Jared Keeso

Early Life & Education

Jared Keeso was born on Canada Day in Listowel, Ontario, a small, unincorporated community about 20 km north of Stratford. The Keeso family has been involved in the lumber industry since 1872. The family owned and operated a sawmill outside Listowel since 1984, though it burned down in 2018. Jared’s father, Richard, was president of the J.H. Keeso and Sons lumber company and was the fifth generation in his family to work in the lumber business. Jared’s mother is Anne Keeso. He has two siblings: Alan Keeso and Abigail Keeso.

Hockey Career

Jared Keeso played hockey throughout his youth. Between 2000 and 2003, he played for four different junior hockey teams in Ontario, always as a centre. Keeso played for the Listowel Cyclones, the Strathroy Rockets and the Kincardine Bulldogs. His best season was with the 2001–02 Strathroy Rockets, when he played 43 games and earned a total of 24 points.

Early Acting Career

Keeso has stated that he thought he would play professional hockey and go to college on a hockey scholarship, though by his own admission he wasn’t a very good goal scorer. He has said that around the age of 18, the only other thing he could imagine himself doing was acting. His parents encouraged him to pursue acting as a career. Keeso studied at the University of Waterloo for half a semester before moving to Toronto to find work as an actor.

Keeso’s first credits were in 2004. He appeared in the TV movie Eve’s Christmas and in two episodes of the teen television series Smallville. He continued acting regularly in small roles on television shows, TV movies and mini-series for several years. There was considerable pressure on him to move to Los Angeles permanently to pursue his career. But he felt his best life would be lived in a place that made him happy, and that would always be Canada. His first major role was in the children’s television series Monster Warriors, in which he appeared in the role of Luke for 53 episodes, from 2006 to 2007. He also appeared in nine episodes of the short-lived Canadian drama series The Guard, from 2008 to 2009.

One of Keeso’s earliest leading roles was portraying hockey player, coach and noted colour commentator Don Cherry in two CBC TV mini-series: Keep Your Head Up, Kid: The Don Cherry Story (2010) and The Wrath of Grapes: The Don Cherry Story II (2012). Keeso was also cast as the lead in a 2014 Heritage Minute about the Winnipeg Falcons, the team that won the very first Olympic gold medal in ice hockey in 1920.

From 2014 to 2017, Keeso also gained considerable attention for his portrayal of police office Ben Chartier on the police drama 19-2 (2014–17). The role earned Keeso his first Canadian Screen Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role in 2015.

Letterkenny

It was during his time on 19-2 that Jared Keeso began uploading a series of short comedy clips called Letterkenny Problems to YouTube. Keeso produced the shorts himself, investing $5,000 of his own money. What began as a self-produced, self-directed comedy originally posted to YouTube, was picked up for an initial six-episode run in 2015. In the clips, which were inspired by Keeso’s hometown of Listowel, Keeso plays Wayne, an “unrepentant hayseed” and a Canadian “symbol of small-town defiance” best known for “eloquent robotic rants” on a variety of subjects.

In 2016, Keeso worked with filmmaker Jacob Tierney to develop his series of YouTube shorts into the comedy series Letterkenny (2016–23). Letterkenny was the first original program developed by Canadian streaming service CraveTV. It was picked up by American streaming service Hulu for distribution to the United States. It became an international cult hit known for its deadpan humour and quirky rural vernacular.

Letterkenny ran for 81 episodes over 12 seasons and branched out into a considerable media franchise, with several spinoffs, related merchandise and live productions. Letterkenny resulted in two spinoffs: the animated Littlekenny, which ran for six episodes and focused on the characters in their youth; and Shoresy, which debuted in 2022. It follows Keeso’s second role from the main series, that of the foul-mouthed hockey player Shoresy. Both Letterkenny and Shoresy were filmed in and around Sudbury. Keeso won six Canadian Screen Awards for his work on Letterkenny, including one for Best Comedy Series in 2017.

Keeso also has acting credits in such big budget Hollywood films as Elysium (2013) and Godzilla (2014).

Awards

Canadian Screen Awards

• Best Performance by an Actor in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role (19-2) (2015)
• Best Comedy Series (Letterkenny) (2017)
• Best Writing in a Comedy Program or Series (Letterkenny, shared with Jacob Tierney) (2018, 2019)
• Best Lead Actor, Comedy (Letterkenny) (2019)
• Best Writing, Comedy (Letterkenny, “Yew,” shared with Jacob Tierney) (2020)
• Best Ensemble Performance, Comedy (Letterkenny) (2024)

Leo Awards

• Best Lead Performance by a Male in a Feature Length Drama (Keep Your Head Up, Kid: The Don Cherry Story) (2010)
• Best Lead Performance by a Male in a Dramatic Series (19-2) (2016)
• Best Music, Comedy or Variety Program or Series (Letterkenny) (2017)

Writers Guild of Canada Awards

• TV Comedy (Letterkenny, “Super Soft Birthday,” shared with Jacob Tierney) (2017)
• TV Comedy (Letterkenny, “Relationships,” shared with Jacob Tierney) (2018)

Others

• Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series (Keep Your Head Up, Kid: The Don Cherry Story), Gemini Awards (2010)