Queer's Queers by Meg Allen 365Gay.com TV

The Toronto produced, North American version of Queer As Folk is as gritty as its British big brother. Russell T Davies who produced the original Queer As Folk for Britain's Channel 4 is a consultant for Temple Street Productions the Toronto company which is making the North American version. Davies says, "about the only thing we dropped were the accents."

The executive producers are the gay coupled team Daniel Lipman and Ron Cowan the team which also produced the award winning An Early Frost.

Like the original, it takes place in a working class city rather than Chelsey, the Castro, or Church-Wellsley focusing on the relationships, careers, loves and ambitions of the characters.   Their neighbourhood is Liberty Avenue, a gay strip with a couple of bars,  a disco, a few shops and a diner.  Many of the scenes were shot outdoors on Church Street, or indoors at Fly and The Guvernment.

There's nudity, lots of it, and the actors were required to list what they would (and more importantly what they wouldn't do) in front of the camera.

The Queers

He's played by Gale Harold. Harold made his stage debut as Bunny in Gillian Plowman's Me and My Friend at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. Other stage credits include Long Days Journey into Night, The Importance of Being Earnest, Miss Julie and Sweet Bird of Youth. He made his feature debut in Paul Scheuring's 36K and then appeared in Mental Hygiene. He was subsequently accepted to the Actor's Conservatory Program where he appeared in productions of The Misanthrope and Cymbeline.

Actor/comedian Hal Sparks who plays Michael began his professional career as a teenager in Chicago. As a member of the famed Second City Troupe, his quick wit and affable personality quickly gained him recognition and acclaim.

In 1987 he was named the "Funniest Teenager in Chicago" by the Chicago Sun-Times.

After a successful run with Second City, Sparks moved to Los Angeles and immediately began performing at numerous comedy clubs, including The Improv, The Comedy Store, The Laugh Factory and The Ice House, as well as at Comic Relief's American Comedy Festival.

From 1999-2000, Sparks was the host of the Emmy Award-winning Talk Soup on E! Entertainment Television, winning rave reviews from fans and critics alike.

In addition, Hal currently appears in the 20th Century Fox comedy, Dude, Where's My Car? Other film credits include the comedy Chopper Chicks in Zombie Town with Billy Bob Thornton. His numerous television appearances include Politically Incorrect, MTV, Hollywood Squares, The View, The Martin Short Show, The List and Martial Law.

He also starred in his own sketch comedy pilot entitled Here Comes the Neighborhood and produced comedy segments for the Disney Channel. On the stage, Sparks has performed in such productions as Equus, The Elephant Man and Brighton Beach Memoirs.

A native of Peak's Mill, Kentucky, Sparks spent several years in Chicago before moving to Los Angeles. He is an accomplished singer-songwriter and an expert in the martial arts with over 20 years experience in Shaolin Kung Fu, Wushu, Kung Fu San Soo, Tae Kwan Do and Karate.

Peter Page is the actor behind Emmett. There's no easy way to categorize Paige, only to say that he is truly a Renaissance man: an accomplished actor, director, and playwright who has worked on countless theatrical productions in New York and at regional theaters around the country, not to mention numerous television and film projects. Now, however, Paige has put his myriad of talents aside to focus on his first true love, acting.

Paige's childhood can be best described as transient. He lived in seven different states before graduating from high school. Constantly moving from place to place, Paige quickly learned how to adapt to a new environment and how to make friends. The one constant in his life was acting, a passion he discovered at the tender age of six, when he played The Scarecrow in his first grade production of The Wizard of Oz. The budding thespian instantly knew he had found the great love of his life, and wanted to pursue theatrical arts as a career. In addition to acting, the young Paige was also ardent about writing and directing. In fourth grade, he wrote, directed and starred in his very first original play, Grease: The College Years, a clever spin-off of the hugely popular film Grease. Paige continued to pursue acting, writing, and directing throughout his middle and high school career, performing in innumerable school and community plays. When the time for college inevitably rolled around, Paige decided on Boston University's prestigious School of Theatre Arts, to which he received a full scholarship. It was here that Paige truly developed his acting talents, studying everything from David Mamet to William Shakespeare, twelve to fifteen hours a day in the university's classical theatre conservatory.

After graduating summa cum laude from BU, the ambitious actor moved to New York, in pursuit of more plentiful acting work. Upon arrival in the city, however, Paige did not find his services in demand quite the way he had hoped. Most of the acting work he found was either low or non-paying. In order to support himself, Paige ran through a series of jobs, everything from hotel work to waiting tables, eventually winding up working for an art gallery. It was here that the actor began to envy the visual artists whose work graced the gallery walls - for these artists created their own products, on their own schedules; they needed no one's permission to do their work. Inspired, Paige vowed to recommit himself to the kind of work that he had created throughout his life - his own.

Soon the actor was associated with a group of playwrights, directors, and actors at Playwright's Horizons, a theatre where he workshopped dozens of new plays. He toured the country performing Moliere's Tartuffe (in two languages!), and began leaving New York to perform at theatres around the country. Paige eventually relocated to Portland, Oregon, where he worked for two years on the city's Equity stages. Once again he proved his versatility, performing everything from the classics such as A Midsummer Night's Dream to edgy, contentious works by promising young playwrights.

It was on one of Portland's stages that Paige was discovered by his current manager, who immediately saw his potential and brought Paige to Los Angeles. Paige's first audition in L.A. landed him a hilarious guest spot on Suddenly Susan, as Neil Pomeratz, the nervous undertaker. This was followed by roles on Caroline in the City, MTV'S Undressed, Time of Your Life, Movie Stars, and Will and Grace, among others. Paige also continued to generate his own work, collaborating on several projects such as Twisted and Pantophobia, performed at theatres around Los Angeles. The stream of roles eventually led the budding star to become one of the talented members of the cast of Queer as Folk.

If asked about hobbies, Paige will tell you that he "lives to work," but will admit to a fondness for politics and sushi. He is an avid tennis fan, though he swears he's a terrible player himself. Paige still has a love of contemporary art (from his gallery days) and an infatuation with mid-century design. A talented, socially active, versatile artist who is living his lifelong dream, Paige brings charm, timing, and truth to all his work-particularly to the revolutionary Queer as Folk.

Scott Lowell plays Ted. Lowell's television credits include Frasier, Caroline in the City and Early Edition. He has appeared in such feature films as The Debtors, Damned If You Do, Ladies from L.A. and Love Bites (Sundance 1999).

Lowell's stage credits include productions of Present Laughter, Anna Christie and Laughter on the 23rd Floor.

Justin is played by actor Randy Harrison who has been acting since the age of seven.  He recently received his BFA in theatre from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.  Harrison has appeared in various theaters throughout the United States.  His theatre performances include 1776, Grease and Anything Goes at the St. Louis Municipal Theatre and West Side Story at the Forestburgh Playhouse.  Harrison is making his television debut in Queer as Folk.  

If Chris Potter who plays Dr Cameron had stuck with his first career, he’d be trading stocks and bonds on Wall Street.  Instead, while performing the role of a mentally challenged young man in the Grand Theatre production of Suffering Fools, he was spotted by Martha Henry, one of Canada’s celebrated leading actresses and directors, who then recommended he change his career course, and Chris has never looked back.   Potter’s first solid stint came as “the lone male” on the popular CBC series Material World, in which he appeared in two seasons.  Next came four seasons opposite David Carradine in Warner Bros.’ Kung Fu: The Legend Continues.  Along the way, Potter voiced the role of Gambit in three seasons of the Fox animated series, X-Men.  In addition to starring in three seasons of  Silk Stalkings for the USA Network, Chris also directed a number of episodes for the popular crime drama.  Remarkably, Potter has found time between his own series to make guest television appearances on Lonesome Dove, Hidden Room, Counterstrike, Top Cops and The Outer Limits, among others.  One of his favorite guest appearances was the role in one of the most anticipated episodes of Will & Grace – the first appearance of Will’s mysterious ex-boyfriend, Michael.  Potter also starred in The Shrink Is In, with Courtney Cox-Arquette and directed by Richard Benjamin, and The Waiting Game which aired on Showtime.   Recently Chris shot two independent features.  He starred in Argus Entertainment’s Rockets Red Glare, directed by Joe Mandrake, and then he was off to Spain to star in Arachnid, directed by Jack Shoulder.  Both films will be released sometime next year.

Despite his extensive workload, he still finds time to maintain his fervor for hockey, playing on the Celebrity All-Star Hockey Team for various charities with Jason Priestley, Michael J. Fox, and other Hollywood notables.  An artist in every sense of the word, he is a BMI recording artist and has released an album entitled “Tourmaline,” a true achievement in which he is singer and songwriter, as well as guitarist.  When the role of Dr. David Cameron was presented to Chris, he jumped at the opportunity to be part of the special cutting edge show, Queer As Folk.

The real essence of Chris Potter is his family.  His favorite times are quiet evenings spent at home with his wife, Karen, a former high school teacher (who was also his high school sweetheart), their three daughters and son.

Queer's Dkyes

Thea Gill has enjoyed an extremely active career as a film, television and theatre artist and singer. Her most recent films are Me and My Shadows, directed by Robert Allan Ackerman, Washed Up, directed by Michael De Carlo and Common Ground, written by and starring Harvey Fierstein and directed by Donna Deitch. Other projects include lead and supporting roles in such films as Lily, Let Me Call You Sweetheart, Paper Trail and Awake. Selected television credits include feature roles in the new Dick Wolf series D.C., Due South, Traders, Forever Knight, Secret Service, Top Cop, Kung Fu and The Royal Canadian Air Farce. 

She has also appeared in a number of national television commercials. As a stage actor, Ms. Gill has appeared in starring roles for a number of theatres across Canada. Notable roles include Mary Ann in George F. Walkers' Better Living for Factory Theatre; Nell in Theatre Junction's premiere of Sharon Pollock's Moving Pictures; Yelena in Guardian Spring Productions  Uncle Vanya; Desdemona in Lovers and Madmen's production of  Othello; and Frances Farmer in Hollywood Ten's production of Sally Clark's Saint Frances of Hollywood.  As a jazz singer, Thea last worked as the Midsummer Lounge's featured act onboard the Mediterranean and Caribbean cruise ship M.S. Carousel.

Melanie  played by Michelle Clunie.She trained for seven years at the Academy of Professional Ballet before apprenticing with the company and then performing with them as a teenager.

Not long after moving to Los Angeles she won a Dramalogue award for a role that was written for her in the quirky spoof, A Comedy of Eros. She played a washed out twenty-year-old wannabe musician who lived in a village and goes psycho on men.

She has numerous television credits, including here stint as a series regular on the Jeff Foxworthy Show to ER and numerous girlfriends-of-the-week for various television shows.

Her film debut was in The Usual Suspects in which she played the sketch artist that sketches Keyser Soze. That was the role assigned to her after debating with director Bryan Singer why one of the suspects should be a woman. Clunie has done a range of roles on stage, from Maggie in Arthur Miller's After the Fall to Maggie in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to Antigone. She has studied with theater and film director Milton Katsilas for eight years.

Return toTBC  GLBT News
http://tampabaycoalition.homestead.com/News.html