Playback asked six talent agencies across Canada – Characters and Northern Exposure Talent Management Group in Vancouver, The Cassaday Group in Halifax, and Toronto-based Credentials, Harrison Artists Management, The Talent Group and Edna Khubyar Management – to identify Canadian writers, directors and actors to watch for in the coming year. Following is a sampling of their picks.

WRITERS/DIRECTORS

– Mike Clattenburg

halifax director/writer Mike Clattenburg has always longed for the opportunity to make a film, watch it, and then remake it, and with his latest effort he just might get the chance to do that.

Clattenburg is in the process of shooting a 50-minute digital film about two friends splitting apart and getting back together, which he will then transfer to 35mm format and shop around to different festivals and repertory theaters.

‘My hope is to get some investors to buy the film,’ says Clattenburg. ‘I always wanted to make a film, try my best, watch it and then get back to it with the luxury of hindsight; that is the goal of this thing. Everything I have ever done I have wanted to redo, and this one I will.’

Under The Talent Group banner, the director recently wrapped five commercials for Maritime Beer and will soon begin work on a Salter Street doc about the making of Lexx.

Clattenburg was the director/writer behind the 1998 Gemini Award-winning short Nan’s Taxi and earned the Rex Tasker Award for best documentary at the 1997 Atlantic Film Festival with Far From Home: India Kicked My Ass, but the director says what he would really like to do is more long-format work.

– Lindalee Tracey

Award-winning writer/director/producer Lindalee Tracey recently returned from her first official trip to the Banff Television Festival (where she didn’t crash the party). In July she will begin shooting season two of A Scattering of Seeds: The Creation of Canada, a 13-part documentary series about immigrants to Canada for History Television coproduced by Tracey, Peter Raymont and Maria Pimentel of White Pine Pictures.

Tracey also has a few projects in development, and somewhere in the middle she is trying to ‘eke out enough time’ to write another book.

Already on the bookstands is On The Edge: A Journey Into The Heart Of Canada, which was named by The Globe & Mail as one of the 10 best non-fiction reads of 1993. In 1997, she wrote Growing Up Naked, an account of Canadian striptease in the ’70s, and as soon as her busy schedule permits, Tracey hopes to start work on a new book set in Ireland about ‘the meeting of dreams and reality in the Diaspora and what it is to be a Paddy.’

Aside from Scattering of Seeds, a Gold Medal winner for best documentary series at this year’s Worldfest Houston, Tracey will write, direct and coproduce a three-part doc series for ctv on the history of Toronto, which she is hoping to commence shooting in September.

In development is a one-hour doc on cruise ships titled Floating Dreams, commissioned by tvontario for The View From Here strand for 1999.

But even with all the craziness, tight schedules and deadlines, Tracey seems to keep things in perspective by making time to chill on a downtown Toronto patio whenever she can fit it in.

WRITERS

– Rob Baird, Kelly Senecal

A writing team since 1992, Rob Baird and Kelly Senecal describe themselves as ‘two angry chimps with typewriters.’

The two met at Ryerson Polytechnic University, where they were working towards BAs in radio and television arts. They got their first break in ’93 penning sketches for the Atlantis/ytv comedy series Squawk Box.

Fed up with the Canadian industry, the comedic duo sent their work to Saban in l.a., which just happened to be on the lookout for some northern talent for a new teen sitcom series, Breaker High, for UPN Network.

After three episodes the show came to an end. But before Baird and Senecal could pack up and head home, Saban offered them jobs writing a pilot for the new Addams Family series currently shooting in Vancouver.

Early in 1998, the comedic duo pitched Misguided Angels, a series about two bumbling angels on a mission to re-earn their wings, to the newly formed Fox Family Channel, and before completing the second draft, it was sold to Telescene Entertainment in Montreal, with 22 episodes on order from Fox Family.

The two, repped by Harrison Artist Management, are in development on Crusade, an original half-hour series with Pacific Motion Pictures and cbc, and are completing a rewrite of the mow The Thirteenth Year for Disney.

– Semi Chellas

With a ba in Literature from Yale University on the wall, writer Semi Chellas is now will see three of her screenplays move into production this year.

Chellas, repped by Harrison Artist Management, wrote The Life After This, slated for production this fall; Dead Aviators, a cbc/Showtime mow scheduled to shoot this summer; and Claire’s Hat, to be directed by Bruce McDonald.

During her stay at the Canadian Film Centre in 1994, Chellas wrote two short films, What’s-his-face, which premiered at the Festival des Films du Monde in Montreal, and Peek A Boo, cowritten with Michael DeCarlo.

In 1992, she cowrote the cfc short Half Nelson, which played at the Montreal festival, the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, the Dallas USA Festival and the Toronto Cult Film Festival, among others.

The well-traveled short picked up an award for best dramatic script at the Alberta Motion Picture Industry Association Awards.

– Steven Westren

Toronto funny man Steven Westren recently returned from the Banff Television Festival, where he sparked intense interest, not due to his juggling act, but with his newest comedy effort, Puppets Who Kill.

The sitcom series is set among a group of puppets on the wrong side of the law who are sentenced to a halfway house where human doctors attempt to rehabilitate them.

Also on the agenda, Westren, repped by Credentials in Toronto, is in the process of adapting Tom Wood’s B-Movie – The Play for Sullivan Entertainment, and will soon be putting pen to paper for an episode of Atlantis’ new kids’ series I Was A Sixth Grade Alien.

Before starting his way along the comedy writing path, Westren was en route to becoming a doctor. But after realizing that this meant getting out of bed far too early for his liking, he left the University of Toronto and talked his way into the Ontario College of Art where he studied Canadian film history.

For a year he wrote and illustrated Steve Westren’s Toronto, an editorial cartoon in the Toronto Star, after which he started the comedy juggling duo Circus Shmirkus and spent the next 10 years touring North America with such famous Canadians as Jim Carrey, Rich Little and Dave Thomas.

Westren has written for such tv series as Eric’s World, Groundling Marsh and Wimzie’s House, and wrote, produced and directed a half-hour comedy for Global called The Man in My Microwave.

DIRECTORS

– Malcolm Ingram

Director Malcolm Ingram was born in Montreal in the late ’60s but now resides in b.c., where he is in production on his latest feature, Taillights Fade.

Ingram was the Canadian editor for Film and Theatre Magazine. His earlier film efforts include a no-budget feature called Drawing Files on which he was the cowriter, director, producer and editor, with Kevin Smith (Chasing Amy, Clerks) executive producing.

Taillights Fade is shooting June 3 to July 3 in Vancouver and is the story of ‘two cars, four people, a grow house full of weed and the road.’

– Stephen Williams

Director Stephen Williams was born in Jamaica, educated in England, and although he has settled in Toronto, can be found these days on set in Vancouver where he is shooting the season opener for the Keatley MacLeod/Atlantis series Cold Squad.

In August, he will shoot an episode of Psi Factor followed by another one in November, and has some mows in the works.

In addition to directing, Williams, represented by Toronto agency Credentials, has written several commercials and shorts. He made his feature film directorial debut with Soul Survivor for Miracle Pictures/ Norstar, which was invited to the Sundance Film Festival in 1995 and was the opening film for International Critics Week at The Cannes Festival that year. The film screened at the Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver festivals.

In 1994, Williams picked up the Gold Plaque Award at the Chicago International Film Festival with short A Variation On The Key 2 Life. His Showtime/Lynch Entertainment mow Shadow Zone: The Undead Express earned him a ’97 Emmy nomination for best director.

ACTORS

– Tara Baxter

Despite a blank acting resume, Halifax’s Tara Baxter managed to land herself a principal role in the Alliance Harlequin Romance mow One Heart Broken Into Song.

The runway model, repped by Halifax agent Lara Cassaday, has been in the beauty biz since the age of 12, and while she has been on the odd audition, this is her first acting gig.

Baxter packed her bags and headed to Toronto a few years ago to further her career, but when ‘it didn’t work out,’ returned to the East Coast where she says work has really picked up.

Baxter says she loves acting and hopes to be doing much more of it after this job wraps in mid-July.

– Barry Pepper

Best known for his portrayal of bad boy Mick Farley on the first three seasons of Global/Forefront Entertainment’s teen drama Madison, 28-year-old Barry Pepper is moving into feature films and working with some of the biggest in the biz.

Most recently the Vancouver native wrapped Enemy of the State, a Tony Scott/Jerry Bruckheimer feature with Will Smith in which Pepper landed a lead role. This summer he will be hitting the big screen in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan.

Although not yet confirmed, Pepper is in negotiations for another feature, The Green Mile, starring Tom Hanks and directed by director Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption).

Although Pepper has played more villains than heroes – he is the bad guy in Lonesome Dove, The Outer Limits and A Killer Among Friends with Patty Duke – shows like Sliders, the miniseries Titanic and Canadian feature Urban Safari allowed him to be the good guy.

Prior to his film and tv career, Pepper, repped by Characters, Vancouver, tested his talent on the stage in such plays as Equus and The Taming of the Shrew.

– Jewel Staite

Not your average 16-year-old, actor Jewel Staite is a busy girl, pulling double-duty with roles on Disney series Honey I Shrunk The Kids and DaVinci’s Inquest.

Also on her growing resume, the Vancouver native, repped by Northern Exposure, was nominated for a Gemini Award for her portrayal of Becca in Disney’s Flash Forward.

Staite has starred in a number of television series such as The X-Files, Are You Afraid of The Dark? and Odyssey, and played Catalina in Space Cases on Family Channel. You may also recognize her from mows The Only Way Out, Liar, Liar and Posing, or from films such as Carpool or Golddiggers.

When not in front of the camera, Staite can be found in the recording studio where she is currently putting together her own cd.

– Chandra West

Although Canadian actress Chandra West relocated to l.a., her blossoming career keeps bringing her back home.

West grew up in b.c. and spent some time in Oakville, Ont. before moving to California, but her last few projects have been Canadian shoots.

In April, West, repped by eim, could be found in Dartmouth, n.s., where she had a lead role in the Alliance Harlequin mow The Waiting Game, directed by Vic Sarin. Prior to that she was in Toronto where she had another principal role in Showtime’s Universal Soldier.

Also on her cv, West has had lead roles in cbs’ Love on the Land, Minds Eye/Norstar’s The Dukes and nbc mow She’s Leaving Home.