management | — | Short film; writer and director |
2001 | The Art of Woo | Nathan | |
2003 | The Event | Matt Shapiro | |
2003 | Public Domain | Host | |
2004 | Clean | Vernon | |
2004 | Childstar | Rick Shiller - the driver | Also writer and director |
2005 | Where the Truth Lies | Publishing Executive | |
2006 | Monkey Warfare | Dan | |
2007 | Redacted | Criminal Investigator (voice) | |
2008 | Blindness | Thief | Also writer |
2008 | Green Door | Ron | Short film |
2009 | Cooking with Stella | Michael Laffont | |
2010 | Scott Pilgrim vs. the World | Director | |
2010 | Trigger | Brian | |
2010 | This Movie Is Broken | — | Writer |
2011 | I'm Yours | Phil | |
2013 | The Grand Seduction | — | Director |
2013 | Treading Water | Richard | |
2013 | 3 Days in Havana | Pepe | |
2015 | Zoom | Horowitz (voice) | |
2016 | Window Horses | Dietmar (voice) | |
2017 | Blood Honey | Dr. Bert Morrison | |
2017 | Meditation Park | Gabriel | |
2018 | Through Black Spruce | Journalist | Also director |
2019 | American Woman | Newscaster | |
2020 | Target Number One | Norm | |
2020 | The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw | Bernard Buckley | |
2021 | The Middle Man | Doctor | |
2022 | Crimes of the Future | Wippet |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1994 | RoboCop | Dr. Newlove | Episode: "Zone Five" |
1995 | Side Effects | Elaine's Lover | Episode: "Rust Proof" |
1995 | Taking the Falls | — | Episode: "Elvis has Left the Building" |
1997 | In the Presence of Mine Enemies | Paul Heller | Television movie |
1997 | Once a Thief | Sam Francisco | Episode: "Rave On" |
1998–2000 | Twitch City | Curtis | 13 episodes; also writer |
1999 | The Passion of Ayn Rand | Alfred | Television movie |
2001 | The Industry | John Kalileah | Episode: "Alan's Ex" |
2001 | Degrassi: The Next Generation | Keith Barra | 2 episodes |
2001 | I Was a Rat | Oliver Tapscrew | 3 episodes |
2002 | Trudeau | Greenbaum | Television movie |
2003–2006 | Slings & Arrows | Darren Nichols | 13 episodes |
2003–2007 | Odd Job Jack | Jack Ryder (voice) | 52 episodes |
2005 | Rick Mercer Report | Food Court Patron | Episode #2.8 |
2006 | Prairie Giant | Clarence Fines | 2 episodes |
2006 | At the Hotel | Woody | Episode: "I F***ed Lou Reed" |
2008 | The Englishman's Boy | Coster | 2 episodes |
2011 | Republic of Doyle | J.J. Murphy | Episode: "A Stand Up Guy" |
2011–2017 | Michael: Every Day | — | Creator, director, and executive producer |
2014–2016 | Sensitive Skin | Al Jackson | 12 episodes; also director and executive producer |
2017 | Saving Hope | Dr. Amos Carver | 3 episodes |
2020 | Hey Lady! | Dr. Wolfe | 5 episodes |
2024 | The Sympathizer | — | Writer and executive producer |
Atom Egoyan is a Egyptian filmmaker, typically working in Canada. Emerging in the 1980s as part of the Toronto New Wave, he made his career breakthrough with Exotica (1994), a film set in a strip club. Egoyan's most critically acclaimed film is the drama The Sweet Hereafter (1997), for which he received two Academy Award nominations. His biggest commercial success is the erotic thriller Chloe (2009).
Exotica is a 1994 Canadian film written and directed by Atom Egoyan, and starring Bruce Greenwood, Mia Kirshner, Don McKellar, Arsinée Khanjian, and Elias Koteas. Set primarily in the fictional Exotica strip club in Toronto, the film concerns a father grieving over the loss of a child and his obsession with a young stripper. It was inspired by Egoyan's curiosity about the role strip clubs play in sex-obsessed societies. Exotica was filmed in Toronto in 1993.
Bruce McDonald is a Canadian film and television director, writer, and producer. Born in Kingston, Ontario, he rose to prominence in the 1980s as part of the loosely-affiliated Toronto New Wave.
Spider is a 2002 psychological thriller film produced and directed by David Cronenberg and based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Patrick McGrath, who also wrote the screenplay.
Callum Keith Rennie is a British born Canadian actor, based in British Columbia. His breakthrough role was as punk rocker Billy Tallent in the music mockumentary Hard Core Logo (1996), followed by a starring role as Det. Stanley Raymond Kowalski on the third and fourth seasons of the television series Due South (1997–99). He then won a Genie Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in the Don McKellar film Last Night (1998).
Roadkill is a 1989 Canadian road film directed by Bruce McDonald, in his directorial film debut, from a screenplay written by Don McKellar. It stars Valerie Buhagiar as a woman tracking down a missing band across Northern Ontario, meeting a variety of eccentric characters along the way.
Patricia Rozema is a Canadian film director, writer and producer. She was part of a loosely-affiliated group of filmmakers to emerge in 1980s from Toronto known as the Toronto New Wave.
Last Night is a 1998 Canadian apocalyptic black comedy-drama film directed by Don McKellar and starring McKellar, Sandra Oh and Callum Keith Rennie. It was produced as part of the French film project 2000, Seen By.... McKellar wrote the screenplay about how ordinary people would react to an unstated imminent global catastrophic event. Set in Toronto, Ontario, the film was made and released when many were concerned about the Year 2000 problem.
Highway 61 is a 1991 Canadian film directed by Bruce McDonald. The film is an unofficial sequel to his 1989 film Roadkill; although focusing on different characters, it centres on a road trip beginning in Thunder Bay, Ontario, where the road trip depicted in the earlier film ended.
Peter Lynch is a Canadian filmmaker, most noted as the director and writer of the documentary films Project Grizzly, The Herd and Cyberman.
Robert Martin is a television and musical theatre actor and writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television presents an annual award for Best Achievement in Direction to the best work by a director of a Canadian film.
The Canadian Screen Award for Best Achievement in Sound Editing is awarded by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best sound editor on a Canadian film. The award was first presented in 1970 as part of the Canadian Film Awards, before being transitioned to the new Genie Awards in 1980; since 2013 it has been presented as part of the Canadian Screen Awards.
The Canadian Screen Award for Best Animated Short is awarded by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best Canadian animated short film. Formerly part of the Genie Awards, since 2012 it has been presented as part of the Canadian Screen Awards.
The Canadian Screen Award for Best Live Action Short Drama is awarded by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best Canadian live action short film. Formerly part of the Genie Awards, since 2012 it has been presented as part of the Canadian Screen Awards.
The Sweet Hereafter is a 1997 Canadian drama film written and directed by Atom Egoyan, adapted from the 1991 novel by Russell Banks. It tells the story of a school bus accident in a small town that kills 14 children. Survivors and grieving parents file a class-action lawsuit. This proves divisive in the community and becomes tied with personal and family issues. The ensemble cast includes Ian Holm, Sarah Polley, Maury Chaykin, Bruce Greenwood, Tom McCamus, Gabrielle Rose, Arsinée Khanjian and Alberta Watson.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television presents an annual award for Best Feature Length Documentary. First presented in 1968 as part of the Canadian Film Awards, it became part of the Genie Awards in 1980 and the contemporary Canadian Screen Awards in 2013.
Mark Sawers is a Canadian film director and writer. Best known for his feature films Camera Shy and No Men Beyond This Point, he is also a four-time Genie Award nominee for Best Live Action Short Drama for his films Stroke at the 13th Genie Awards, Hate Mail at the 14th Genie Awards, Shoes Off! at the 19th Genie Awards and Lonesome Joe at the 24th Genie Awards.
The Toronto New Wave refers to a loose-knit group of filmmakers from Toronto who came of age during the 1980s and early 1990s.
Arrowhead is a 1994 Canadian mockumentary short film, directed by Peter Lynch.