Canadian Celebrities, A List From My Travel Journal

I know what your thinking, What do Canadian Celebrities have to do with travel?

Well, nothing really.

Except for the fact that we are often asked during our travels what famous Canadians are out there?

I was looking through an old travel journal the other day and saw a list that we started compiling of Canadian Celebrities.  We started jotting them down because whenever someone asked us who our Canadian Celebrities are, we could never think of one. Only Celine Dion came to mind and that’s lame because we know we have many cool actors and musicians that were born in Canada.

If we kept them in our journal, we could whip out the list and be prepared… Yeah, like that would ever happen.

Inspired by a Travel Journal Entry.

So, from an excerpt out of my travel journal from years gone by to some updated additions from today, here is our list of Canadian Celebrities.

Hot Today

• Ellen Page – Juno, Inception, Xmen and academy award nomination…This Girl is the next big thing.
• Michael Cera – Juno, Scott Pilgrim Vs the World, and with the new Arrested Development Movie in the Works, he just may stay in the spotlight.
• Rachel McAdams - First came onto the scene in Mean Girls, then The NoteBook, Time Travelers Wife and Sherlock Holmes, oh yeah, she’ll be around for a long time.
• Seth Rogan - Film Credits include, Superbad, Pineapple Express, Funny People and coming up, The Green Hornet
• Ryan Renolds - Funny enough, he and Alanis were engaged at one point. today he is one of the hottest actors in Hollywood. Married to Scarlette Johanson, he is set to star in the Green Lantern.
• Anna Paquin - Academy Award Winner for the Piano, but more recently from X-men and True Blood

Bonafide Stars Can We say Longevity

• Keannu Reeves – Speed, The Matrix, you know his movies. I saw his name on a hockey plaque at a summer camp in Ontario where he played goalie in hockey. Now that was cool
• Kieffer Sutherland – 24 the Series and upcoming feature film, one time engaged to Julia Roberts, a Brat Packer of the 80′s can we say Young Guns?
• Donald Sutherland - Kieffer’s dad and Hollywood icon
• Michael J Fox -Back to the Future and Family Ties fame and Parkinson’s disease advocate.
• William Shatner - Captain Kirk, Star Trek, need I say more.
• Christopher Plummer - A great thespian famously known for his role as Baron Von Trapp in The Sound of Music which he is not thrilled with.
• Leslies Nielson - From a long career as a serious actor to a reinvention in the Naked Gun Farce Series of Films in the 90′s.

TV Stars

• John Roberts – CNN News Anchor. We knew him when he was JD Roberts, VJ for The New Music on City TV
• Joshua Jackson – Dawsons Creek and Fringe. But I liked him best in One Week.
• Scott Speedman – Felicity and Underworld
• Evangaline Lilly – Kate from Lost one of our favourite TV series ever.
• Jason Priestly - 90210 Fame.
• Neve Campbell - Party of Five and The Scream Movies. Just may make a comeback as Scream 4 is in the works!
• Matthew Perry - Our Canadian “Friend”
• Alex Trebek - Host of Jeopardy
• Howy Mandel - Comedian and host of Deal or No Deal and now America’s Got Talent. I remember him in St. Elsewhere when he had hair
• Sandra Oh – Greys Anatomy
• Paul Schaffer - Band Leader of The Late Show with David Letterman (or whatever name the show is going by these days

Comedians

• Lorne Michaels – Creator of Saturday Night Live
• Jim Carrey – One of the worlds biggest comedian in the 90′s. Chugging along today.
• Mike Myers – We have it on good authority that he was a jerk while working on The Love Guru in Toronto. Too bad, because we use to be very proud that our Scarborough boy made good. Not so much anymore.
• Dan Aykroyd – Go to the Second City downtown Toronto and you will see a wall of great comedians that had performed on the stage. Dan Aykroyd was one of them and he is still going strong. Ghostbusters III is rumoured to be in the works!
• Martin Short - Another great comedian, Martin Short did the rounds of Second City and SCTV before going on to hollywood greatness.
• John Candy – Our beloved Comedian that died too soon.
• Norm MacDonald - Saturday Night Live Alumni
• Rick Moranis – Honey I Shrunk the Kids, A Mackenzie Brother and A Ghostbuster
• Phil Hartman – Saturday Night Live, News Radio, Feature Film Comedian, Killed by gunshot by wife.

Pop and Rock Stars

• Avril Lavigne - Our teen rock/pop singing sensation.
• Justin Bieber – Our Teen phenomenon that we can’t really figure out what is all the bieber fever around the world?
• Niel Young – One of the greatest songwriters of all time. Crosby
• Sarah McLachlan - Lilith Fair and Dawson’s Creek. Sarah McLachlan has a smooth voice that was the anthem of sad songs. “I Will Remember You”
• Rush – Rock Icons
  Tragically Hip - Canadian Rock Icons that never really broke into the American Market
• Alanis Morrisette - Angst rock queen of the 90′s, We loved listening to You Otta know and Isn’t it Ironic
• The Guess Who - Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman wrote American Woman and many other Rock God Songs of the 60′s and 70′s. We saw them in concert a few years ago and they still got it.
• Barenaked Ladies - Rock Band from Toronto that did great across the border
• Sum 41 – Punk Band that had a good run there for a while.
• Michael Buble – Jazz Singer and Grammy Winner
• Dianna Krall – Jazz Pianist and singer. Grammy winner.

Bombshells

• Pamela Anderson -Playboy playmate and Baywatch Babe.
• Shannon Tweed - Playboy Playmate and spouse to Kiss Rocker Gene Simmons. Love watching the family Jewels Shannanigans.
• Shania Twain – Country music sensation that crossed over to mainstream pop and one gorgeous lady.
• Kim Cattrall – Vamp from Sex in the City.

Directors

• James Cameron – Director of Titanic and Avatar, academy award winner.
• Norman Jewison – Academy Award Winner and Director of on of my all time favourite movies, Moonstruck with Cher and Nicolas Cage.
• David Cronenberg – Director of freaky movies like The Fly, History of Violence and Eastern Promises
• Adam Egoyan – Not really a fan of his work, but has been nominated for an academy award for The Sweet Hereafter.

Had a time in the Spotlight during Big Flix

• Carrie Ann Moss – Trinity of The Matrix
• Catherine O’hara – A comedian and always working actress, but best known for the Home Alone Movies.
• Hayden Christensen - Anikan Skywalker

Now when someone asks us in a conversation who are our famous Canadians, I will be able to point them to our site, because believe me, we will never remember when put on the spot.