Soleil Moon Frye is an American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. She began her career as a child actress at the age of two. When she was seven, Frye won the role of Penelope "Punky" Brewster in the NBC sitcom Punky Brewster. The series debuted in September 1984 and earned consistently low ratings, but the Punky character was a hit with young children. After NBC cancelled the series, it was picked up for the syndication market where it aired for an additional two seasons before ending in 1988. Frye reprised the role in a 2021 revival of the series, which was cancelled after one season.
Bob and Margaret is an adult animated sitcom created by David Fine and Alison Snowden and co-produced by Nelvana and Channel 4 as a collaboration, both financial and artistic, between the United Kingdom and Canada. The last two seasons were produced without Channel 4 but with continuing British involvement in the animation, cast, and screenwriting. The series was based on the Academy Award-winning short film Bob's Birthday, featuring the same main characters, which won the Best Animated Short Film Oscar in 1994. In Canada, it was the highest-rated Canadian-made animated series ever when it aired in primetime on Global.
The fourth season of the Sailor Moon anime series, Sailor Moon SuperS was produced by Toei Animation and directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara. It adapts the "Dream" arc of the Sailor Moon manga series by Naoko Takeuchi and follows the adventures of Usagi Tsukino and her fellow Super Sailor Guardians. The series is divided into two story arcs: the first arc for 22 episodes depicts a mighty deity known as Pegasus, entering Chibiusa's dreams to flee from the Amazon Trio, minions of the Dead Moon Circus, who are trying to steal the legendary Golden Crystal from him. The second arc for 17 episodes depicts the arrival of the Amazoness Quartet, a group of enemies who dream of remaining young forever, as well as Queen Nehelenia, the depraved ruler of the Dead Moon Circus.
Susan Roman is a Canadian television and voice actress and voice director, best known for voice acting the role of Lita/Sailor Jupiter in the Canada DiC dub of the anime Sailor Moon. She is one of the few voice actors to remain throughout the entire run of the Sailor Moon series.
Stephanie Louise Vallance, commonly known as Stevie Vallance, also credited as Louise Vallance during the 1970s–90s, is a Canadian actress, musician, composer and director who has worked on numerous films and television series, both live-action and animated. Vallance is most recognized as Jenny in The Ropers, Det. Stevie Brody in Night Heat, and Whazzat Kangaroo in Zoobilee Zoo. As a director, she received a Daytime Emmy for voice-directing the music and dialogue on the children's animated series Madeline, in which she also portrayed "Miss Clavel" and "Genevive".
Alyson Stephanie Court is a Canadian actress. Beginning her career as a child actress, her first role was on the series Mr. Dressup (1984–1994) and she made her film debut in Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird (1985). Court continued to appear in educational productions, landing the lead role of Loonette the Clown on the series The Big Comfy Couch (1992–2002).
Catherine Disher is a British-born Canadian actress. She has won two Gemini Awards: in 2005 for Best Actress for her role in the Canadian mini-series Snakes and Ladders, and in 2010 for her role in The Border. She was also nominated for her role as Dr. Natalie Lambert in the Forever Knight TV series.
Jayne Eastwood, also credited as Jane Easton or Jane Eastwood, is a Canadian actress and comedian. She is best known for her film roles as Anna-Marie Biddlecoff in Finders Keepers (1984), Judy the Waitress in The Santa Clause (1994), Mrs. White in the My Big Fat Greek Wedding franchise (2002–2023), Mrs. Borusewicz in Chicago (2002), Lucy Decker in Welcome to Mooseport (2004) and Miss Wimsey in Hairspray (2007).
Tracey Moore is a Canadian voice actress and director. She is most noted as the voice of Princess Toadstool in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, and the singing voice of Strawberry Shortcake in Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures.
Billie Mae Richards was a Canadian actress who also appeared onstage and on television. She was the voice of Rankin/Bass' version of the Christmas character Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer from 1964 to 1979, and of the Kid in the radio series Jake and the Kid.
Linda Anne Ballantyne is a Canadian voice actress, who is best known for voicing the title role of Serena Tsukino/Sailor Moon in the second half of the original English version of Sailor Moon.
Katie Griffin is a Canadian actress who has appeared on television, films and voiced animations. Her roles include the voices of Sailor Mars in the original English Canadian dub of Sailor Moon, Alex in Totally Spies!, Laugh-a-Lot Bear in Care Bears: Journey to Joke-a-lot and Farmer Shire in Corn & Peg. She currently voices Ma Barker in Go, Dog. Go!
Julie Lemieux is a Canadian voice actress.
Rya Kihlstedt is an American actress. She starred in the 1997 comedy film Home Alone 3 as Alice Ribbons. Kihlstedt would go on to appear in the films Deep Impact (1998), Women in Trouble (2009) and The Atticus Institute (2015). On television, she had a recurring roles as Dr. Michelle Ross in the Showtime crime drama Dexter and as Marilyn Rhodes in the ABC musical drama Nashville. In 2015, Kihlstedt starred in the NBC miniseries Heroes Reborn, in 2022 in Superman & Lois as Ally Allston, as well as the Fourth Sister in Obi-Wan Kenobi, a role she later voiced in Tales of the Empire in 2024.
Elizabeth Hanna is a Canadian film and television actress and speech language pathologist, most notable for her voice acting work in animated films. She is best known as the voice of Hen in Little Bear.
Elisabetta Spinelli is an Italian voice actress who contributes to voicing characters in cartoons, anime and more content.
Norma Bailey is a Canadian film writer, producer, and director whose work is rooted in feminist and intersectional film theory. Bailey has directed several films, both in English and French and in various different genres, including fiction and non-fiction films. Her prolific career within the film industry has awarded her various awards and professional accolades including being named to the Order of Manitoba in 2010.
Maternal feminism is the belief of many early feminists that women as mothers and caregivers had an important but distinctive role to play in society and in politics. It incorporates reform ideas from social feminism, and combines the concepts of maternalism and feminism. It was a widespread philosophy among well-to-do women in the British Empire, particularly Canada, from the late 19th century until after World War I (1914–18). The concept was attacked by later feminists as accepting the paternalist view of society and providing an excuse for inequality.
In anime and manga, the term "LGBTQ themes" includes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender material. Outside Japan, anime generally refers to a specific Japanese-style of animation, but the word anime is used by the Japanese themselves to broadly describe all forms of animated media there. According to Harry Benshoff and Sean Griffin, the fluid state of animation allows the flexibility of animated characters to perform multiple roles at once. Manga genres that focus on same-sex intimacy and relationships resulted from fan work that depicted relationships between two same-sex characters. This includes characters who express their gender and sexuality outside of hetero-normative boundaries. There are also multiple sub genres that target specific consumers and themes: yaoi, yuri, shoujo-ai, shonen-ai, bara, etc. LGBT-related manga found its origins from fans who created an "alternative universe" in which they paired their favorite characters together. Many of the earliest works that contained LGBT themes were found in works by dōjinshi, specifically written content outside the regular industry. The rise of yaoi and yuri was also slowed due to censorship laws in Japan that make it extremely hard for Japanese manga artists ("mangakas") and others to create work that is LGBT themed. Anime that contained LGBTQ content was changed to meet international standards. However, publishing companies continued to expand their repertoire to include yuri and yaoi, and conventions were created to form a community and culture for fans of this work.
Wendy Lyon is a Canadian film and television actress. She began her career in television, appearing on the miniseries Anne of Green Gables (1985) before having a recurring role on the Canadian series The Campbells (1986–1990). She made her feature film debut in a leading role in the supernatural horror film Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987).
