Wow, time just flies; It’s already been two months since I last wrote here! I have however, been moderately active on my Twitter account with the feed being displayed on the right of my site. In any case, here’s an attempt at a short summary!

First off, I got new pictures a few weeks back! Taken by long time friends Shalan&Paul, these will serve as my actor headshots and will be used in other ways such as with social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.). Check out a few of my favorites:

My work on Nikita also continued with a few days on set, and now have a total of five episodes under my belt. It was great to be back and see everyone again! Check out a short scene I’m featured in, part of episode 313 called Reunion that aired earlier this month:

Something new this year, because I’m now part of ACTRA, I was able to check out their Winter Conference and attended a lot of interesting and informative workshops. A few days later, I went to the ACTRA Awards show which I really enjoyed. During both events, I not only ran into a lot of actor friends and reconnected with people I had worked with before, but met some great new people!

Now, let’s not forget, Harlequin book covers! I’ve already been shot on about five new covers this year and a few new ones have been released. Check em out:

One thing I hadn’t done in awhile is work on a short student film. Well I recently had my last day on set of one, and had a great time. I played a French Canadian character and didn’t just have the chance to do some accent work, but spoke in French for the most part! That’s usually something I’ve done in commercials and corporate work, but rarely have I had the chance to do it in film/TV. Speaking of corporate work, I’ve had some of that with a couple of past clients so far this year.

Now that Spring is here, things should get even busier! I’m really looking forward to landing some great work, as well as putting some of my own projects together! The adventure continues…

At the beginning of this month, I went into the Toronto ACTRA office and joined ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists), the Canadian union for actors. So from now on, I’ll only be doing unionized work. Which means being well compensated and protected, health and retirement benefits along with more opportunities. I really look forward to the work I’ll be getting in the future!

In other news, season three of Nikita is now ongoing! I announced this on my Twitter page, but in case you missed it, the season premiere of Nikita titled 3.0 just aired on Friday October 19th, 2012! This is my first appearance on the show, and you can watch Episode 301 online: ctv.ca (Canada) or cwtv.com (USA).

Speaking of Nikita, the main reason I had for joining the union was the fact that I landed three episodes on this awesome show. With those, I’m able to become a full member and actually just completed a day and half full member workshop.

I had a really great time shooting my third episode also earlier in the month/end of last month and felt so blessed to have had this opportunity. Actually, they just had me go in for ADR this past week. It’s kind of like doing voice overs, replacing the original recording due to factors ranging from background production noise to performance tweaks. That went great as well, and I ran into Noah Bean and Lyndsy Fonseca before heading into the studio; it was nice to see and chat with them again and I hope to see the whole gang if they bring me back for future episodes!

Also since the last update, more Harlequin covers bookings! Actually, one of the ones I did back in May is now released: Secrets, Lies & Lullabies by Heidi Betts (picture on the left). Moreover, I finished off my non-union commitments and had some fun commercial auditions this week!

Hopefully, if you’ve been on the site this month, you realized that my last post was an April Fools’ joke. That video is years old!

Now that I’ve cleared up any confusion, I’d like to continue by announcing the air date of “Shot in the Dark“, the Cold Blood episode in which I play the suspected killer! Is he really the one who did it? Well, you’ll have to watch it to find out! Unfortunately, I believe it’s only airing in the United States right now (Thursday April 26th, at 9:00pm EST on Investigation Discovery). Will do my best to find out when a Canadian air date is set!

Now, for some new Harlequin book covers! These are number twelve and thirteen of the books in which I’m featured as the likeness of the leading man.

They are Not Just Friends by Kate Hoffmann and Relentless Pursuit by Sara Orwig. Check them out if you’re into those kinds of books!

Last weekend, I went back to Ottawa to finish up some final scenes for Kevin McMillan‘s TV pilot “Lost and Found in Beijing”. It was great seeing Kevin and Daniel again, along with David Kujuwa who helped out with the shoot. Everything went really well and we had a great time working together; lots of laughs were had by all. We also did ADR (re-recording our dialogue) for an airplane scene which we actually shot on one of our flights. The reason for recording our voices over again is that cabin noise in the plane is just too loud so we needed to get clean audio.

Also, I noticed a few new Harlequin books featuring me on the cover are now available for purchase. Check out Cassie’s Grand Plan by Emmie Dark and One in a Million by Susan Mallery. I have a couple more book cover appearances on the way and should be available soon. I’ll be sure to share those once they’re released!

It’s always hard to believe at the end of a year, that yet another one has gone by. While I don’t think we should need a specific day to reflect on what has passed, or to set new goals, it’s kind of a good excuse to do so!

Let’s begin with the end. While I like to take the opportunity to go back home for the holidays, this year I had to postpone it by a few days…for a good reason.I landed a job that involved some “wire work”. What I mean by that is I had to be suspended in the air! It was shot at Fast Motion Studios where Plato Fountidakis and his team set up and managed the rig, working with the camera crew to put this thing together. It was shot on a blue screen (same idea a green screen) and the concept involves us flying in the air. I can’t go into details until it’s released, but I can tell you it was a great experience being there working with everyone involved!

Not only did my year end well, but I had a lot of great gigs throughout. Being a lead on a feature film, shooting for two and a half weeks and making great friends in the process was definitely a highlight. Also, I landed a lead role on a TV show episode (that “killer” role on Cold Blood I recently wrote about). Not to mention that this year, I did more Harlequin covers than any other. It’s also the first time I openly talked about my diet choice to avoid meat and meat by-products, why those choices were made and how I’ve still been able to put on some muscle weight without any problems. Another memorable experience is the TV pilot that we shot in China! Traveling, seeing a country for the first time and getting to do what I love, being a lead in a show, working with some great people? Pretty awesome! Even the commercial and corporate work have been great! Not to mention, the awesome audition opportunities (even if I don’t always get the part), multiple callbacks, getting my motorcycle license with a friend (who I’ve met being in this industry and has directed a few projects I’ve been involved in) and so many other great experiences this year.

What about 2012? Well, I’ve been working on this comedic skit that I should be shooting at the end of the first week of the New Year! It’s going to be my third production where I’ll once again be wearingthe hats of director, producer, writer, editor, etc. I’m thankful to have a really solid team on board; I’m really excited about it! Other than some other plans and goals, the great part of doing what I do is that I don’t know what opportunities will present themselves (or ones that I’ll find/create/collaborate on), but I’m really excited about the possibilities! Life is beautiful…and for me, part of that beauty is the unknown. Wish you all the best holidays and may this new year bring you lots of love, health and happiness!

As the title indicates, I played a Fireman on an episode of “Curious and Unusual Deaths“; a show on Discovery Channel. Which episode, what’s the title? I’m not really sure… They usually feature three stories in one episode, and the one I’ll be a part of has to do with a man being stuck in a cave which you can kinda see behind me on the outdoor picture (the real story didn’t happen in that cave, but it was our shooting location). That’s all I should probably say until it’s released. When I find out about the air date, I’ll be sure to share it!

What else? Well, I shot another couple of Harlequin covers (with Robert Goshgarian again) which are always fun. That brings my total to thirteen…not all released of course! This to announce that I’ll be working on a new look for the website (soon…I hope) in which I plan to feature a picture gallery of all the covers I have so far. This way they’ll all be in one place!

Getting into acting, there are certain things I expected I’d end up doing. Film/TV work, commercials, etc. However, I never really thought I’d end up on a book cover. Sure, that’s more of a modeling thing, but it came about because of my choice to be an actor. That’s part of the whole fun though…not knowing. Not knowing what tomorrow will bring, not knowing the types of opportunities and experiences are waiting for us. Despite my curiosity about so many things in life, I kind of like not knowing what the future holds. It’s such an exciting thing for me…and this industry is full of unknowns.

The reason I brought up the book covers, is that I was involved in yet another Harlequin cover shoot while having found one that has been somewhat recently released.

This is Reclaiming His Pregnant Widow by Tessa Radley which was shot back in January of this year…when my hair was nice and short! As for the latest cover that we shot, it was my second time working with Michael Alberstat and it went great!

Another thing I never thought I’d do was “live acting” as I’m calling it…because I’m not sure what the best name for it is. I’m not talking about theater, but to act in a certain situation, where people aren’t in on it. Well, I got hired to crash a very extravagant birthday party. It was all part of the experience the parents wanted their guests to have. As the party was this Las Vegas/”The Hangover” inspired, we played a group of guys who were celebrating a bachelor’s party and decided to do so by crashing a birthday celebration.

I’d say we were very successful in subtly arousing suspicion and also bringing so much energy and entertainment to the guests. It was such a fun job that I would love to do again. They even had Canadian rock/rap band Down with Webster performing, which I snuck in backstage to quickly meet, all being part of my party crashing character. They ended up putting on a great show!

Other memorable moments include carrying the “drunk”, wedding-veil-wearing (which we “borrowed”), groom-to-be on our shoulders and having him toss this bouquet of flowers in the middle of the dance floor, giving my friend a temporary albeit glittery tattoo on his lower back while other guests watched with mixed but mostly amused reactions, sitting at tables with reserved seating and then always “realizing” we were on the wrong table as people showed up, joining and trying to keep up with the moves of the dancers on stage and so much more!

Nothing was scripted, we had very general directions of being a group of guys crashing a party and interacting with other guests but it was up to us to get creative with the situations we faced. Without a doubt, I really lived my character, it was an awesome improvisation exercise and a great time!

What a awesome summer it’s been so far! Had great weather here in Toronto, great opportunities despite some slower than usual weeks…but don’t get me wrong, lots has happened since I last wrote! Here’s a short summary of what’s been going on in my career in the last couple of months.

In June, I did mostly corporate work, a bit of catalogue stuff AND a motorcycle course! That course ended with a test which I passed and now have an upgraded driver’s license to include motorcycles! Looking forward to using this new skill in some sort of acting work!

During the month of July, I had some great opportunities and came very close to getting a US/Canada national TV commercial. It’s okay though, because I had an audition for another big national, potentially worldwide commercial which I ended up getting! Will write about it once it’s been shot. I also just shot a corporate, short film style training video which went great. Got to work with a great team which I shot with about a year ago. Not to mention Jon Welch, an actor/friend who I’ve worked with a few times back when I lived in the Ottawa/Gatineau area, had some scenes with me as we played co-workers!

Finally, there are some more scenes to be shot for the TV Pilot “Lost in Beijing” starring myself and Daniel Lavigne, another fellow actor/friend from Ottawa. The exciting part is that we’ll be going to China to do it! More to come on all this, but for now…a couple of Harlequin books!

Above are the covers for Protecting the Pregnant Witness by Julie Miller and Marriage at the Cowboy’s Command by Ann Major. Click them to see a larger image!

Yeah, I know…it’s been a month since the last time I wrote anything. I didn’t even talk about my last two days on set of “Clean Break” either… Well, time to catch up!

The last few days were great, just like the rest of the time I had on set. The only exception is that it all came to an end. Had days from 12 to 15 hours, shorter if I was only be needed for part of a day, for two and a half weeks with weekends off. That’s a lot of time to spend with the same core group of people. So on our final day, we all said our goodbyes, or rather see you later, had kind of a group huddle where a few speeches were made and cake was served. I volunteered to cut the cake after the first stroke was made by the director and female lead actor.

It was bittersweet as a lot of us grew fond of working together, while we all felt like we accomplished something great. A few of us even gathered around a computer as we looked at a few stills… Let me tell you they looked amazing! Really look forward to seeing this edited and all put together. I really think it’ll turn out to be a great film, especially for an independent production.

Since we finished, I had a bit of a break followed by a few of jobs here and there. Mostly corporate stuff…and today, you guessed it, another Harlequin book cover! The one you see here is actually something that was shot back in February. This is Meddling with a Millionaire by Cat Schield. It was my first time working with photographer Michael Alberstat and his team; went very smoothly!

Well, at least so far! This year, I’ve averaged more than a cover a month, just having shot the 4th of 2011 yesterday, now making it 9 books under my belt. Just like every book this year, it was shot by photographer Robert Goshgarian who is always a pleasure to work with. You gotta also give credit to his team and the art directors for making it a great experience.

Speaking of, one of the covers I did with them has just been released! Check out cover number 5 called AK-Cowboy written by Joanna Wayne.