Actor-turned-breakout-writer/director Peter Stebbings is sitting across the table from me at Lettieri Espresso Bar in Toronto’s Annex neighborhood. He’s backlit, eating a panini, drinking a smoothie and, at 38, looking every bit the part of James Dean – monochromatic golden skin and dusty brown hair, a sharp-cut jaw, intense eyes and an ever-creased forehead. His shoulders are perfectly square, his T-shirt perfectly white and his leather jacket perfectly worn to cap off the throwback image of a rebellious character actor from another era.

I’ve seen Stebbings in person before, but in this light I’m feeling a bit star struck. When he speaks I’m reminded of Marlon Brando circa A Streetcar Named Desire, but the resemblance starts and ends with the tone of his drone-y voice.

Turns out he has no particular affinity to either actor of yesteryear, despite the fact that he follows in the tradition of total character embodiment when he’s acting (and I suspect, even when he’s not).

He’s most impressed with filmmakers like David Cronenberg who have managed great success without moving out of Canada, and actors like George Clooney, who have achieved the apex of superstardom but still write screenplays.

‘That’s really admirable,’ says Stebbings, who believes he wouldn’t bother screenwriting if he didn’t have to. ‘There’s not a lot of places for me to go from acting, which is not always entirely satisfying, so I started to satiate my creative itch with writing.’

His first three screenplays have yet to see the light. But his fourth, Defendor, starring Woody Harrelson, which debuted to favorable reviews at TIFF in September, is the ultimate calling card, setting Stebbings up as a premium Canadian writer and first-time directing sensation.

He is humbled when it’s suggested that he’s the director du jour, despite the fact that Sony just bought the worldwide rights (except Canada, where Alliance Films is distributing) to Defendor for $2 million.

In addition to writing and directing Defendor and readying himself for the sequel, he has been an in-demand character actor for more than 20 years. And like James Dean, his first lead role was in a stage performance of Macbeth.

While he’s technically been acting since he was a kid in Vancouver, his first ‘real’ gig was as a guest star on 21 Jump Street when he was 17.

From there he could be seen in Beachcombers, Traders, Jack and Jill vs. the World, SIS, Jeremiah, and the list goes on. One glance at his IMDb portfolio and it’s clear this actor has made the rounds on the Canadian screen, big and small, with an impressive smattering of U.S. credits.

But he says he’s only ever gone to L.A. when he was invited and continues to feel that way, which is why he was heading down this month to interview for a directing gig on the impending (get this) 21 Jump Street movie – one of the many opportunities that have arisen alongside his rising star.

Consistently modest in his self-descriptions, he ends our midday snack meeting by saying, ‘You’re only a first-time director once… Right now, I feel like I did when I started out [after doing Macbeth], just a little bit wiser, a little bit more mature and hopefully more capable of handling what’s in front of me.’

Agent: Kish Iqbal, Gary Goddard Agency (Canada), Amanda Glazer, Kohner Agency (U.S.)

Manager: Jennifer Levine (literary), Evan Hainey (acting)