Erica Ehm
Andrea Jackson
Edward Daranyi
Joanne O’Sullivan
Jennifer Crake
Yolanda Yott
Kennedy C. MacKinnon
Dana Robinson
Joan Maloney
Erica Ehm, founder of yummymummysite.com,
is one of Canada's most recognized personalities. Chosen to be the first
female MuchMusic host, she became the voice of her generation. Since then
Ehm has remained in the spotlight as her multi-faceted media career
has blossomed-in television, radio, film, theater, journalism,
songwriting, and music publishing.
Erica is most well known for her work on television.
She is the co-creator and host of Yummy Mummy, a parenting show for the music video generation which is currently airing on Life Network. Previously on the airwaves was her series Nestle Baby and You on Rogers Television. Other shows she's starred in include Popstars - The One- Global, Real Life with Erica Ehm-Life Network, Power Play- Discovery Channel, and The Company -TVO.
Erica's stage debut was in the Crows Theatre production of Unidentified Human Remains. She played the lead role in the indie feature Jigsaw and had a cameo in Atom Egoyan's feature film Ararat.
Since becoming a mother in 2000, Erica has directed some of her energies into her children's world. She was contributing editor for What's Up Kids magazine delving into the world of parenting and literacy. Erica has also written three stage musicals for the family market. After her first play Caillou's Big Party sold out in soft seaters across North America, she was commissioned to write two other shows, The Big Comfy Couch and Caillou's Big Book Club.
She is the author of the best-selling book, She Should Talk: Conversations with Exceptional Women about Life, Dreams and Success published by HarperCollins. Encouraging women and young people to follow their dreams is the central re-occurring theme for many of the projects to which Erica Ehm has committed.
In keeping with this theme, Erica accepted a position on the Advisory Board of the Heritage Educational Foundation. As a member of this board, she is involved with the program conceived by Heritage which recognizes Early Childhood Education teachers with the National Excellence (NEAT) Awards for Teachers in Early Childhood Development.
Ehm's talents extend to her songwriting as well. Van Morrison, Tim Thorney, Cassandra Vasik, Lynne Taylor Donovan and Tom Jackson are a few of the artists who have recorded her songs. She has won two Junos, three Country Music Awards and three SOCAN Awards. She also co-wrote the theme song for the animated film and series Pippi Longstocking. Her song Love Me Even More was chosen as the theme for the feature Some Things That Stay.
Erica hosted a weekly call-in show on CFRB1010, Canada's news/talk radio station, featuring a combination of current event and lifestyle related topics.
Due to her extensive experience in the world of entertainment, as well as succeeding in achieving many of her dreams, Erica is in demand on the speaking/ hosting circuit.
Erica's son Joshua is five years old (already!), and little sister Jessie is two.
Erica is currently represented by the Noble Caplan
Agency.
Andrea Jackson is Education Coordinator at the Stratford Festival of Canada. Her background includes work as an actor, singer, director, drama teacher, flight attendant, fitness instructor, and guest speaker amongst other things! Originally from St. Albert, Alberta, where she was involved with the St. Albert Children's Theatre, the Citadel Teen Fest., and Edmonton's Fringe Festival, Andrea studied at Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton (Theatre Arts), the Boston Conservatory in Boston, MA (Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre), and the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham in Stratford-upon-Avon, England (Masters in Shakespeare Studies). In her capacity as Education Coordinator with the Festival, she is responsible for the administration and operation of many of the Festival's enrichment and educational programmes including, the Shakespeare School, the Teaching Shakespeare School, and Shakespeare on Wheels.
Career: Arts Educator/Administrator
Education: B.F.A. (Musical Theatre)
The Boston Conservatory, M.A .(Shakespeare Studies), University of Birmingham
Favourite
Quote: Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.
Favourite Subject in High School: English
What sport or instrument did you play? Basketball/ piano/
French horn
What I wish I knew then: Stepping outside of your comfort zone can
be good thing!
Favourite Book: Little Women
Stratford credits include Assistant Director - Oliver!, Ghosts, Quiet in the Land, The Count of Monte Cristo, Henry VIII, The Lark; Associate Director - The Donnelly's-Sticks and Stones; Actor - Cyrano de Bergerac and Alice Through the Looking Glass. For the Stratford Festival Edward also assists in New Play Development and Casting, he teaches regularly for the Festivals Teaching Shakespeare School and the Summer Shakespeare School program. He was the Associate Director for the Benjamin Britten Festival/ CBC Opera production of Noye's Fludde and directed Hugo Distler's Dance of Death with Conductor Robert Cooper. Most recently Edward taught and directed A Midsummer Night's Dream in Quelimane, Mozambique as a part of Shakespeare Link Canada. Since 1999 Edward has served as the Artistic Director of SummerStage Theatre in Boulder, Colorado; where he directed and choreographed Nunsense, Baby, Six for Song, Little Shop of Horrors, On Golden Pond, and On the Fourth. He was assistant director for the Mirvish / National Arts Centre production of The Drawer Boy. Edward is a graduate of The University of Windsor BFA Acting program and his favorite roles include Rudy in Bent, Ralph in Our Country's Good, Eddie in Girls in the Gang, and Othello/Tybalt in Goodnight Desdemona ( Good Morning Juliet ). Edward teaches for the University of Guelph and Shakespeare workshops for the Stratford Festival, Humber College, George Brown College and the National Ballet School of Canada. His own production company In The Blink has produced several youth oriented theatre productions in and around the Toronto area, including Nightlight, The Day Billy Lived and Sometimes.,a piece written for the Toronto International Fringe Festival. Edward can be heard regularly voicing characters for the TVO / Tree House series Mighty Machines.
Career: Director / Actor / Teacher
Education: B.F.A. Acting University of Windsor
Favourite Quote: Stay light of heart and always have a smile behind
your eyes
Favourite Subject in High School: Drama
What sport or instrument did you play? Hockey / French Horn
What I wish I knew then: buy low, sell high
Favourite Book: Lord of the Flies
Well known for her stand-up across the country, Joanne O’Sullivan improvised for two years with All Canadian Theatre Sports, and has done four seasons of Sin City, Toronto's wildly popular live, improvised soap opera. As a solo playwright, Joanne has written Encyclopedias, a dark drama first mounted at the Toronto Fringe Festival, and her first one-woman show, The Sexy Dance. Eye magazine gave Joanne their “Best Female Performance Award” for The Sexy Dance and called her “a funny, funny woman. Not just-a-chuckle funny, but laugh out loud hilarious...O'Sullivan is bright, insightful, and very sexy." The Sexy Dance has recently been optioned for adaptation into a television sitcom based on Joanne’s life and stand-up comedy.
As a stand-up, last spring Joanne performed two live shows at the Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls. In addition to writing, she has acted on a number of shows including Elvira Kurt’s Adventures in Comedy and she is a regular guest on TSN’s Off the Record.
Any Second Now is produced by Allan Magee, founder of Magee TV – who was so impressed by Joanne’s comic abilities and won over by her charms, he offered to mount her second one-woman show without any idea of what it would be about, making Joanne’s dreams of living her life in front of an audience a neuroses inducing reality.
Career: Actor/Comedian/Writer
Education: BFA in Drama from the University
of Windsor Favourite Quote: “Ginger Roberts did everything that Fred
Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.”
Ann W. Richards (keynote speaker for the Democratic National Convention – 1988)
Favourite Subject in High School: Drama
What sport or instrument did you play? Figure Skater
What I wish I knew then: My worth.
What advice would you like to impart today? This life is amazing
but it can also be hard. Let’s help each other
through. There is never a good reason to make somebody suffer so
you can have a moment of feeling powerful.
Because trust me, that moment will pass, but the damage won’t.
Who were/are your role models: My sisters.
Favourite Book: Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott
Jennifer spent her early years swimming in the waters of Wasaga Beach and skiing the hills in nearby Collingwood. When her family moved to Bradford in the 1980s she attended Bradford District High school before completing her secondary education at a Canadian school in France. Jennifer went on to do her undergraduate degree the University of Western Ontario and her Master’s at Queen’s University in Kingston. During and between degrees, Jennifer satisfied her travel bug by participating in a StudentWork Abroad Program in Australian & New Zealand and tested her fundraising skills with Greenpeace Canada. After spending a few years living and working in the England, Jennifer moved to Toronto where she now spends her days working in book publishing and enjoying a busy life close to her family and friends.
Career:
Publishing Coordinator
Education: Bachelor of Arts (Honours) - University
of Western Ontario, Master of Arts - Queen’s University
Favourite Quote: Stand Sure - family motto
Favourite Subject in High School: History
What sport or instrument did you play? Every sport but soccer and
skiing rank as the favourites
What I wish I knew then: Not to take myself so seriously
What advice would you like to impart today? Don’t sweat the small stuff
- work hard, play hard
Who were/are your role models? All the wonderful women in my life
- especially my Grandmother, Rachel
Favourite Book: Just one? How
about two?- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and Written on the Body
by Jeanette Winterson
Favourite Website: www.multisportcanada.com; www.trisportcanada.com - Keeps me update on all my triathlon
event information.
Yolanda Yott has been a puppeteer, singer and stand up comic and for over ten years. She has performed at Yuk- Yuk’s Comedy Clubs in Canada and in Los Angeles at the Comedy Store, the Improv, the Laugh Factory and The Ice House. She also studied improv with Second City in Toronto and The Groundlings in Los Angeles. Yolanda has worked as a puppeteer on various television series and films. Yolanda’s took her first one-and-a-half woman show, Having My Cabaret And Eating It,Too to the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival this past summer. She’s also an accomplished ventriloquist, creating and constructing her own puppets and producing puppet shows. She is the founding member of the Puppetmint Theater company started in Sherman Oaks, California in 2003 and now based in Stratford, Ontario.
Yolanda is a certified Yoga Instructor and Personal Fitness Trainer. Yolanda has a background in Hatha, Vinyasa, Astanga and Anusara yoga. Yolanda has been practicing Hatha yoga since she was a child. She was raised by a mother who teaches yoga, and a grandmother who did yoga well into her late 80’s. And now Yolanda has been teaching yoga for over two years and continues to pursue education in the mind, body fitness profession. Yolanda, is married and lives in Stratford with her husband, two step-children, two dogs and two horses.
Career: Puppeteer/ Yoga Instructor/ Personal Trainer
Education: BA,CPT,CYT
Favourite Quote: Take everything one step at a time.
Favourite Subject
in High School: English/History
What sport or instrument did you play? Violin/ Vocals/ Track&Field/ Horseback
Riding
What I wish I knew then: How self-empowered you can be. I wish I’d
taken more time to learn, less time with
boys and more time giving back.
What advice would you like to impart today? Treat yourselves with
respect. Take time to discover who you truly
are. Be self-empowered. Ask lots of questions. Explore life/education/travel/
Be kind to yourself, your body, the
environment and others.
Who were/are your role models? Lily Tomlin. My Aunt Aurelle.
Favourite Book: A Prayer For Owen Meany
KENNEDY C. MACKINNON is the Artistic Director of Shakespeare
Link Canada. In August Kennedy traveled to
Mozambique where she co-created and co-directed The Africa Project:
Dance with Us, Not with AIDS. She is an actor,
director, teacher and stage manager. She works full time at Humber
College where she is Head of the Voice
Curriculum and teaches Shakespeare. She is the creator and coordinator
of the Summer Shakespeare Intensive. She
teaches Shakespeare at Equity Showcase Theatre, George Brown and
the Centre for Indigenous Theatre. She spent
3 seasons at the Stratford Festival of Canada as a Voice Coach and
is a graduate from the Stratford Conservatory
for Classical Theatre Training where she also taught. She holds an
MFA in Acting, a Diploma in Voice Teacher
Training (York University) and a BFA in Acting (University of Windsor).
I was born and raised in Stratford. I graduated from Westervelt College
with a Police Foundations diploma. I plan
to pursue a policing career in a couple years down the road. I have
my CanFitPro personal trainers certification and
a Nutrition Wellness Specialist certification. I am currently working
for Excel Fitness Consultants as a trainer/
consultant. I have set a goal to compete in the FAME fitness expo
in the spring of 2007. Besides my passion for
fitness and wellness I enjoy spending time with my loved ones. I
also enjoy motivating and inspiring others to
better their lives through improving their health and making a difference
in their lives.
Joan Maloney has always been a fitness enthusiast and for over 2 decades has participated in recreational sports and aerobics classes in her spare time away from her office job. About 5 years ago she decided to take her love for fitness to a higher level by becoming a certified group fitness instructor and personal trainer. Just this fall she decided to make a career change and is currently operating her own fitness studio where she trains individuals, small groups and teams, instructs a variety of fitness classes, holds running clinics and specialized group activities. When away from her busy schedule, Joan enjoys movies, reading, cooking and relaxing with friends and family.