Playback is proud to present the 2024 cohort for our annual 10 to Watch. This year’s group of Canadian screen industry talents were selected from more than 250 submissions. We’ll be rolling out profiles on each individual in the coming weeks.

After breaking onto the scene with the TallBoyz II Men comedy troupe, Vance Banzo is making a name for himself in the TV comedy world.

The Edmonton-born 34-year old is a co-creator, co-writer and executive producer on the CBC comedy Snotty Nose Rez Kids (Snotty Nose Productions, Grand Scheme Productions, Reality Distortion Field), which follows a fictionalized version of the real-life Haisla Nation hip-hop duo — Darren “Young D” Metz and Quinton “Yung Trybez” Nyce — chasing their dreams in Vancouver.

The series is currently in pre-production and slated to premiere in winter 2025. Metz, Nyce and Matt Kippen are credited as co-creators alongside Banzo.

Banzo became involved in the series in June 2023 when the show was on the lookout for Indigenous screenwriters.

“The band has so many great stories about their journey, it’s been a lot of fun finding the path through,” Banzo tells Playback Daily. “So rather than spoil or potentially disappoint, I’ll just say I’m excited for people to see what’s been keeping me up at night lately.”

The Saulteux/Cree comedian says he wants the show to not only resonate with an Indigenous audience, but an international one as well.

“We want to do something that has never been seen on television before,” says Banzo. “We want everyone to enjoy the comedy … we do that by being specific about who we are as a people, but showcasing our love and connection with people from all walks of life. That’s the goal of the show, to be funny and inclusive.”

Snotty Nose Rez Kids marks the third time working as a writer on a CBC series for Banzo, who was also hired to write an episode for the second season of the CTV Comedy and ATPN show Acting Good (Kistikan Pictures).

His first project was the 2019 sketch comedy series TallBoyz (Accent Entertainment). Banzo and the other members of the TallBoyz II Men troupe — Tim Blair, Guled Abdi and Franco Nguyen — starred in and co-wrote the series.

The show ran for three seasons and garnered Banzo four Canadian Screen Awards, including a shared win for Best Writing, Variety or Sketch Comedy in 2022 and 2023.

Banzo’s next gig at CBC was as a story editor for the second season of Run the Burbs (Pier 21 Films), created by Andrew Phung and Scott Townend.

“A story editor is a very important job where everyone has to do what you say because you’re the funniest joke writer and not bogged down with all the narrative nonsense,” jokes Banzo. “I, like the entire planet, think the world of [season two showrunner] Anthony Q. Farrell. He made my time on Run the Burbs very enjoyable.”

Sandra Picheca, CBC’s director of current production, praised Banzo’s ability in both writing and performance.

“Vance has grown into someone whose talent and original voice excels in different types of screenwriting,” said Picheca in a statement to Playback. “As a performer, he has a keen understanding of what it takes to make a great character come alive on the page. It’s a sign of a real talent growing into a star creator and writer.”

However, before Banzo was ever an acclaimed comedy writer, he was living in his home town of Edmonton and working at the Jubilations Dinner Theatre.

In 2014, he learned of Humber College’s Comedy: Writing and Performance program in Toronto, which boasts alums such as Nathan Fielder and Kurtis Conner. Banzo jumped at the opportunity to go to college for one of his passions.

“I applied, I got in and I just left Edmonton,” says Banzo. “Didn’t have a place to live, didn’t really have my ducks in a row. I just hopped on a plane, found a hostel and then went to school the next day. That’s the day I met Tim Blair.”

By the time Banzo and Blair graduated Humber College in 2016 they had met Abdi and Nguyen through Toronto’s stand-up comedy scene, and the TallBoyz II Men comedy troupe was born.

“It was very clear that [Banzo and Blair] both had a lot of talent,” says Andrew Clark, director of the Humber College comedy program. “That was a very strong class and they stood out.”

It was also at Humber College that Banzo first met The Kids in the Hall (Broadway Video) alum Bruce McCulloch, who ended up serving as an executive producer and director for the majority of the TallBoyz series.

“I sometimes would drop into Humber College to work with the students and reshape their scenes or help with them writing sketches,” says McCulloch. “I saw [Banzo] there and he blew me away.”

McCulloch says that after meeting Banzo and seeing TallBoyz II Men perform, he began working on the concept for a series around them with his producing partner Susan Cavan. CBC gave them the greenlight in early 2019.

“[Banzo] is truly a thoughtful guy, he’s a humanist,” says McCulloch. “He’s not afraid to talk about and dig into himself and his experiences and twist them or look at them from another angle and they become comedy.”

As an actor, Banzo has appeared in the 2017 film Indian Horse (Screen Siren Pictures, Terminal City Pictures, Devonshire Productions) and the 2019 film The Incredible 25th Year of Mitzi Bearclaw (Turtle Night Productions, Freddie Films, Circle Blue Entertainment).

Banzo says, while he fell in love with writing during the first season of TallBoyz, he would like the opportunity to direct a film as well as move outside of the comedy genre.

“I love the challenge of creating something from nothing and then executing that,” says Banzo. “I think every comedic writer, especially young writers, don’t want to be pigeonholed into one genre your whole life. You want the opportunity to explore different things.”