As Indigenous representation continue to grow in movies and television, Sarah Podemski, an Anishinaabe/Ashkenazi actor, joins SyFy’s Resident Alien. Read more below about her role in the show as well as her own personal pursuits and goals as an actor.

Hi Sarah, thank you for taking the time to answer our questions! Tell us about SyFy’s comedy/drama series, Resident Alien. You play a character named Kayla, what kind of person is she and what role will play into the story?

This show is a mash up of comedy, sci-fi, heartfelt drama, and total insanity, it’s a real trip! The character I play, Kayla, is awesome! She is funny, and tough, a great mother, and a support for Asta at a pivotal point in the show.

Resident Alien’s premise is so funny and interesting, especially with Alan Tudyk playing the “resident alien”, Harry Vanderspeigle. What drew you to this unique series? What has been your favorite part about it?

I loved the way this role was written! It was written by an Indigenous writer named Tazbah Chavez, and she did such a beautiful job of creating a multi dimensional character. It’s very rare to find an Indigenous character written by Indigenous writers, unfortunately, so I was so happy to hear she was involved, and it made it that much more exciting to get the job! My favorite part of the whole show is the Indigenous representation. The show’s creator Chris Sheridan made it a priority to portray an Indigenous family, who are written with such love and care. It was so exciting to see on TV for the first time in a long time! 

Avaah Blackwell is both an actor and a stunt performer, known for her versatility and power on screen. She is lucky enough to be a part of one of our personal favorite series, Star Trek: Discovery. Read all about it below!

Hi Avaah, thank you for chatting with us! We are huge fans of Star Trek: Discovery. What can you tell us about the current season? What can you tell us about the Osnullus and what is it like playing one?

Hello and thank you for chatting with me! So great to hear you like the show and thank you for all of your love and support! Season three is airing on CBS All access in the States and Crave in Canada. You can catch season two on Netflix! This season is an incredible ride for all of the Starfleet crew aboard the Discovery! We are in the future fighting for everything we believe in and everything that StarFleet is about! 

Eric, a Saskatchewan native, moved to Toronto to pursue his dream to become an actor– and you might have seen him in popular shows such as The Strain, Reign and Schitt’s Creek. His new movie, Love in Harmony Valley, premiered on the Superchannel this Fall. Learn more about his journey and projects below!

Hi Eric, thank you so much for answering our questions today! Tell us about yourself and what influenced you to pursue acting. When did you want to know you wanted to become an actor and what was that journey like for you to get you to where you are today?

You know what, there was this one moment as a kid that I decisively remember saying to myself, “I want to do that when I’m older.” I was featured background on a Jamie Foxx movie when I was around nine years old I think, and it was the one day we finished getting these baseball game scenes shot and as I was walking across the dirt roads to go back to holding, Jamie and his team were shooting a basic car stunt. The car is ripping away in the gravel and Jamie was hanging out of the window, and I guess maybe what I really wanted to do was stunts, haha, but yeah, I just loved that whole experience so much and knew it was something I really wanted to do one day. But it really wasn’t until I was 21 [years old] that I truly entertained the idea of the arts as a career choice. 

Actor, Sydney Meyers, is known for her roles in shows such as Shadowhunters and The Expanse. Now, she stars in Netflix’s Grand Army, a show that represents and explores many social issues that teenagers are facing today. Season one of the show is now available on Netflix.

Tell us more about your new show on Netflix, Grand Army. What is the series about and what drew you to the project? Who is your character, Anna Delaney, and what role does she play in the story?

The series is a true to life look at five teens in Brooklyn and their lives in school and online as they struggle to find themselves and their voices in their community. I was working the casting sessions in Toronto as a reader and I was immediately drawn to the rawness and authenticity of the scripts. I was invested right away and knew that I wanted to be a part of the project. Anna is Joey’s best friend since childhood and Tim’s twin sister, she’s also the motherly figure of her group. She is put in the middle of a conflict that arises between Joey and the rest of her friend group and Anna is forced to pick a side and ultimately to deal with the consequences of having to do that.

With the world and culture of Drag taking on the mainstream media, Drag Heals brings heart and soul through this documentary style series now available on Amazon Prime, OutTV Canada and AppleTV. Find out more from the minds behind the show, Tracey Erin Smith (stage director) and Charlie David (director) in our interview below!

Hi Tracey and Charlie, thank you for answering our questions! Can you tell our readers about your series, Drag Heals? How did you both get involved in the project?

Tracey: Drag Heals is a documentary TV series that follows my 10-week SOULO theatre workshop teaching drag artists to transform a story from their lives into a one-person stage show. Each episode dives deep into one of the participants’ lives and explores their life outside of class. In class, it’s like being a fly on the wall in a bedazzled and soulful therapy group for drag performers. I had been teaching Drag King Workshops in Toronto called Dude For A Day and I wanted to offer the reverse for men, while combining it with my SOULO process.

Circus of Books was a bookstore and gay pornography shop, opened in the 1960s by an unlikely and unassuming straight couple who kept their business from their personal lives a secret. The documentary explores the challenges they faced, edited, written and produced by Kathryn Robson who was nominated for an Emmy (Outstanding Writing in a Nonfiction Program) for her work on the film. Find out more below!

Congratulations on your Emmy nomination for Circus of Books, Kathryn! How are you feeling? Did you know while working on this documentary as editor, producer and writer that you had something special in your hands?

Thank you so much!  I’m feeling all the things– thrilled, surprised, excited, and really humbled. I knew Circus of Books was a really special story, and while I was working on it, I definitely felt if we could get the film out, we would find an audience who loved the story as much as we did.  But getting an Emmy nomination is really beyond what I imagined. Just getting a documentary made and into the world feels like a minor miracle, so this is really rewarding.

Jessica Huras is a Canadian actor and filmmaker, and Bing! Bang! Bi! is her latest short film, which she wrote, directed and starred in. The film is a personal exploration of representation of bisexuality on the screen and is currently screening at Frameline International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, then at the Inside Out Film Festival in October. Find out more about the movie and Jessica below.

Hi Jessica, thank you for answering our questions today for Defective Geeks! Please tell us about your new short film, Bing! Bang! Bi! What inspired the story and the title?

The film is a bi-visibility, slice of life, comedic short that follows Morgan– a recently single, struggling actor, who is trying to navigate her sexuality and express herself amongst her oldest friends after arriving in her hometown for an unusual gig. I wanted to write a screenplay that was personal and meant something to me. My process was inspired by a scene I had observed between two exes who hadn’t seen each other for almost 20 years. By contemplating the fluid nature of relationships and love gone by, I started to zero in on what I really wanted to explore– the intricacies of being bisexual. The title is a play on the song at the end of the film. That Sophia Loren track really encapsulates the buoyant and slightly vintage feel I wanted the film to have.

PADMAVYUHA is Raj Krishna’s latest thriller film starring Nikhil Prakash, Ross Turner and Pooja Batra, which is set to hit the film festival circuit in 2020, starting with the North Carolina South and East Asian Hollywood Film Festival (NCISAFF). Krishna delves and pulls inspiration from faith and mythology for the setting of his story’s mystery. Find out more below.

Hello Raj, thank you so much for answering our questions. Can you tell us about your film, PADMAVYUHA. What is it about and what inspired the whole premise of the story?

Padmavyuha is a unique Indian-American production, a mystery thriller. It’s about a mysterious phone call that draws a religious studies professor into a dark labyrinth of mystic puzzles– the answer to which could shake the foundations of the world’s religions. I wanted it to be a trippy, edge-of-your-seat thriller, whilst also being a comprehensive, balanced lesson in Indian history. I followed the good old-fashioned filmmaking advice and made the movie I would want to see on opening night.