Performers | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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  • Article

    Gilles Latulippe

    ​Gilles Latulippe, Québec actor, comedian and theatre director (born 31 August 1937 in Montréal, Québec; died 23 September 2014 in Montréal, Québec).

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/media/media/4d00156e-4b02-4425-b9c4-4f1dd7e649a5.jpg Gilles Latulippe

  • Article

    Gilles Ste-Croix

    Gilles Ste-Croix, OC, street performer, businessman (born 1950 in La Sarre, Quebec). In 1984, Gilles Ste-Croix and Guy Laliberté transformed their troupe of street performers into Cirque du Soleil, the world’s largest circus production company and one of the world’s biggest live entertainment companies. Ste-Croix served as vice-president from the company’s founding and as creative director from 1988 until his retirement in 2014. He is a Companion of the Ordre des arts et des lettres du Québec and an Officer of the Order of Canada.

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    https://development.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/images/tce_placeholder.jpg?v=e9dca980c9bdb3aa11e832e7ea94f5d9 Gilles Ste-Croix

  • Article

    Guy Laliberté

    Guy Laliberté, OC, OQ, street performer, businessman (born 2 September 1959 in St-Bruno, QC). Laliberté is the fire-breathing accordionist and stilt-walking founder of Cirque du Soleil. He transformed a small band of Québec buskers and street musicians into a performing organization of international repute. Laliberté is also the founder of the One Drop Foundation and in September 2009, he became the first Canadian space tourist.

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/Laliberte_Soyuz_TMA16.jpg Guy Laliberté

  • Article

    Haviah Mighty

    Haviah Mighty, rapper, musician, songwriter, producer (born 18 December 1992 in Toronto, ON). Haviah Mighty is one of Canada’s best young rappers. She is known for the intensity of her performances, her politically charged lyrics and for addressing issues of systemic injustice. Her first studio album 13th Floor (2019) won the Polaris Music Prize, making Mighty the first Black woman and first rapper to win the prize. She also became the first woman to win the Juno Award for Rap Album of the Year when her mixtape Stock Exchange (2021) won in 2022.

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/48790946786_5c3e2e82c0_c.jpg Haviah Mighty

  • Article

    Francophone Comedians

    French-language comedy has evolved considerably following the success of burlesques and cabarets during the first half of the 20th century.

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/media/media/4d00156e-4b02-4425-b9c4-4f1dd7e649a5.jpg Francophone Comedians

  • Article

    Ian Tyson

    Ian Dawson Tyson, CM, AOE, singer, songwriter, guitarist, rancher (born 25 September 1933 in Victoria, BC; died 29 December 2022 in Longview, AB). Ian Tyson was one of Canada’s most acclaimed folk and country music artists. A former rodeo rider, he enjoyed great success as part of the duo Ian and Sylvia with his then-wife, Sylvia Tyson. They are best known for “Four Strong Winds,” a 1963 folk anthem written by Ian. It is considered one of the best and most influential Canadian songs of all time. Tyson received many awards, including a Governor General's Performing Arts Award. He was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/media/media/e8bbefc8-5e88-47da-bc2d-48703b8192f4.jpg Ian Tyson

  • Article

    Jacob Tremblay

    Jacob Tremblay, actor (born 5 October 2006 in Vancouver, BC). Child actor Jacob Tremblay shot to fame at the age of eight following his acclaimed performance in the award-winning film Room (2015), based on the book by Emma Donoghue. He won at least 20 awards for the role, including a Canadian Screen Award for best lead actor and a National Board of Review award for Breakthrough Performance. He has also appeared in such films as The Book of Henry (2017), Wonder (2017), Luca (2021) and The Little Mermaid (2023).

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/21810305749_1636344541_c.jpg Jacob Tremblay

  • Article

    Jean Lapointe

    Jean-Marie Lapointe, OC, OQ, singer, songwriter, comedian, actor, politician (born 6 December 1935 in Price, QC, died 18 November 2022 in Montreal, QC). As a cabaret performer for more than three decades, Jean Lapointe embodied the traditional American-style show in French with a balance of tragicomic songs, good-natured humour, impersonations and comedy sketches. From 1955 to 1974, he performed with Jérôme Lemay as the duo Les Jérolas. A prolific singer-songwriter, Lapointe recorded hundreds of songs, including the popular hits “Pleurire,” “Chante-la ta chanson,” “Rire aux larmes” and “Mon oncle Edmond.” Also a Genie- and Jutra Award-winning actor, he appeared in the classic films Les Ordres (1974) and J.A. Martin, photographe (1977), and played Maurice Duplessis in a popular TV mini-series. He served as a Liberal Senator from 2001 until 2010, and has been named to the Order of Canada and the Ordre National du Quebec.

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    https://development.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/images/tce_placeholder.jpg?v=e9dca980c9bdb3aa11e832e7ea94f5d9 Jean Lapointe

  • Article

    Jennifer Podemski

    Jennifer Podemski, actor, producer, writer, director (born 3 May 1973 in Toronto, ON). Jennifer Podemski established herself as an actor in Bruce McDonald’s Dance Me Outside (1994) and CBC’s The Rez (1996–97). She then became one of the leading Indigenous film and television producers in Canada. At the 2023 Canadian Screen Awards, she received the Academy Board of Directors’ Tribute Award in recognition of “her extraordinary impact on the growth of the Canadian media industry.”

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/Producer-actor_Jennifer_Podemski.jpg Jennifer Podemski

  • Article

    Jessie Reyez

    Jessie Reyez, singer, songwriter (born 12 June 1991 in Toronto, ON). Jessie Reyez released her first EP, Kiddo, in 2017. That same year, she won the inaugural Canadian Songwriter’s Hall of Fame Slaight Music Emerging Songwriter Award. She has since released several critically acclaimed records, the EP Being Human in Public (2018) and the albums Before Love Came to Kill Us (2020) and Yessie (2022). She has been nominated for a Grammy Award and was shortlisted twice for the Polaris Music Prize. She has won five Juno Awards, including Breakthrough Artist of the Year in 2018, and three for R&B/Soul Recording of the Year (2019, 2020, 2023).

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/1024px-Collision_2019_-_Toronto_-_ENX_9706_47894938191.jpg Jessie Reyez

  • Article

    Karl Tremblay

    Karl Tremblay, singer, songwriter, video game developer (born 28 October 1976 in Montreal, QC; died 15 November 2023 in Terrebonne, QC). Karl Tremblay was best known as the lead singer of the country- folk rock group Les Cowboys Fringants — widely considered the most influential and popular Quebec rock band of the 21st century. The band has sold more than 1.3 million albums and won 19 Félix Awards, including six for Group of the Year (2003, 2004, 2011, 2020, 2021, 2023), three each for Alternative Album (2002, 2003, 2005) and Rock Album (2012, 2016, 2020), and one for Best-Selling Album of the Year (2020). Tremblay’s untimely death from cancer in 2023 at the age of 47 was mourned as a national tragedy in Quebec, similar to the reaction to the death of the Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie in English Canada.

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/3488733824_f15a54f9c0_c.jpg Karl Tremblay

  • Article

    Lou Jacobi

    Louis Harold Jacobovitch, actor, comedian (born 28 December 1913 in Toronto, ON; died 23 October 2009 in New York, New York). Lou Jacobi was a Jewish Canadian character actor whose career spanned 70 years, from 1924 to 1994. He began acting while still a child, appearing in theatrical productions in Toronto before moving on to London’s West End and Broadway. He also appeared in more than 70 films and TV series in both comedic and dramatic roles. An avuncular actor with excellent comic timing, he once described himself as having “the look of everybody's favourite Uncle Max.” He was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 1999.

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/Lou_Jacobi_Star_on_Canada-s_Walk_of_Fame.jpg Lou Jacobi

  • Article

    Louise Lecavalier

    In 1977 Lecavalier started dancing professionally with such companies as LE GROUPE NOUVELLE AIRE and Pointépiénu and for independent choreographers in Montréal and New York. As a choreographer, she presented her first work, the solo No, No, No, I Am Not Mary Poppins, in 1982.

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/media/media/ebeeee8c-82ef-41c2-8086-06f29b808ee3.jpg Louise Lecavalier

  • Article

    Luba Goy

     Born of Ukrainian parents in Germany, en route to Belgium, Goy immigrated to Canada with her family in 1951 and grew up in Ottawa.

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/media/media/f374cd20-fe72-47ba-b047-ed16cb83bad0.jpg Luba Goy

  • Article

    Maestro Fresh Wes

    Wesley Williams (a.k.a. Maestro Fresh Wes, Maestro), rapper, actor, author, motivational speaker, radio and TV host (born 31 March 1968 in Toronto, ON). Maestro Fresh Wes is regarded as the “godfather of Canadian hip hop.” His debut album, Symphony in Effect (1989), was the first album by a Black Canadian artist to be certified platinum in Canada. It yielded the hugely successful and influential hit single “Let Your Backbone Slide.” In 2019, it became the first rap song to be inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. Maestro has been nominated for 17 Juno Awards and has won two, including the inaugural award for Rap Recording of the Year in 1991. In 2013, he was named No. 1 on CBC Music’s list of the greatest Canadian rappers. Between 2022 and 2024, he earned three straight Juno nominations for Children’s Album of the Year. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and received a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement in 2024.

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    https://d2ttikhf7xbzbs.cloudfront.net/media/media/43d42d71-70ac-431c-b58c-9a8eca0b50e5.jpg Maestro Fresh Wes