Hi Allison, thank you so much for talking to Defective Geeks! We are also a female centric website! Please tell us more about Howl & Roar Records and what inspired you to start this record label.

Thank you so much for inviting me!

When I started hosting and curating a weekly radio show celebrating women in comedy, I realized that women just aren’t releasing content at the same rate as their male counterparts. Even proportionally speaking. So, I thought back to all the challenges and issues I faced when I recorded my album and realized that with all the contacts I have made in my 5+ years in radio, plus my 17 years as a comedian, I am in a unique position to make it easy for people to record. As well, here in Canada we really devalue our artists unless they find success elsewhere, so I wanted to create a place where comics felt valued.

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Michelle Alexander is a Toronto based actress, known for her chilling role in the Canadian horror series, Darknet. Inspired from a young age to pursue a career in acting, Michelle has never stopped pursuing her passion since. You can see her in other shows such as Orphan Black and Shadowhunters. Get to know where she came from and what inspires her– read the interview below!

Tell us about yourself. How did you get into acting and who/what were your inspirations? When did you know you were going to pursue a creative career?

Alright, buckle up, here we go! I am a born and bred Vancouver Islander, I grew up in a small town called Mill Bay–I mean small. We have two fast food restaurants and one traffic light. I come from a family of five whose careers include: a high school principal, an elementary librarian, a rocket scientist and an entrepreneur. AKA, I’m the one and only artist. When I was in preschool we were asked to do one of those MadLib type activities where you fill in the blanks and declare your future, probably so you can chuckle at how wrong you were when you’re in your 20’s. Anyway, at four years old, under ‘When I grow up I want to be a…’ I wrote actor and never looked back.

I started acting “professionally” when I was nine years old in a children’s touring theatre troupe that performed dramatizations of novels in elementary schools. My first role was Becky Thatcher in Tom Sawyer and the moment I stepped out on stage (aka, the gymnasium floor) I knew I was hooked.

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Sherren Lee produced and directed The Things You Think I’m Thinking, a short film about a black male burn-survivor and amputee who goes on a date with a regularly-abled man. The film explores the main character’s demons and how he faces intimacy 10 years after his accident. This award winning film will be making the rounds at different festivals this summer. Get to know the woman behind the scenes and read the interview below!

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions, Sherren! ​Tell us a little about yourself. How did you get into filmmaking? When did you know you wanted to get involved in making movies?

I grew up wanting to act and participating in all the school plays. In university, I directed a play for the first time and have not acted since. It had never clicked in my head that directing could be something I can do, but as soon as I had a taste of it, I knew it was what I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing. I didn’t go to film school, so when I graduated from McGill with a Bachelor of Commerce, I only looked for film and television work, proceeded to work in production for seven years while creating my own independent work on the side. I didn’t give myself an alternative.

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As women, we all want to feel empowered through our own bodies and gender– and Pastel Supernova is using her love of dance as a way to deliver a powerful message of positivity. In 2012, Pastel founded Love Letters Cabaret after she had spent many years touring the world and performing. Check out our interview with her below and she talks about her creative projects and message to the world.

Hello, Pastel, thank you for talking with Defective Geeks! Tell us how you made your way back to Toronto in 2012 and what inspired you to start Love Letters Cabaret

Hello Defective Geeks! I had been touring for several years around the globe and throughout that time Toronto was my home base… so when I was done, I just went home and started reconnecting and collaborating with dope artists in my city. At the time I was deeply in love with a dude and my favorite thing to do for him was gift him with various creative works. My first show, which was supposed to be a one-off, was a series of physical love letters of sorts. I kept him in mind choreographing different pieces and the more I created the more dancers wanted to be a part of it. The show went well and the audience, the cast and I wanted to continue the experience so Love Letters Cabaret was born.

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Jadiel Dowlin plays Phoenix Brooks in Nickelodeon’s Star Falls, a deep and thoughtful character who has had to live with the stardom of his Hollywood star father Craig Daniels (played by Dion Johnstone). At a young age and with the support of his family, Dowlin began pursuing that creative itch in entertainment through modeling and commercials. In 2013, he was cast in Amazon Prime’s original series, Annedroids, and is now a fast rising actor and writer as well. Get to know this inspiring young man through my chat with him below!

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions, Jadiel! What inspired you to become an actor and how did you get started? Were you always a creative person?

Glad to be taking part in this interview!

I enjoyed “pretending” at a very young age. I wasn’t allowed to watch TV Monday through Friday, so it became a daily habit to read, write and play make-believe with my parents, especially my dad. We would play superheroes for hours. Then in grade five, I started writing speeches and winning speech competitions in every grade, at the school and regional level, to the point that I went to the finals in grade seven. It was then that my mom’s best friend from Panama, my Tia Lourdes (auntie in Spanish), told her that she has to put me into some kind of drama related activity because she noticed that I was a natural at acting and doing impersonations. My parents disagreed with her because they were focused on “building my character” they were afraid I would become like other child stars that we see in the media.

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Megan Hutchings plays the daring and seductive lawyer in the show, In Contempt. Megan began her journey into acting at age 18 and have already landed roles in shows such as Beauty and the Beast (The CW), The Smart Woman’s Survival Guide (W Network), Reign (The CW) and The Good Witch (Hallmark Channel). Find out more about her career in the interview below!

Tell us about your upcoming show, In Contempt, and your character, Tracy Campbell. What do you love best about Tracy?

In Contempt is a really entertaining show filled with all the drama of love, relationships, broken friendships, rivalries, etc. that audiences crave but it also focuses on some real, complicated issues that our world is dealing with today. As public defenders we’re dealing with people who are often suppressed because of the colour of their skin, poverty, mental illnesses and other issues.

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Elena V. Wolfe stars in Star Falls on Nickelodeon as Beth Miller, a single mom and a veterinarian in a small town who falls in love with a Hollywood superstar. When Elena isn’t busy working on set, she is also writing a mythology based novels and you can also see her on SyFy’s Defiance and FX’s The Bridge. Get to know her more in our interview below!

Hello, Elena! Please tell us about your upcoming show on Nickelodeon, Star Falls, and your character, Beth Miller.

Hello! Alright, so the show centers around a teenage girl, Sophia, and her mother Beth who live in a quiet town of Star Falls. Things pick up quite a bit when a Hollywood superstar moves in to town with his three kids, who, with Sophia’s encouragement, begin a “Parent Trap” scheme to make their parents fall in love. I play Sophia’s mom Beth. She is shy an introverted, and understanding… to a point. The great thing about Beth and her relationship with her daughter is that her secretly quirky self comes out with Sophia by her side, and that becomes more prominent as the season progresses.

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Jasmine Daya wrote about her own personal experience as a woman pursuing a career while she was pregnant. In today’s society, sometimes motherhood is seen as a “road block” to women who want to work. Under her pen name, Leia London, Daya shares her own adventures and challenges in a realistic but lighthearted story.

Learn more about this powerhouse of a woman and what she has to say to other women who are juggling their own life and dreams.

Thank you for talking with Defective Geeks about your book, Jasmine. Can you give our readers a summary of ‘Law Girl’s Bump in the Road’?

Law Girl’s Bump in the Road is a chicklit novel based on my life but slightly fictionalized for entertainment value. I learned that I was pregnant in my last semester of law school and the baby was due at the same time that I was supposed to start working at a law firm. After years of school, a baby at that point in my life was not part of the plan. In addition, I was dealing with cultural issues and ridiculous pregnancy advice. My background is Indian. Although I was extremely concerned, the pregnancy itself resulted in an entertaining adventure that is chronicled in the book.

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