The YVR Screen Scene Podcast

Genre-hopping actress Jennifer Spence returns to the pod to discuss the third season of Canada’s spiciest workplace comedy, The Trades. Set in a blue-collar community where the high stress of working in a refinery is balanced by the comedic antics of its plant workers, The Trades centres around general foreman Todd Stool (Robb Wells), and his sister and roommate, Audrey (Anastasia Phillips), who follows in her big brother’s footsteps pursuing a career in the trades. Jennifer shines as Chelsea, an ambitious young executive from head office who arrived in the first season and worked damn hard to become an essential part of the family. The third season premiered in early spring and in the season finale, Chelsea and Conch Industries as a whole are (no spoilers!) poised for real change.The Trades airs on Crave and is currently in the running for a whopping eight trophies at this week’s Canadian Screen Awards. On the eve of the CSAs, Jennifer (who was recently nominated for a Leo Award for her work as Chelsea) joins us to reflect on her adventures in television comedy, how her adventures in Chelsea’s shoes have impacted her adventures through this exceptionally fucked up world, and her adventures singing “Born to Be Wild” in a very special third season episode.Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment

Actress and filmmaker Nat Boltt (Penelope Blossom on Riverdale) returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to discuss Holy Days, her feature film directorial debut that screened at the venerable Toronto International Film Festival and is currently wowing crowds around the world. Based on the acclaimed novel by Dame Joy Cowley, Holy Days is a joyful adventure about faith, friendship, and the courage to take one last leap of belief. Three unconventional nuns embark on a last-ditch road trip across New Zealand on a journey to fight for their independence. Along the way, they form an unlikely bond with a young Māori boy on a deeply personal mission of his own. Holy Days was written and directed by the Vancouver-based Nat and stars a trio of legends: Academy Award nominee and Emmy, Golden Globe, and BAFTA winner Judy Davis, BAFTA winner Miriam Margolyes, and two-time Academy Award nominee Jacki Weaver; the young Māori boy is portrayed with stunning depth by rising star Elijah Tamati. Holy Days is moving, whimsical, funny, wildly entertaining, and beautiful. Recently, Holy Days has enjoyed screenings across North America (and will return to Vancouver’s Park Theatre on April 25), and will soon be available on VOD. In this fascinating and episode, Nat Boltt reflects on the wild ride to bring this rollicking feature film directorial debut to the screen. It’s a fun one!Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment

Filmmaker Corey Payette swings by the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to talk about Starwalker, his critically acclaimed movie musical about drag queens in East Vancouver. Starwalker is the story of Star, an Indigi-Queer Two-Spirit call boy, who becomes entranced by the House of Borealis, a popular drag house in East Van. Blending drag performance with their grounded cultural spirit, a new, powerful persona emerges on stage: Starwalker. Corey – a renowned writer, lyricist, composer, producer, interdisciplinary storyteller, and director in theatre and film – is the force behind the critically acclaimed stage musical Children of God, about the echoes of residential schools. On the film front, he directed film festival favourites Stories That Transform Us, Guide My Way, and Les Filles du Roi.Corey’s next stage project is On Native Land, and it has its world premiere in April at the York Theatre – but not before Starwalker screens seven times in Vancouver at the Vancity Culture Lab. Corey’s work is searing, life-affirming, and abundant with soul-stirring indigeneity and what the Hollywood Reporter once described as “joyful rebellion.” In this wonderfully entertaining episode, Corey and avowed “musical theatre girlie” Sabrina riff on joyful rebellion, musical theatre as a vehicle for social change, their admiration for previous podcast guest Andrea Menard, and all things Starwalker.Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment

Supinder Wraich returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to chat all things Allegiance, the wildly popular CBC crime procedural that is both filmed and set in Surrey, British Columbia. Supinder is Sabrina Sohal, a brilliant and empathetic detective in the serious crimes unit of the CFPC who is simultaneously a bright light in her department and a serious threat to anyone who traffics in corruption.There’s a lot to love about Allegiance. It’s a showcase for Vancouver actors, from veterans like Vincent Gale to Stephen Lobo, to emerging talents like Hudson Williams (yes, Shane Hollander of Heated Rivalry fame). It explores pressing issues like mental illness, addiction, income inequality, xenophobia, and the impact of gang violence on communities and families, without being preachy about any of it. It centres beautifully diverse Surrey as a main character in its own right. Its foundation stone is an intelligent and compassionate women of colour who is at once vulnerable and extremely capable. In short, Allegiance shows us what’s possible when we centre hyper-local stories and Canadian talent. Allegiance’s third season kicked off in January, and has already served up heart-pounding episodes that touch on drug cartels, serial killers targeting marginalised women, domestic violence, and migrant workers. In this funny and fascinating interview with Sabrina Rani Furminger, Supinder reflects on Sabrina Sohal’s journey to date, and also heads down some roads we haven’t gone in our previous episodes, namely: the shows that raised us (remember Passions?), what she remembers about working with Hudson Williams in one of his first television roles, and where Sabrina Sohal ends and Supinder Wraich begins. Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment

Filmmaker Zach Lipovsky visits the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to reflect on his past, present, and future. His past includes placing fifth out of 12,000 on Steven Spielberg's filmmaking competition show On the Lot; collaborating with Adam Stein on the 2018 genre hit Freaks, numerous episodes of genre television, and 2025’s Final Destination Bloodlines, the last of which was the first Final Destination movie to cross $100 million in domestic earnings and gross more than $315 million worldwide. As for his present and future, there’s Gremlins 3 – which Zach and Adam are currently co-writing with Chris Columbus (the iconic director of Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire who also wrote the original Gremlins) – and the sequel to Freaks. Beyond the writing, directing, and producing, Zach has and continues to mentor emerging and aspiring filmmakers through organisations like Crazy8s and the British Columbia District Council of the Directors Guild of Canada (AKA DGC BC). This weekend, the DGC BC will recognise Zach’s many contributions to the film and television scene when it honours him with the Industry Builder Award at its annual Spotlight BC Directors Conference. On the eve of the conference, Zach sits down with Sabrina Rani Furminger to talk filmmaking, his love for Vancouver cast and crews, Final Destination Bloodlines, Mogwai, his longtime collaboration with Adam Stein, how he helped save Vancouver’s Park Theatre, and what it means to be an industry builder. Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment

Jay Brazeau is an icon of the Vancouver film and television scene, and he’s got the filmography to prove it. He’s appeared in iconic television series like The X-Files, Supernatural, Stargate SG-1, Da Vinci’s Inquest, and 21 Jump Street, Hollywood fare like Watchmen and Best In Show, and critically acclaimed indie fare like Eadweard, Down River, and Carl Bessai’s Fathers and Sons. He actually won a Leo Award for Fathers and Sons, which is a role that required him to get in a knife fight with Ben Immanuel, get drunk, and talk dirty over a coffin at a funeral. Jay is also an in-demand voice actor whose credits are many and include Sabrina: The Animated Series and the Academy Award nominated National Film Board of Canada short The Big Snit, the latter of which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. On stage, he’s starred in productions of Hairspray!, Fiddler on the Roof, The Cat Came Back, and The Battle of Georges Boivin. There are plenty of reasons as to why Jay has been a go-to character actor for the Vancouver screen scene for decades (his versatility; his reliability; his intuition; his artistry), but if you ask Jay, it’s because he’s lucky and (his words) “every production needs a fat guy.” In this compelling conversation with Sabrina Rani Furminger, Jay reflects on his journey from Winnipeg to screens and stages large and small, appearing in a whopping 10 productions of Fiddler on the Roof, and how he confirmed that his improvised knife fight in Fathers and Sons was true to life. Episode sponsor: UBCP / ACTRA

The wildly talented multi-hyphenate Mayumi Yoshida returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to discuss her long-awaited feature film directorial debut, Akashi, which is inspired by Mayumi’s own experience of living in the space between cultures. Ten years after moving to Vancouver, struggling visual artist Kana (that’s Mayumi) returns to Tokyo to attend the funeral of her beloved grandmother. Arriving in Japan, she rekindles a tentative flame with her bashful ex-boyfriend, Hiro, an aspiring thespian who vanished from her life a decade prior. As Kana digs deeper into her grandmother’s past, she uncovers a family secret that prompts her to reconsider everything she thought she knew about love, duty, and belonging.Akashi – which Mayumi wrote, directed, and starred in – has its world premiere this week at the 2025 Vancouver International Film Festival. The feature began its life as a Fringe Festival play in 2016, before evolving into a Storyhive-funded short film in 2017 (the latter for which she earned a slew of awards, including the award for Best Female Director at the 2018 Vancouver Short Film Festival, and the Outstanding Writer Award at the NBCUniversal Short Film Festival). Although it’s been a long road to bring Akashi to the screen in its current feature-length incarnation, Mayumi hasn’t been idle in the intervening years: between directing short films – including the music video for Different Than Before, which won the SXSW Music Video Jury Award in 2023 – and working as a dialect coach and cultural consultant and advocating for diversity and inclusion in our challenging industry, Mayumi has been fighting to get this film made. This included, in 2021, taking on Telefilm, Canada’s major funding provider, for their outdated language requirements that didn’t take Canada’s purported commitment to diversity and inclusion into consideration. In this riveting conversation with Sabrina Rani Furminger, Mayumi reflects on her journey to this moment, how Akashi changed over the years, and how Akashi changed her as an artist. Episode sponsor: UBCP / ACTRA

Today’s episode of the YVR Screen Scene Podcast is both another instalment in our ongoing #IndustryBFFs series AND our season opener! Sabrina is joined in the podcast studio by two powerhouse actresses who are uplifting women in film via their new project, the Liberated Actresses Playground: Aliyah O’Brien and Priscilla Faia. Returning guest Aliyah O’Brien is beloved for her work on Rookie Blue, Legends of Tomorrow, and You Me Her, for her beautiful smile, and her equally beautiful personality. Priscilla Faia is a new friend-of-the-pod but a veteran actress around town. You know her from You Me Her – for which she won a Leo Award for Best Performance in a Music, Comedy or Variety Program or Series – and for Rookie Blue, for which she was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award. In this rambunctious and at times emotional conversation (facilitated by vodka soda and the “airport drinking” paradigm), Aliyah and Priscilla discuss what it means to be a liberated actress, how their friendship has helped them navigate this sometimes unfriendly industry, and why women are stronger when we stand together. Episode sponsor: UBCP / ACTRA

Bronwen Smith was nominated for a UBCP/ACTRA Award for her scene-stealing dramatic turn in Laura Adkin’s feature film directorial debut, Re: Uniting. Catherine Lough Haggquist (who received the Lorena Gale Woman of Distinction Award from UBCP/ACTRA in 2020) garnered a globe-spanning fanbase for her role as the ass-kicking General Bellweather on Motherland: Fort Salem. Separately, they are powerhouse performers; together, they are #IndustryBFFs whose friendship directly impacts their individual journeys through this topsy-turvy film and television industry (not to mention the work they do through The Drama Class, where they provide online education, support, and community for actors everywhere and at every level). In this contemplative, moving, and at times hilarious episode, Bronwen and Cat discuss their three decades of friendship – and why people sometimes ask if they’re actually okay. Episode sponsor: UBCP/ACTRA

Beloved Vancouver actor Alex Zahara swings by the YVR Screen Scene Podcast studio to discuss his wildly entertaining turn as Uncle Howard (RIP) in Final Destination: Bloodlines and his own remarkable career on stage and screen. The funny and fascinating conversation covers a lot of territory: how Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein’s critically acclaimed, blockbuster contribution to the Final Destination universe is a love letter to Vancouver; how he gets into character (a process that somehow involves primordial ooze); memorable roles from his career, including his 40 on-screen deaths; how he navigates the quiet times; and what it is about this topsy-turvy biz that keeps him coming back for more. Episode sponsor: UBCP/ACTRA

The Vancouver-shot Dil Rakh: Gloves of Kin tells the story of Sukh Sidhu, a South Asian man who spent 20 years in jail for a crime he didn't commit. Upon his release, he returns to the small predominantly white town where his life went sideways, where racism abounds and where his son Dayton is in deep with a group of petty criminals who barely conceal their contempt for his brownness. Dayton is pissed with his dad for leaving the family for 20 years, and reconciliation seems impossible – until father and son find common ground in the boxing ring. Dil Rakh: Gloves of Kin is one part drama, one part boxing, one part commentary on racism in small town North America, and 100 per cent heart; in other words (and in the opinion of YVR Screen Scene host Sabrina Rani Furminger), it’s a game-changer. The film won the Sundar Prize for Best BC Film at the 2024 Sundar Prize Film Festival and is currently available for streaming on Amazon Prime. Actors Dalj Brar (who also wrote and directed) and Umar Farook Khan join Sabrina in the YVR Screen Scene Podcast lab to talk the evolution of representation, boxing, changing the game, and keeping the faith.Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment

Five years ago, actor Giles Panton swung by the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to talk about voicing Iron Man in Marvel Battleworld: Mystery of the Thanostones, the sleighful of Christmas movies in his filmography, what he learned playing the minister of propaganda for the American Reich in Amazon Prime’s critically acclaimed dystopian series The Man in the High Castle, and the Barbie commercial that broke up his band. It’s a fantastic episode (which you can find in the episode footnotes or wherever you listen to podcasts), but a lot can change in five years. For instance, you can move from being the guy that always loses the girl in the rom-com to the guy who gets her. You can win a Leo Award for Best Performance in an Animation Program for your work in animated horror anthology series Red Iron Road AND a UBCP/ACTRA Award for voicing Carnage and Norman Osborne in Absolute Carnage. You can get an ADHD diagnosis that explains so much of how you move through the world. You can become a dad. In this compelling conversation – at times poignant; at times funny; always authentic and entertaining – Giles reflects on the many changes of the last five years, what it takes to be a leading man, working with Andrea Brooks on Snowy with a Chance of Christmas, pursuing joy, constructing grilled cheese sandwiches, and how his ADHD diagnosis changed his life. Episode sponsor: UBCP/ACTRA

House of David on Amazon Prime tells the story of the shepherd boy who brought down a giant Philistine warrior with a slingshot and a stone and, ultimately, became king. But the story of David – outcast David, underdog David, King David – is more than a single parable – and the first season of House of David lays out David’s journey from childhood until moments after he felled Goliath with a single stone. Although the series – which aired its first season finale earlier this month and has already been renewed for a second season – is filmed in Greece, it boasts an impressive contingent from Vancouver. Louis Ferreira is David’s father, Jesse. Kimani Ray-Smith is stunt coordinator. Todd Giroux is post producer. Alexandra La Roche and Michael Nankin directed episodes. And Vancouver’s own Jonathan Lloyd Walker is executive producer, writer, and season one show runner. In this compelling conversation with Sabrina Rani Furminger, Jonathan discusses his journey to House of David, the joys and challenges of bringing these biblical personages to the screen, and where the show will take viewers in season two. Episode sponsor: UBCP/ACTRA