That's My DJ | |
---|---|
Genre |
|
Created by | D. W. Waterson |
Directed by | D. W. Waterson |
Starring | |
Country of origin | Canada |
No. of seasons | 3 |
No. of episodes | 24 |
Production | |
Editor | Maureen Grant |
Camera setup | Single-camera |
Running time | 1-15 minutes |
Original release | |
Release | 2014 – 2017 |
That's My DJ is a Canadian web series created by D. W. Waterson. [1] The series, created in 2014, follows the lives of several people who work in the Toronto nightlife industry. [2] It has been funded through various Indiegogo crowdfunding campaigns. [3] The first season originally premiered online in 2014, before being re-released in 2016, following the release of the second season on YouTube. A third and final season premiered online July 7, 2017. [4]
Since its release, the series has won several awards, including at the Vancouver Web Series Festival and the New York Television Festival. It additionally received two Canadian Screen Award nominations.
That's My DJ was created by Canadian DJ D. W. Waterson in 2014. They wanted to create the series because they felt that the stories of LGBT women and women of colour and their importance in the Toronto nightlife industry and the electronic music scene were not being told. In an interview, Waterson discussed their intentions with the series, saying:
Being a DJ myself I found myself looking around the clubs and bars thinking there are so many interesting characters set against this colorful background, why isn’t anyone telling this story?! It was that moment that inspired me to write and create That’s My DJ. [5]
Waterson collaborated with other creatives in the Toronto arts scene to create the series and initially relied on self-financing to produce the project. The first season of the series originally premiered online in 2014, after a successful crowdfunding campaign via Indiegogo; [6] however, after it struggled to attract viewers, it was subsequently pulled from YouTube.
Following the success of the second season in 2016, [7] the first season was re-uploaded to YouTube. [8] The second and third seasons were also funded primarily through Indiegogo campaigns. [9] [10] Each season consists of 8 episodes, with a total of 24 episodes over three seasons. [11] As of 2020, the three seasons have been viewed over 3 million times cumulatively on YouTube. [12]
The series focuses on the nightlife scene in Toronto and each season follows a different character, ranging from DJs (seasons 1 and 3) to event promoters (season 2). The second season deals with an LGBT relationship between two women.
NOW Magazine called the series "well-produced, well-acted, and well-written". [8] Flare dubbed the series a "must-see—even if you're not in the music scene". [4] TalkNerdyWithUs.com described the series as "funny, exciting, inventive, occasionally maddening, always beautiful, and heavily invested in the duality of heartbreak and optimism". [14] Teen Vogue praised the series for its portrayal of LGBTQ+ women of colour. [15]
The series has won various awards, including the Best Director award at the 2016 New York Television Festival for Waterson, [7] as well as Best Canadian Series and Best Director at the 2017 Vancouver Web Series Festival. [16] The series has received two Canadian Screen Award nominations, for Emily Piggford's performance in 2016, [17] and for Waterson's direction in 2018. [18]
Year | Association | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Refs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2016 | |||||
New York Television Festival | Best Director | D. W. Waterson | Won | [19] | |
2017 | Canadian Screen Awards | Best Performance in a Series Produced for Digital Media | Emily Piggford | Nominated | [18] |
Vancouver Web Series Festival | Best Drama Series | D. W. Waterson | Nominated | [20] | |
Best Director | D. W. Waterson | Won | [20] | ||
Best Canadian Series | D. W. Waterson | Won | [20] | ||
2018 | |||||
Canadian Screen Awards | Best Direction, Web Program or Series | D. W. Waterson | Nominated | [18] | |
Seoul Web Fest | Best Music | D. W. Waterson | Won | [21] | |
Mark Thomas Little is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for his appearances on the CBC Television sitcom Mr. D, playing Simon Hunt, the Xavier Academy science teacher, and his work with Picnicface.
Ajene Griffith, better known as DJ Agile, is a Canadian hip-hop producer and DJ from Toronto, Ontario. He is a member of the hip-hop groups BrassMunk and Big Black Lincoln.
Natasha Negovanlis is a Canadian actress, writer, producer, and singer. She achieved international recognition for portraying Carmilla Karnstein in the YouTube web series Carmilla (2014–2016) and in the 2017 feature film based on the series.
Whatever, Linda is a Canadian web series co-created and co-written by Hannah Cheesman and Julian De Zotti. The series stars Cheesman as Linda Thoroughbred, a woman in the 1970s who gets a job as a secretary for financier Barney Lahnar and becomes the real brains behind the Ponzi scheme that will eventually bring him down.
Chloe Rose is a Canadian actress. She rose to prominence when she portrayed Katie Matlin in the long-running teen drama television series Degrassi: The Next Generation, from 2011 to 2013.
Chop Socky Boom is a comedy web series created by Darlene Sellers and Heath Ward and filmed in Seattle, Washington. The series is broadcast on the internet and premiered on May 1, 2012. Season one includes eight episodes, with season two currently under development. Chop Socky Boom follows the adventures of misfit indie film actors cast in the fictional kung fu film, “Final Zodiac Warrior.” CSB focuses on main character Khanh and her friends, Scottie, Paige, Daisy and Max, as they audition for a poorly run chop socky series created by Trick, an Ed Wood like Director with his own unique vision.
Raymond Ablack is a Canadian actor and comedian. He began his career in the early 2000s as a child actor on stage, performing as Young Simba in The Lion King at the Princess of Wales Theatre. He later gained recognition for playing Sav Bhandari in the teen drama television series Degrassi: The Next Generation from 2007 to 2011.
Teenagers is a Canadian web series created by M. H. Murray and Sara Tamosauskas. With an ensemble cast that includes former Degrassi stars Chloe Rose and Raymond Ablack, Teenagers presents various storylines in the form of vignettes and focuses on social issues such as teen angst, racism, violence, slut-shaming, and sexuality.
Emmanuel Kabongo is a Canadian actor and film producer.
The Vancouver Web Series Festival, also known as the Vancouver Web Fest, is a web series festival based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is known as the first ever Canadian festival dedicated solely to entertainment and programming created exclusively for the Internet.
The Amazing Gayl Pile is a Canadian web series created by Morgan Waters and Brooks Gray, which follows one man's misguided quest to conquer the world of home shopping, and become king of the TV pitchman game. First created in 2014, the show stars Morgan Waters, Brooks Gray, Inessa Frantowski, Andy King, Leo Scherman, Daniel Stolfi and Natasha Bromfield. The series has received numerous awards and has screened at festivals around the world; in 2017, it won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Directing and Best Original Program or Series produced for Digital Media - Fiction. Also in 2017, the series broke the record for most nominations at the Indie Series Awards in Los Angeles.
Jeremy LaLonde is a Canadian filmmaker. He is known for his work in Canadian film and television.
The Ryan and Amy Show is a Vancouver-based Canadian sketch comedy duo composed of Ryan Steele and Amy Goodmurphy. They have toured Canada and the United States including doing Sketch Fest in Montreal and Vancouver as well as Just for Laughs. The group produces sketch comedy shorts that are distributed via YouTube and on their website, but have appeared on other sites as well such as Funny or Die. Goodmurphy and Steele have starred together in on television shows, including: The Funny Pit (2012) with Roman Danylo; The Face of Furry Creek (2013–2014); and a 2011 episode of the series Out For Laughs. Steele appeared on the 2014 season of The Amazing Race Canada, finishing in third place with co-worker Rob Goddard. Goodmurphy has appeared on Super Channel's Too Much Information (2014–2015), as well as the 2019 comedy film 37-Teen. In 2016, the duo was nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award in the inaugural presentation of the Best Live Ensemble category. In early 2018 the duo's short film White Wine Boys Club won first prize at the Vancouver Just for Laughs Film Festival, as well as the Grand Prize competing Internationally against other JFL Film Festival winners. The Ryan and Amy Show signed with Hadron Films to produce a 22-minute sketch comedy pilot, produced by Miles Forster & Chris Wilkinson.
Samantha Wan is a Canadian actress, screenwriter, producer, and web series creator. She is known for co-creating, writing, and starring in the City television series Second Jen. Since 2017, she has starred in the Global Television Network series Private Eyes. and in 2022 CBC's Run the Burbs.
My Roommate's an Escort is a Canadian comedy web series created, written by, and starring Katie Uhlmann and Trish Rainone. All 11 episodes of the first season are directed by Uhlmann, and the series premiered on YouTube on April 3, 2017. Rainone plays a non-confrontational, small-town girl living in Toronto who suspects her new roommate Kesha, played by Uhlmann, is a call girl.
Running with Violet is a Canadian comedy-drama web series created by and starring Rebecca Davey and Marie-Claire Marcotte. The series premiered on a dedicated YouTube channel on February 13, 2017. As of January 2020, Running with Violet had generated over 1.5 million views on YouTube.
Stacey Roy is a Canadian actress and producer of the TV show The Nerdy Bartender, and the first Canadian to win Lego Masters with her victory with Nick Della Mora on the third season of the American version. She is also the live host of the Amazon streaming show Cooking with Stacey. Based out of Kelowna, British Columbia. She produces content with Mike Parkerson via their production company Whabam Media.
D. W. Waterson is a Canadian DJ, drummer, writer, director, and web series creator. They are known for their work as a performer and for creating, writing, and directing the award-winning web series That's My DJ (2014–2017). Their feature-length directorial film debut, Backspot, was released in 2023.
Cherie Dimaline is writer and a member of the Georgian Bay Métis Council of the Métis Nation of Ontario. She has written a variety of award-winning novels and other acclaimed stories and articles. She is most noted for her 2017 young adult novel The Marrow Thieves, which explores the continued colonial exploitation of Indigenous people.
Tokens is a Canadian comedy web series created by Winnifred Jong and produced along with Trinni Franke. The series premiered on Facebook and YouTube on May 6, 2019. It also stayed on Binge Networks for the first season and was later sold to Urbanflix TV.