Tamara Almeida changed her career path to pursue her passion and now stars in AppleTV+’s reboot of Ghostwriter. She has also been seen in Degrassi: Next Class, Heroes Reborn and Good Witch. Find out more about her journey as an actor in our interview below!

Hi Tamara, thank you for answering our questions! Tell us about yourself and your journey towards pursuing acting as a career. What or who inspires you?

Hi Defective Geeks, thanks for having me! Like many others, I grew up with a strong desire to be creative. I went the long route and had a completely different career in sales before becoming an actor. I’d been terrified to commit to an industry I knew nothing about, but once I started taking classes, I was hooked. I left my career, and it’s been a lot of training and learning over the last decade. There is a lot of opportunity in this industry to diversify and find where you fit. My business experience led me to want to produce, and my technical background has led me to editing. I love storytelling, and am inspired by watching artists in different industries evolve. I’m inspired by the work ethic of Beyonce, she’s someone who is always letting her work speak for itself, and never stops making an effort to top her last efforts. Then there are Brit Marling and Phoebe Waller-Bridge who are content creators, writers, actors, and producers. They inspire the work I want to do, and Waller-Bridge in particular creates the type of content I am so blown away by that she’s the ultimate goal. Watch Fleabag, Crashing, Killing Eve, and anything else she’s done because she’s a genius! 

Renée Wynter is a powerhouse singer-songwriter and her brand new single, Speak, is now available on Spotify. She is also the founder of Wynterland, a fully integrated music production company which she founded with her family. Find more about her new song below!

Hello Reneé, congratulations on your new single, SPEAK. What was behind your vision for this new song and what compelled you to write it? 

Hello, thank you so much I appreciate it! The vision behind Speak was to get people to have a conversation when you’re having issues in a relationship. Instead on sending a subliminal message on social media, pick up the phone. It’s interesting how many people expect their partner to be a mind reader.

Emily Piggford is a rising star, and you can watch her on compelling web shows like That’s My DJ and on the popular Netflix series in The Umbrella Academy. She is back on the blog to talk about her new show, Warigami, a fantastical and action-filled adventure series on The CW. Read more about it below.

Hi Emily! Thank you for talking to Defective Geeks again! I watched the premiere of Warigami and loved it. Can you tell our readers all about it and about the character you play, Wendy Ohata? 

Thanks for having me back and for loving Warigami!! Warigami is an action-fantasy digital series that follows Wendy Ohata, her long-lost twin brother Vincent (Kai Bradbury) and his best friend Mark (Akiel Julien) as they face down a secret organization called the Akuma, armed with paper. Wendy and Vincent are descendants of an ancient bloodline called kami-jin who have the ability to turn paper into a weapon with a touch. The Akuma are also kami-jin and they want something the Ohata family protects. In a short amount of time, Wendy and Vincent have to figure out how to use their newfound ability and together with Mark prepare for some super-powered showdowns with a formidable enemy. 

Batman Beyond celebrates 20 years since it premiered in January 10, 1999. I was 15 years old when the show first aired on the WB Network, and I vividly remember getting excited for this show. I immediately fell in-love with the series from the very first episode and had been a loyal fan since then– to this day!

Actor, Sydney Meyer, is known for playing Helena Blackthorn in Shadowhunters, a show beloved by fandom. Soon, you will see her in a new series called Departure as well as Netflix’s V-WARS alongside Ian Somherhalder.

Tell us about your new upcoming television show, Departure, and what was it like working with a cast that includes Archie Panjabi and Christopher Plummer? Who is your character, Sophie? 

Departure is an exciting mystery mini-series centered around a flight disappearance. It’s absolutely beautifully shot, so cinematic, and it has all these rich entwining storylines that keep you guessing until the last episode. It’s a beautiful, exciting, emotional series. The cast was incredible. It’s funny, when I was maybe 14 I went to Shakespeare school at Stratford and I remember seeing Christopher Plummer in The Tempest and being absolutely blown away by him. He was an actor I so looked up to and respected. So being on a show with him was just an absolute dream come true for me. Archie is so fabulous and such an amazing woman to be around as a young female artist. She is so incredibly skilled and intelligent and kind. She’s just remarkable to work with, and to be able to do scene work with her and learn from her was such a gift. She’s truly an inspiration to me.

Only thirteen-years-old and already making a name for herself, actor and singer, Simone Miller stars in a new original web series called Detention Adventure. Check out this incredibly fun series on CBC Gem and get to know Simone below!

Hi Simone! Detention Adventure looks like such a fun show! Please tell us about it and about your character, Raign Westbrook.

Hello! Thank you so much for this opportunity Defective Geeks! Detention Adventure is a CBC Gem original web series, about three nerds who purposefully get themselves thrown into detention. In detention they meet Brett, the school bully, and together the group looks for hidden clues to try and find Alexander Graham Bells’ hidden lab that is said to be hidden under the school. 

Director Katrina Saville with Producer Gurjeet Kaur Bassi collaborated on I Beat Up My Rapist, a short film based on a true story from xoJane (titled “My Friends and I Beat Up My Rapist, And I Will Never Apologize for Getting Revenge”). The two women chat about the motivation behind the project and what moved them.

Tell us about I Beat Up My Rapist and what was the inspiration behind the story. What drew you to this particular narrative and why?

Katrina: I read the memoir essay online when it went viral 3 years ago. Leif’s (the author) writing is so vivid and compelling, I immediately began imagining it on the screen. It’s almost like I could see certain scenes pop off the page right away. I sent the essay to Gurjeet (my good friend, and producing partner) and asked her what she thought. She replied pretty quickly, saying– we have to make this. I contacted Leif personally, and asked her if we could option her essay to adapt it into a short film. Thankfully, she was open to working with us, and trusted us to tell her story.

As an Asian-Canadian, Samantha Wan is forging a path to inspire creatives within the entertainment industry and advocating for the importance of representation in television and movies. Her show, Second Jen, is a buddy comedy about two second-generation millennials who are trying to make it on their own in the big city. Find out more about her work below!

Hi Samantha, congratulations on your nomination for Best Comedy Series in 2019 Canadian Screen Awards for your sitcom, Second Jen! Tell us about your show and how you came about creating it.

Thank you! Second Jen is a sitcom about Second Generation kids and their crazy immigrant families. Two Asian Canadian girls moving away from home and experiencing all their adult-ing firsts together. It’s based around the lives and neighborhoods of my co-creator, Amanda Joy, and myself. We created the show because at the time we found there weren’t many developed roles for us as Asian actors. We created what we thought was a pilot (later we realized it was more 22 min short films) and then used it to pitch at the Banff World Media Festival. There we got the show optioned by Don Ferguson Productions and some interest from broadcasters. Skip over three years of stuff that is less exciting to hear about, numerous bible rewrites, pitches, and LOTS of waiting ( maybe a bit of crying, thinking the show was over, then it wasn’t, then it was…), Rogers Media picked us up for development and then series! We finished our second season last year and are super proud of the work. The nomination is the icing on the cake!