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Jennifer Podemski

Jennifer Podemski

Acting

Biography

Jennifer Podemski is an award winning Film and Television Producer and Actor born and raised in Toronto, Canada. Of mixed First Nations and Israeli descent, Jennifer began her acting career as a teen. Her career blossomed when she was cast as Pique in CBC's The Diviners followed by a starring role in Bruce McDonald's Dance Me Outside. As her career in front of the camera exploded, Jennifer began to notice the inequity behind the lens. Although all of the roles she was awarded as actor were First Nations characters, she rarely, if ever, saw any First Nations writers, producers or directors. By 25, with a solid career under her belt, Jennifer opened her first production company, Big Soul Productions (BSP) with fellow burgeoning producer Laura Milliken. BSP became the first Aboriginal owned and operated, full service production company in Canada, producing hundreds of hours of television including three seasons of the award winning Dramatic Series Moccasin Flats for Showcase and APTN. In 2005, Jennifer branched out on her own and founded Redcloud Studios, Inc. Although Jennifer has maintained a successful career as an actor, with roles in Degrassi, Republic of Doyle, Sarah Polley's Take This Waltz and Jimmy P alongside Benicio Del Toro, she is most proud of her starring role in her own film Empire of Dirt for which she was nominated for two Canadian Screen Awards for Best Actress in a Supporting Role as well as Best Feature Film for her work as producer. Empire of Dirt premiered at TIFF 2014 and continued to a theatrical release in Canada and traveled the world on the film festival circuit. Jennifer is also the creator and producer of APTN's famed paranormal series The Other Side, currently shooting it's second season; in her 9th year as Co-Executive Producer and Creative Director of the Indspire Awards (Global, APTN) for which she was nominated for Best Lifestyle Television Show at the 2014 CSA's. More recently, Jennifer can be seen as Dr. Crowshoe on the award winning drama series Blackstone; HBO's Sensitive Skin with Kim Catrall and in FireSong, written and directed by Adam Garnett Jones. A storyteller behind and in front of the camera, Jennifer still makes time for training aboriginal youth in film and tv, mentoring and holding self esteem workshops across the US and Canada.

Known For

Resident Alien
7.8

Crash-landed alien Harry takes on the identity of a small-town Colorado doctor. Arriving with a secret mission, he starts off living a simple life…but things get a bit rocky when he’s roped into solving a local murder and realizes he needs to assimilate into his new world. As he does, he begins to wrestle with the moral dilemma of his mission and asking the big life questions like: “Are human beings worth saving?” and “Why do they fold their pizza before eating it?”

Resident Alien

2021
IT: Welcome to Derry
8.2

In 1962, amid a spate of unexplained disappearances of local children, a group of misfit friends begin to suspect a long-buried ancient evil lurking. As the kids set out to determine what's really going on, a rising unease prompts several townspeople to work together to restore peace – all while a U.S. military operation seeks to exploit Derry for its own objectives.

IT: Welcome to Derry

2025
Degrassi
7.5

The life of a group of adolescents going through the trials and tribulations of teendom at Degrassi Community School.

Degrassi

2001
Private Eyes
7.3

Ex-pro hockey player Matt Shade irrevocably changes his life when he teams up with fierce P.I. Angie Everett to form an unlikely investigative powerhouse.

Private Eyes

2016
Republic of Doyle
7.0

Jake Doyle and his ex-cop father, Malachy, run a Newfoundland detective agency. Their rugged seaside town never lacks for intriguing cases, and the Doyles don't always land on the right side of the law.

Republic of Doyle

2010
Departure
6.5

Follow the mystery of Flight 716 - a passenger plane that vanishes over the Atlantic Ocean. Following the mysterious crash, recently widowed, brilliant aviation investigator Kendra Malley is called in to investigate by her former boss and mentor Howard Lawson.

Departure

2019
Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye
7.1

Based on a true story, this family-friendly series follows the adventures of a young, hearing impaired woman who has a special gift and goes to work for the FBI in Washington, D.C. She's one hard-headed, soft-hearted woman whose talent for reading lips helps crack crimes and bag the bad guys in places listening devices can't penetrate. With her hearing-ear dog, Levi, Sue's a glutton for jeopardy – and there's (almost) nothing she won't do to bring notorious criminals to justice. This remarkable, edge-of-your-seat drama is an inspiring tribute to the ability of the human spirit to overcome adversity and achieve great things.

Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye

2002
This Is Wonderland
8.0

Alice De Raey is a newly minted attorney who joins the chaotic world of criminal justice in Toronto. She's exposed to the seamier side of life, the backroom deals that make the system work accompanied by the usual eccentric characters.

This Is Wonderland

2004
The Rez
N/A

The Rez was a first nations, Canadian television series, which aired on CBC Television from 1996 to 1998. Most of the characters were based on W.P. Kinsella's short story collection Dance Me Outside, which had been made into a film by director Bruce McDonald. McDonald and Norman Jewison were executive producers of the series, which chronicled life in a First Nations community. The series was filmed in the Parry Sound region at Harrison's Landing in Carling Township. All episodes run around 23 Minutes.

The Rez

1996
Dear America
N/A

Based on the best-selling Scholastic books; Dear America features the rich and spirited stories of young women at various turning points in history.

Dear America

1999
Little Bird
7.0

As part of a racist government policy now known as the Sixties Scoop, Bezhig Little Bird is removed from her home in Long Pine Reserve in Saskatchewan and adopted into a Montréal Jewish family at the age of five, becoming Esther Rosenblum. Now in her 20s, Bezhig longs for the family she lost and is willing to sacrifice everything to find them.

Little Bird

2023
Moose TV
N/A

Moose TV is a Canadian television sitcom, airing on Showcase in the 2007-08 television season. The show stars Adam Beach as George Keeshig, a Cree from the fictional community of Moose in northern Quebec, who returns home after a decade living in Toronto to become manager of the local community television station. The cast also includes Gary Farmer, Jennifer Podemski, Nathaniel Arcand, Michelle Latimer, Diane Flacks and Billy Merasty. The show's head writer is Paul Quarrington. The series was directed by Tim Southam. Produced by Rezolution Pictures for the Showcase network in Canada, the series received the Indie Award for Best Comedy Series from the Canadian Film and Television Producers Association in 2008.

Moose TV

2007
Unsettled
N/A

Urban, Indigenous adoptee Rayna Keetch grew up with no connection to her Indigenous roots. Recently reunited with her birth family, Rayna is about to return to her First Nation for a traditional homecoming ceremony when her husband Darryl announces that he's been a victim of a scam and has lost their fortune.

Unsettled

2021
Take This Waltz
6.4

Twenty-eight-year-old Margot is happily married to Lou, a good-natured cookbook author. But when Margot meets Daniel, a handsome artist who lives across the street, their mutual attraction is undeniable.

Take This Waltz

2011
Don't Even
7.0

Follow two best friends in late '90s Winnipeg as they face uncertain futures after high school.

Don't Even

2024
Bogus
5.8

Recently orphaned, a young boy is taken in by his godmother who is shocked to realize that she can see the boy's imaginary friend: a flamboyant, French magician named Bogus.

Bogus

1996
Fugitive Pieces
6.2

A child escapes from Poland during World War II and first heads to Greece before coming of age in Canada.

Fugitive Pieces

2008
No image
6.8

CBC’s first prime time soap opera follows the intertwined lives of four families in Toronto’s Riverdale community.

Riverdale

1997
Jimmy P.
6.1

At the end of WWII, Jimmy Picard, a Native American Blackfoot who fought in France, suffers from unexplainable symptoms and is admitted to a military hospital. When doctors suspect schizophrenia, an eccentric psychoanalyst takes up the case and starts a conversation with the veteran.

Jimmy P.

2013
Nika & Madison
N/A

Fearing they won't be believed, two young Indigenous women go on the run after one's defense of the other results in a violent attack against a police officer.

Nika & Madison

2026