I was fifteen when I first auditioned and got a role in the repertory company.

It was very simple actually. I went to (real) school with Stacie ("Caitlyn") and I asked her what it was like to work on television. She suggested I try it myself and gave me a phone number. I auditioned and that was it!

I left the show about ten years ago to study at university in Canada and France (I did a double major in French and Drama). After I graduated, I worked in Ontario as a teacher. I did this for four years and then I resigned, sold all my stuff, and drove across the country to British Columbia. I have been living in Vancouver since 1997. I was teaching special needs children here, but our funding was cut, and I had to take on a more academic teaching job. It just wasn’t something that inspired me, so I started painting again. One display led to another and I just sold my first painting!

I began with journalism, then acting, then teaching. I thought that I could teach Drama. But I was usually asked to teach subjects that never appealed to me. I left teaching and changed careers a few months ago

I will always remember relationships with the cast and the crew. We spent so much time together that it took on a family-like setting for us. Plus, there is a definite sense of lunacy on a film set. The people there had a terrific way of dealing wit h the pressures of the job: they never missed an opportunity to have a good laugh, usually by some crackpot means. They were creative and exciting people to work with.

As I said before, my colleagues were a little goofy. There was one time when a storm caused a major power outage. Some of us got it into our heads that we should capitalize on this. Obviously we couldn’t shoot because the equipment was down. So a bout five of us got together in a hallway where there was a faint light coming in from the window. We sat in a circle and tried to have a séance. I’m not joking. We tried to freak each other out, and since we were all actors to varying degrees, we were succeeding. We were pretty agitated when, in a particularly tense moment, a swivel chair came barreling down the hall with a skeleton sitting on it! We were all screaming, until we heard laughter as a crew member enjoyed his joke at our expense. H e had heard us and decided to pilfer the skeleton from the biology room and send it down to hall toward us.

The 1988 Gemini Awards was another very memorable experience. This is a major event in the Canadian film and television industry. We knew that we would be receiving the award for Multiculturalism, but we had no idea we’d walk away with four awards inc luding Best Series. It was a very proud moment for all of us. Dressed in our finest, we arrived at the event in limousines, and as we glowed with surprise success, news cameras were clamouring around us. I had a glimpse into what it must feel like to be a "star".

One thing I remember clearly was standing backstage right before we were to make our appearance. I was panicky, but it got worse when someone whispered to me, "We’ve got two extra minutes on stage, you’re going to say something in the microphone! " The man standing beside me was a very well known broadcaster. I turned to him and said, "I am so nervous, I think I’m going to pee!"

One fact is that the Degrassi kids were selected because we were typical Canadian teenagers. The original idea was that we resolved to be very real, and that’s something that Canadian artists do exceptionally well. It was subtle, genuine, and aware . That’s about as Canadian as it gets.