OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN (HOPE GORDON)
Olivia Newton-John’s career has spanned four decades – with over 50 million albums sold, four Grammy Awards, numerous Country Music, American Music and Peoples Choice Awards, ten #1 hits including “Physical,” which topped the charts for ten cons ecutive weeks, and over 15 top ten singles, as well as an O.B.E. (Order Of The British Empire) bestowed by Queen Elizabeth in 1979. Born in England, in 1948, the youngest child of Professor Brin Newton-John and Irene (daughter of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born), ONJ moved to Australia, with her family when she was five. ONJ’s U.S. album debut Let Me Be produced her first top-ten single of the same name. In 1978, her co-starring role with John Travolta in Grease catapulted ONJ into super-stardom. To date Grease remains the most successful movie musical in history. Her other film credits include Xanadu, Two Of A Kind, It’s My Party and Sordid Lives. She›ss held many humanitarian causes close to her heart, particularly since the birth of her daughter Chloe in 1986. In April 2008, ONJ led a team on a trek along the Great Wall of China (www.GreatWalkToBeijing.com) and raised more than $2 million to find a new way to treat cancer. Other milestones in 2008 included the 30th Anniversary of Grease, ONJ’s 60th birthday and, most importantly, her marriage to Amazon Herb Company owner and founder, John “Amazon John” Easterling. In September 2009, they also joined forces with Prince Charles’ The Prince’s Rainforest Project (www.RainforestSOS.org) to further stress the global importance of Rainforest. With her recent guest role on the hit show Glee, and her ongoing projects and philanthropic endeavours, ONJ’s worldwide popularity is as strong as ever.
MARC JORDAN (EDGAR GORDON)
A well-known songwriter once called Canadian icon Marc Jordan “the real deal.” Frequently praised for the emotional and poetic quality of his lyrics, Jordan understands the sweet sadness of life and its connection to music. He began his professional career in Los Angeles in 1977, when he was signed to Warner Bros. working with famed Steely Dan producer Gary Katz, who produced Jordan’s classic West Coast album Blue Desert. Jordan spent the next 15 years in LA, making and producing records for Warner, BMG and Atlantic Records. Having written hit songs for, amongst others, Josh Groban, Rod Stewart, Cher, Molly Johnson, Natalie Cole, Bette Midler, Bonnie Raitt and Diana Ross, Jordan’s resume reads like a list of who’s who in music. His film/TV music credits include Like Father Like Son, Never Talk To Strangers, Heavy Metal, Blown Away and the series Touched By An Angel, as well as many others. A Juno Award winner and the first recipient of Male Vocalist of the Year from the Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards, Jordan has also carved an impressive career as an artist with nine successful solo albums. He is currently signed to EMI Records and Sony/ATV Music Publishing. In December 2008, Jordan released a Christmas single “Every Time It Snows.” penned in collaboration with Emmy Award winner Don Breithaupt, which is classic Marc Jordan; showcasing his unique vocal style and sensibility. Jordan’s new solo album is slated for release in fall 2010.
NOAH REID (FARLEY GORDON)
While most people his age are just getting their acting careers started, Noah Reid is a veteran of the stage as well as the big and small screen. He began acting professionally at the age of eight, and hasn’t stopped working since. Reid was the original voice of Franklin in the popular animated children’s series Franklin the Turtle and provided the voice for Gunther in the animated series Jane and the Dragon. He went on to star in the children’s television series Strange Days at Blake Holsey High and played Terry Fox’s brother Darrell in the made for television movie Terry. Other film and television credits include roles in Soul Food, In a Heartbeat, Pippi Longstocking and Degrassi: The Next Generation. Reid’s impressive theatre credits read like someone’s twice his age and include roles at the world-renowned Stratford Festival, the critically acclaimed Soulpepper and Blyth Festival, as well as Theatre Aquarius. Award-winning playwright, actor and director Morris Panych hand-picked Reid to star in the challenging role of Lowell in the world premiere of his play The Trespassers at Stratford. Panych subsequently asked Reid to appear in a staging of his hit play Parfumerie at Soulpepper. An accomplished musician, Reid also composed the music for this production. A highlight of Reid’s young career was playing Chip the Cup in a stage production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast which ran in Toronto. The busy young actor completed high school at the Etobicoke School of the Arts (Toronto) and is a graduate of the prestigious National Theatre School of Canada (Montreal).
ALLIE MACDONALD (EVE)
Allie MacDonald is from a small community in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, where she played hockey growing up. She started singing and acting at the age of six, with the title role in the school play The Little White Rabbit Who Wanted Red Wings. She taught herself to play the guitar and was songwriting by the age of 12. At 15, MacDonald landed the role of the Artful Dodger in Festival Antigonish Summer Theatre’s production of Oliver! and was highlighted by critics for her performance. She subsequently won the vocally demanding title role in Annie at Neptune Theatre in Halifax. A move to the west coast (Powell River, BC) for her final year at a more artistically focused high school allowed MacDonald the tools she needed to flourish. She competed on an Improv team, starred as Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors and as Rizzo in Grease, and was hand selected as a lead vocalist for both jazz and chamber choirs. After high school, she was one of only 40 students a year selected to attend the Canadian College of Performing Arts in Victoria, where she studied classical and musical theatre, vocal technique and performance and many forms of dance and physical theatre, and was mentored in directing during her second year. MacDonald moved to Toronto immediately after graduation to pursue acting. She currently studies at the Professional Actors Lab with David Rotenberg and spends her free time writing, playing music and rearranging her furniture.
NELLY FURTADO (ARDENT HOCKEY FAN)
Born in Victoria, BC, to Portuguese-descendent parents Nelly Furtado is an internationally renowned music artist, who has sold over 20 million albums worldwide, since bursting onto the music scene in 2000. As a singer/songwriter, Furtado has demonstrated versatility in her four albums, from her eclectic debut Whoa, Nelly! (which included the 2002 Grammy and Juno Award-winning single “I’m Like a Bird”) to the more mellow Forklore (whose single “Forca” became the official anthem of the 2004 European Football Cup) to the five-time Juno Award-winning, urban-rooted Loose (which was produced primarily by beats genius Timbaland and kicked off with the hit single “Promiscuous”) to her recent Spanish Mi Plan. Furtado made her acting debut in 2007 on CSI: NY.
MICHAEL MCGOWAN (PRODUCER/WRITER/LYRICIST/DIRECTOR)
As a filmmaker, Toronto-born Michael McGowan is a multi-hyphenate, most recently for Score: A Hockey Musical, where he served as not only as producer, writer and director, but also as lyricist. For the feature One Week (2008), starring Joshua Jackson and Liane Balaban, McGowan was writer, director and producer. The film, distributed by Mongrel Media, took in $1.3 at the Canadian box office, won numerous festival awards and garnered Joshua Jackson a Genie Award for best actor. It was picked up in the U.S. by IFC and has sold internationally. McGowan wrote and directed Saint Ralph (2004), the critically-acclaimed feature that won an array of international prizes and was distributed in Canada, the U.S. and around the world, including major releases in Japan, Germany, France and South Korea. Winner of the WGC Canadian Screenwriting Award for Best Screenplay, the Directors Guild Award for Best Director, and nominated for five Genie Awards, including Best Feature Film, Saint Ralph created a box office sensation in Japan. It also won the Grand Prix at the Paris Film Festival, the Audience Award at the London Film Festival and the People’s Choice Award for the Canadian Film Circuit. McGowan is also the creator and executive producer of the stop-motion animated children’s TV series, Henry’s World, which is broadcast in over 50 countries worldwide and has won a variety of awards, including the Alliance for Children and Television Award of Excellence. McGowan is the best-selling author of the Young Adult novel Newton and the Giant published in 2003 by HarperCollins and the sequel Newton and the Time Travel Machine, released in 2008.
