Veteran performer David Gale has been elected to serve a second term as ACTRA Toronto president.

Gale was acclaimed by the ACTRA Toronto Council to take on another two-year tenure, according to a news release issued Friday (Jan. 13). He was first elected as ACTRA Toronto president in January 2021 to succeed Theresa Tova.

Over his first term, Gale was instrumental in moving the union’s work online to support members and adapt to the virtual needs of the pandemic — including the ACTRA Awards, members’ conference, collective bargaining, and committee work, said the release.

The multi-hyphenate Gemini Award winner — whose talents include acting, writing, directing and producing — was elected to the ACTRA Toronto council in 2006 and originally served as ACTRA Toronto’s VP, communications, for 13 years.

He’s also taken on a plethora of other duties at the union, including publishing ACTRA Toronto’s Performers magazines, writing and directing the ACTRA Awards in Toronto, and hosting the union’s celebrity podcast ACTRA Spotlight.

Winnipeg-raised Gale also helped create the Young Emerging Actors Assembly, helped establish outACTRAto, ACTRA Toronto’s first queer Committee, and served as executive liaison for ACTRA Toronto’s senior members’ Act Your Age.

In 2019, as co-chair of ACTRA’s Constitution and By-Laws Committee, he advocated for a more equitable governance for its National Union.

Gale has sat on the board of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television as performers’ rep for two terms, and currently sits on the ACTRA National council.

He won a Gemini for hosting the series Loving Spoonfuls (2000–2004) on W Network and is “a long-time advocate and champion of equality and diversity in the industry,” said the release.

In a statement, Gale said he’s committed to continuing the union’s work to address systemic discrimination.

“We must strive to be more transparent and accepting,” he said. “As the first openly gay president of ACTRA Toronto, I remind us all that our Equality Statement is not just a bunch of words. No, they are words to live by.”

Photo courtesy of ACTRA