Sort Of is sort of a big deal to a lot of people, but especially to Trans, non-binary, and genderqueer people who have long yearned for honest and entertaining representation on Canadian screens. Sort Of stars Bilal Baig as Sabi Mehboob, a gender expansive millennial in Toronto who also happens to be the first-ever non-binary lead character on Canadian television. Since it’s widely heralded premiere in November 2021, the CBC and Max original series has won numerous awards, including a Peabody, T...
Nov 28, 2023•47 min•Season 10Ep. 9
Marÿke Hendrikse has the kind of filmography that shows the range of roles available to versatile voice actors who are willing to put in the work, and the kind of personality that has fun while they’re doing it. Marÿke’s lengthy and diverse list of credits includes Slugterra , Johnny Test , Beat Bugs , LEGO: Nexo Knights , Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks , Polly Pocket , multiple Barbie movies, Black Lagoon , and Sausage Party . It’s an especially impressive filmography when you consider that Mar...
Nov 06, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Season 10Ep. 8
Filmmaker Tyler Funk delves into the dizzying world of content creation for his wildly entertaining and borderline-terrifying documentary, Anything For Fame . As the Internet upends traditional notions of celebrity, Anything For Fame journeys into the virtual Wild West to profile an ambitious and reckless breed of content creator. There’s Ava, who rose to worldwide fame for a video where she licked an airplane toilet seat; amateur stuntman Peter, who routinely defies death and Homeland Security ...
Nov 01, 2023•36 min•Season 10Ep. 7
Asia Mattu is a dynamic voice actor with an eclectic mix of credits to her name, including Rocky in Super Monsters , Rugo in Gigantosaurus , Aurora in My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever , and Par-Nani in Deepa & Anoop , for which she was nominated for a Leo Award AND a UBCP/ACTRA Award. It’s a stunning filmography for a kid from Ladner who grew up loving Robin Williams’ performance in Disney’s Aladdin and now gets to voice prehistoric animals, monsters, sea creatures, dinosaurs, grannies, and a ...
Oct 24, 2023•54 min•Season 10Ep. 6
In July of 2013, Canadian law enforcement authorities announced that they’d thwarted a terrorist plot to blow up the British Columbia Legislature. A couple from Surrey – John Omar Nuttall and Amanda Ana Korody, who were recent converts to Islam – had been arrested for planting pressure cooker bombs at the Legislature in Victoria on Canada Day. It was a chilling story – but Canadians would soon learn that the story was chilling for entirely different reasons other than “terrorists in our midst.” ...
Oct 18, 2023•32 min•Season 10Ep. 5
Gary Jones is an actor, comedian, writer, and Paul McGillion’s drinking buddy. He is perhaps best known for his fan-favourite recurring role as Walter Harriman (AKA the Chevron Guy) in Stargate SG-1 , for his countless appearances on CBC’s hit radio show The Debaters , for his record nine times hosting the Leo Awards, and for his many years “Yes, and”-ing on improv stages across the continent. In 2022, Gary won a Leo Award for Best Actor in a Web Series for his work in the first season of Forgot...
Oct 13, 2023•1 hr 46 min•Season 10Ep. 4
Mareya Shot, Keetha Goal: Make the Shot is a film borne of the South Asian diaspora. This spirited documentary feature follows four junior hockey players of South Asian descent through the 2021-2022 season as they strive to be drafted into the NHL. The film also follows their families – the South Asian parents who made sacrifices in order to pay for their kids to be able to participate in this game, even if they didn’t grow up with it themselves; the grannies in their sarees and heavy parkas che...
Oct 06, 2023•41 min•Season 10Ep. 3
In honour of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (September 30), we’re releasing this special interview with filmmaker Jules Koostachin about her family’s journey to heal from the intergenerational trauma caused by residential schools. It’s a journey she explores in her new documentary feature, WaaPaKe (Tomorrow) . For generations, the suffering of residential school Survivors has radiated outward, impacting Indigenous families and communities. In her efforts to help the children of Su...
Sep 30, 2023•31 min•Season 10Ep. 2
For our fall season opener, we look back at the impact of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes on the Vancouver film and television industry through in-depth conversations with IATSE 891 Business Representative Crystal Braunwarth and UBCP/ACTRA President Ellie Harvie (who addresses the infamous July 14 open letter). We also hear from background performer and indie filmmaker Michelle Muldoon about the issues at the heart of the strikes and how it's impacted her , and from photographer Rob Trendiak, who ...
Sep 29, 2023•58 min•Season 10Ep. 1
The Vancouver Queer Film Festival (VQFF) is the second-largest film festival in the city and the largest queer arts event in Western Canada. Its milestone 35th edition (which kicks off on August 10) is a full-throttle, 11-day ride through 92 short and feature-length films from 27 countries, and it comes at a pivotal moment in queer history. Charlie Hidalgo, artistic director VQFF’s producing organization Out On Screen, visits the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to discuss joy as a form of resistance, a...
Aug 10, 2023•32 min•Season 9Ep. 17
Brian Doe Chua is a versatile voice actor with a growing list of credits that includes videogames like Dragalia Lost, kid-friendly animated fare like Polly Pocket , Lego Friends , My Little Pony: Equestria Girls , Beyblade Burst , and Ninjago , and beloved anime like World Trigger , where he voiced the heroic Osamu Mikumo. Brian is also very active on social media, constantly tweeting his admiration for his fellow voice actors and also about social justice issues and issues facing the voice acti...
Aug 08, 2023•58 min•Season 9Ep. 16
Jason Simpson is an actor and voice actor who has built a diverse body of work, from sci-fi fare like The Magicians and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow , to games like League of Legends , Dragalia Lost , The Amazing Spider-Man , Dead Rising 2 , 3 & 4 , and Need For Speed ; and animated fare like Johnny Test , Polly Pocket , Sausage Party , Death Note , Black Lagoon , Lego Nexo Knights , Ninjago , and Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny . Jason is perhaps best known for voicing Viren, the best dad ever,...
Aug 02, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Season 9Ep. 15
Actor Osric Chau is equally adept at comedy and drama, and at being a supportive member of an ensemble while still shining on his own. Osric played Kevin Tran, a high school student turned ghost turned prophet, on Supernatural , and Vogel, a member of the quartet known as the Rowdy Three, on Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency . He won a Leo Award for Best Supporting Performance by a Male in a Dramatic Series for portrayal of Charles in Blood and Water , the first television drama series pro...
Jul 28, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Season 9Ep. 14
East by North West is a new global summit designed to highlight, elevate, and empower racialized creatives in and across film, TV, streaming, gaming, and animation. Produced by the Racial Equity Screen Office in association with Gold House, East by North West runs July 28-30 in Vancouver and connects screen professionals with world film markets so that they can network, establish contacts, and gain invaluable insights into conquering the complex realm of international distribution avenues – some...
Jul 28, 2023•30 min•Season 9Ep. 13
Gary Hawes has directed multiple episodes of the most-watched television drama series on the planet (ABC’s hit drama, The Good Doctor ). He’s also the director of some critically acclaimed indie projects, including the comedy Leap 4 Your Life , a feature-length mockumentary about a community dance competition starring some of our local industry’s finest, and The Charlie Da Clown Show , a trippy short about the behind the scenes shenanigans of a talk show hosted by a washed up clown named Charlie...
Jul 20, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 9Ep. 12
For months, voice actors on both sides of the border have been sounding the alarm about the ways that artificial intelligence (A.I.) can be manipulated, not only to fool audiences, but to exploit artists. It’s already happening. Like Ursula in The Little Mermaid , A.I. and the companies who wield it are stealing voices and pushing artists out of the equation altogether – something that an astounding number of voice actors in Vancouver have experienced firsthand. In this special episode, voice ac...
Jul 17, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Season 9Ep. 11
Donia Kash is an actor, performer, storyteller, and filmmaker whose growing list of credits includes Motherland: Fort Salem , So Help Me Todd , The 100 , Snowpiercer , A Million Little Things , Hearts in the Game , and a couple of impressive “firsts”: The Secrets of Bella Vista , which represented the very first time that a Hallmark Movie featured an openly non-binary actor, and The Holiday Sitter, which marked the very first time Hallmark Channel put a gay couple at the centre of one of their f...
Jun 02, 2023•57 min•Season 9Ep. 10
Aliza Vellani originally joined us in July 2021 to talk about her work in the first season of Netflix’s Sweet Tooth . Sweet Tooth draws its inspiration from Jeff Lemire’s comic book series about a boy who’s half-human and half deer navigating a world that has been devastated by a virus that has killed a lot of people and led to the mysterious emergence of human-animal hybrid babies. Aliza plays Rani Singh. Rani has the virus, but is a rare long-term survivor, thanks to her doctor-husband Aditya’...
May 25, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 9Ep. 9
It’s been three years since we last had the phenomenally talented Marci T. House in the YVR Screen Scene Podcast hot seat. Back then, we spoke about her then-upcoming role in Julie and The Phantoms , #covidlife, stage acting vs. screen acting vs. architecture, the many ways CBC’s Strange Empire was ahead of its time, and why she stays in Vancouver. Since then, Marci has been busy in an array of projects. She lit up the stage in Harlem Duet , a performance that critics called “stellar” and “super...
May 23, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Season 9Ep. 8
lori lozinski is an acclaimed producer who works closely with some of our industry’s leading directors to bring evocative stories to the screen (among them: Elle-Maija Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn). lori is also the director of A Motorcycle Saved My Life , a documentary short that ruminates on mental health, the often complicated relationship between parent and child, and how to negotiate a relationship with grief. In A Motorcycle Saved My Life, we learn how lori hit the road on the back of...
May 16, 2023•34 min•Season 9Ep. 7
Dhirendra is an accomplished actor whose career spans all manner of characters and genres and continents. To contemporary audiences, Dhirendra might be best known as Imran, Sabi’s father on the groundbreaking and big-hearted CBC and HBO Max comedy Sort Of . Sort Of is one of the few series in the history of television with a gender fluid protagonist: Sabi Mehboob, played with courage and conviction by series creator Bilal Baig. Imran arrives from Dubai at the beginning of the second season to qu...
May 12, 2023•1 hr 35 min•Season 9Ep. 6
Actor Markian Tarasiuk has been busy: making rom-coms and thrillers; fielding acting nominations from leading industry organizations; working with Ukrainian Canadian organizations to preserve and promote Ukrainian culture during this war. In recent years, Markian has made a name for himself as a romantic lead in holiday rom-coms like Welcome to Valentine , A Homecoming for the Holidays , Wedding Cake Dreams , Christmas at the Golden Dragon , Our Italian Christmas Memories , the delightfully name...
May 10, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Season 9Ep. 5
What is Chinatown? That question and the myriad of emotions it invites sit at the heart of Big Fight in Little Chinatown , the stirring documentary film from Montreal-based filmmaker Karen Cho. The film explores the battles for survival currently being waged in four Chinatowns: in Montreal, Toronto, New York, and Vancouver. We meet the stewards of these Chinatowns, consider the role that Chinatown plays in building and sustaining community, and bear witness to the destructive power of urban deve...
May 04, 2023•37 min•Season 9Ep. 4
Bring It On was a pop culture juggernaut from the moment it somersaulted into multiplexes back in 2000. Audiences loved the saucy, sarcastic, scheming, and stuntin’ squads battling for cheer supremacy at regionals, all leading up to that shining moment when the It of the title has been Brought and the cheer squads do their thing. More than two decades after that first film, the Bring It On ’verse continues with Bring It On: Cheer Or Die – and its director is none other than Vancouver filmmaker K...
May 02, 2023•41 min•Season 9Ep. 3
Few cultural phenomena of the 1980s were as as destructive or widespread as the Satanic Panic. The Satanic Panic led to arrests, ruined reputations, and more than 12,000 unsubstantiated reports of Satanic ritual abuse that were reportedly “recovered” via the now discredited practice of “recovery memory therapy.” While the Satanic Panic is now largely discussed with derision, there was a period in time when fear of devil worshippers was earnestly reported about on the nightly news – and Patient Z...
Apr 28, 2023•39 min•Season 9Ep. 2
Sonita Henry’s filmography would make for one hell of a marathon on SyFy. Sonita played the President’s Aide in The Fifth Element , present in that iconic final scene where Milla Jovovich’s Leeloo and Bruce Willis’ Korben get it on in the regeneration chamber. She was the doctor who delivers James T. Kirk in the heart-stopping opening minutes of 2009’s Star Trek . She portrayed a colonel (who’s transformed into a Dalek) in the 2013 Doctor Who Christmas special. And she was the archetype of every...
Apr 25, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Season 9Ep. 1
Olga Prodan is a somatic psychologist and psychosocial rehabilitator working in Vancouver – and when she isn’t doing that, she’s in Ukraine helping children who have lost a parent on the frontlines. This year’s YVR Screen Scene For Ukraine – which takes the form of a gala on March 29 and an online auction of film and television memorabilia and Ukrainian art running March 27 to April 7 – is a fundraiser for the Ukrainian Canadian Advocacy Group’s rehabilitation program for the children of fallen ...
Mar 03, 2023•31 min•Season 8Ep. 32
Luisa D'Oliveira is a phenomenal actress with keen instincts, a sharp mind, and a big heart. She’s beloved around the world for her nuanced work as Emori on The 100 , a role that positioned her as a disability advocate due to the grace with which her character navigated life as a person with a disability. Other highlights include The Good Wife , where she played a young lawyer going up against Julianna Margulies’ character, a co-starring role as a detective on CBC’s Cracked , a phenomenal arc on...
Feb 28, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Season 8Ep. 31
Alessandro Juliani is beloved for many things: for his acting work on stages on both sides of the Atlantic in productions of classical and brand-new work; for his performances as a voice actor in an array of animated projects, including multiple Barbie movies, Dinosaur Train , Super Monsters , and Death Note ; for his nuanced on-camera work on iconic genre shows like Battlestar Galactica , Smallville , and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina ; for his work as a composer on numerous projects, incl...
Feb 23, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Season 8Ep. 30
Bob Frazer returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to pour one out for Alban Hearst, the anti-witch terrorist leader he played for all three seasons of Freeform’s brilliant Motherland: Fort Salem . In seasons one and two, Alban toyed with all of Motherland: Fort Salem ’s favourite witches – and in the series’ third and final season, Alban plunged to new depths of unhinged hate, while also revealing himself to be intimidated by his sneering sister (played by Emilie Ullerup). Bob reflects on his t...
Feb 17, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Season 8Ep. 29
