Megan Follows

Early Life and Career

Megan Follows grew up in a theatre family and began acting as a toddler. She shared the stage with her parents, Ted Follows and Dawn Greenhalgh, and her three older siblings. Follows work in TV began when she was cast in the Canadian short film Clare's Wish (1978). As a young girl, she appeared in episodes of The Littlest Hobo, the popular sitcom Facts of Life, and as co-host of the third season of the CBC children’s show Going Great (which also featured a young Keanu Reeves). In 1985, Follows appeared with co-star Corey Haim in the film adaptation of Stephen King's novel Silver Bullet.

Anne of Green Gables (1985)

The role that endeared Megan Follows to millions of people was that of the imaginative dreamer Anne Shirley in CBC’s adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables (1985). For her work in this hugely popular TV mini-series, which was the highest-rated television drama in Canadian history with more than 5 million viewers, Follows won a Gemini Award for best actress. She was awarded another Gemini for her part in the TV movie Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel (1986). She also received a Gemini nomination for best actress for her performance as the adult Anne in Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story (2000).

Acting Career Highlights

In 1989, Megan Follows’s onscreen chemistry with Colleen Dewhurst, who played adoptive parent Marilla Cuthbert in Anne of Green Gables, was showcased when they teamed up as a mother and daughter in the Allan King film Termini Station (1989). Follows was nominated for a Genie Award for her portrayal of a hardheaded teenage sex worker caring for her alcoholic, terminally ill mother in a dysfunctional family. Follows continued her movie work in Inherit the Wind (1988) and was the voice of Clara in the animated classic The Nutcracker Prince (1990).

In 1988, Follows took to the theatre stage along with her sister and mother in The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon Marigolds. While continuing her movie career with the filming of Cry in the Wild: The Taking of Peggy Ann (1991), she also starred in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet at the Stratford Festival in 1993.

In 1995, Follows was cast in Under the Piano as Rosetta Basilio, an autistic savant raised by a mother whose fear has kept her from living her dream of being an opera singer. In this role, Follows brilliantly demonstrated her versatility. As well as starring in the movies Major Crime (1997), Reluctant Angel (1998) and What Katy Did (1999), Follows appeared in a variety of popular TV series including Law and Order, The X-Files, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami and ER.

Follows became a star partly because of her association with Canadian icon Anne Shirley. Follows appeared in a tongue-in-cheek spoof of her fictional counterpart on Rick Mercer’s CBC comedy Made in Canada. In the TV movie Open Heart (2004), Follows played a nurse who exposes the slipshod practices of an arrogant and careless doctor. She was again nominated for a Gemini Award for best actress.

In 2005, Follows accepted the recurring role of Janice Keneally in the Canadian sitcom Robson Arms, filmed in Vancouver. She was seen in the TV movies Shania, A Life in Eight Albums (2005), Booky Makes Her Mark (2006), Booky and the Secret Santa (2006) and Booky's Crush (2009). She received three Canadian Screen Award nominations for her portrayal of Catherine de’ Medici in the popular CW series Reign (2013–17), about Mary, Queen of Scots. She also remained busy with roles in such TV series as Cold Case, Crossing Jordan, The Border, Lie to Me, Brothers and Sisters, House, Republic of Doyle, Murdoch Mysteries, Wynona Earp, Heartland and Hudson & Rex.

Directing Career

Megan Follows began her career as a TV director while co-starring in Reign. She directed three episodes of the series before moving on to direct episodes of such series as Charmed, Heartland, Murdoch Mysteries and The Republic of Sarah, as well as the TV movies Christmas Around the Corner (2018) and Marry Me This Christmas (2020). She has won both a Directors Guild of Canada Award and a Canadian Screen Award for her work as a director.

Personal Life

Megan Follows was married to cameraman and cinematographer Christopher Porter from 1991 until 1996. They have two children together: Russell and Lyla Porter-Follows, both of whom work in film and television.

Awards

• Best Performance by a Lead Actress in a Single Dramatic Program or Mini-Series (Anne of Green Gables), Gemini Awards (1986)
• Best Performance by a Lead Actress in a Single Dramatic Program or Mini-Series (Anne of Avonlea), Gemini Awards (1988)
• Best Foreign TV Personality – Female, Aftonbladet TV Prizes, Sweden (1989)
• Outstanding Directorial Achievement – Family Series (Heartland), Directors Guild of Canada Awards (2020)
• Best Direction in a Children's or Youth Program or Series (Holly Hobbie), Canadian Screen Awards (2020)