Search for ""

Burlington, Ontario’s Walk off the Earth (WOTE) are an indie-pop band known for their innovative videos, carefully crafted cover songs, strong vocal harmonies and unique blend of folk, rock, pop and reggae. The band rose from relative obscurity in early 2012 and became an international sensation with their cover of the Goyte song “Somebody That I Used to Know.” The video, featuring the five band members performing the song simultaneously on one guitar, became one of the most watched YouTube videos that year. WOTE’s adventurous yet accessible pop sound has helped earn the band multiple Canadian Radio Music Awards, two SOCAN Awards and a 2016 Juno Award for Group of the Year.  

​Daryl Hine, poet, translator, editor, dramatist (born 24 February 1936 in Burnaby, BC; died 20 August 2012 in Evanston, Illinois).

​Michael Dowse, director, screenwriter, producer, editor (born 19 April 1973 in London, ON).

​Louise Archambault, director, writer, cinematographer (born 1 January 1970 in Montréal, QC).

​Denis Côté, writer, producer, director, critic (born 16 November 1973 in Grand Falls, NB).

Helen Kerr, industrial designer, inventor (born 1959 in Montréal, QC). Drawn to industrial design by a desire to “make stuff,” Kerr’s practice has developed and expanded over the past quarter century.

Gerard Francis Donoghue, comedian, actor, author (born 31 December 1968 in Scarborough, ON).

Russell Dominic Peters, comedian, actor (born September 29, 1970 in Toronto, ON). Russell Peters is one of the most successful comedians in the world. His trademark politically incorrect humour confronts racial stereotypes and draws upon his experience as an Indo-Canadian. His struggles to break through in the United States, combined with his record-breaking success virtually everywhere else, led Chris Rock to call him the “most famous person nobody’s ever heard of.” Peters was named Toronto’s first Global Ambassador in 2008 and was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2011. Forbes magazine has listed him among the world’s highest-earning comedians numerous times since 2009.

Peter Appleyard, jazz musician (born at Cleethorpes, Eng 26 Aug 1928, died, 17 July 2013 in Eden Mills, ON). A versatile studio percussionist and nightclub/TV personality in Toronto, he moved to Canada in 1951 as a drummer and soon turned to the vibraphone.

The highest paid actress of her era, and one of the most glamorous, Mary Pickford was a pioneering figure of early cinema.

Ken Finkleman, screenwriter, director, actor, producer (born 1946 in Winnipeg, Manitoba). Ken Finkleman is a maverick auteur renowned for the caustic humour, bitter irony and deadpan satire embodied by his television alter ego George Findlay, a linking character he has portrayed in seven television series. The winner of six Gemini Awards and an Emmy Award, Finkleman is best known for The Newsroom, the iconoclastic comedy series he created, wrote, produced and starred in. Popular and critically acclaimed during three runs (1996–97, 2003–04, 2004–05) and a TV movie (Escape from the Newsroom, 2002) on CBC Television and PBS, the show is regarded as one of the best media satires ever produced..

Carlo D. Rota, actor, television host (born 17 April 1961 in London, England). Distinguished by his elegant accent and smooth, baritone delivery, Mediterranean looks and air of refinement, Carlo Rota is a successful character actor of Italian descent who is often cast as a Muslim, an erudite professional, or an ethnically ambiguous villain.

Michael George Murphy, actor (born 5 May 1938 in Los Angeles, California). Over the course of five decades, recognizable character actor Michael Murphy has parlayed his mildly morose, blandly urbane persona into an impressive repertoire of roles as angst-ridden sad sacks and morally muddled professionals. These characters are most notably seen in Murphy’s long and fruitful association with legendary director Robert Altman, with whom Murphy worked more often than any other actor.

Deanna Durbin, born Edna Mae Durbin, actress, singer (born at Winnipeg 4 Dec 1921, died April 2013). Deanna Durbin was born in Winnipeg to English immigrant parents, but was raised from infancy in California. She was blessed with a strong and surprisingly mature voice.

John Kim Bell. Conductor, administrator, pianist, composer, conductor, born Caughnawaga (now Kahnawake) Reserve, near Montreal, 8 Oct 1952, to a Mohawk father and American mother; B MUS (Ohio State) 1976.

Often based on the unorthodox lives of real people, Michael Ondaatje's poetry and prose is characterized by its preoccupation with multiculturalism and its gravitation toward the bizarre, the exaggerated, and the unlikely.

Paul John Perry"PJ," jazz musician (b at Calgary 2 Dec 1941). His father, Paul Perry, led dance bands in Alberta (notably at Sylvan Lake) from 1939 to 1965.

Irene Louise Rosnes, "Renee,"jazz pianist (b at Regina 24 Mar 1962). She studied in Vancouver and Toronto for a career in classical music, but turned to jazz circa 1982 and moved to New York in 1985.

Augustus George Fox (born Fuchs), violinist, pianist (born 25 July 1870 in Galt, now Cambridge, ON; died 15 March 1913 in Toronto, ON). George Fox was a child prodigy who began his formal musical study relatively late, but developed quickly and drew comparisons to Mozart.

Robert Murray Gordon McConnell,"Rob," jazz musician (b at London, Ont 14 Feb 1935, d at Toronto 1 May 2010). McConnell studied with Gordon Delamont in Toronto and then played valve trombone in the bands of Maynard FERGUSON (New York, 1964) and Phil NIMMONS (Toronto, 1965-69).