About

Hailing from wonderfully cold North Bay, Jesse is an actor, director, television host, voice-over actor, musician, puppet maker, techie, writer, and adds to this list every three days or so.

Jesse is a former host of YTV's The Zone, where for three years he was seen by millions of kids across Canada every day after school, with he and his co-hosts winning the 2020 Kidscreen Award for Best Hosting Team. On The Zone, Jesse quickly cemented his place as an impressionist, improv pro, and creator of many bizarre and hilarious characters. Jesse's adventures with The Zone took him deep underground in caves, high in the sky on bungee cords, back in time to the 1800s, surfing, skateboarding, and on a hair-raisingly fun descent down North America's tallest waterslide!

Jesse's theatre influence can be felt throughout North Bay. He has worked alongside North Bay arts legends such as Marty and Art Southcott, Rod Carley, Darlene Laferriere, and Jocelyn Bell-Summersby. He also worked with local community groups like Gateway Theatre Guild, and served as director with multiple seasons of Theatre Out Reach On Stage for the Near North District School Board. His first love, however, remains with North Bay’s charity theatre organization Dreamcoat Fantasy Theatre, where he got his start as a performer and continues to volunteer 25 years later. Jesse has directed twelve productions for Dreamcoat to date, and served as a guest instructor and assistant director for countless others.
 

In his professional work, Jesse has performed throughout the Greater Toronto Area in a wide range of theatrical productions, from David Fox’s King Lear at Theatre Passe Muraille in 2015, to a long stint with Diversified Theatre’s holiday pantomimes each Christmas. Jesse has worked with indie theatre companies such as Shakespeare in the Ruff, as well as for-profits such as Mirvish Productions.

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Jesse’s voice can be heard in short films, video games, and multiple animation projects, including Backyard Beats for TVOkids, Superwings for Treehouse, and numerous voice credits through his time working with YTV and Teletoon.

Jesse trained extensively in Toronto as an actor, graduating from the George Brown Acting program in 2015. He received training in multiple artistic disciplines including Alexander Technique, Lecoque Mask and Clown, Linklater Resonance Ladder, Knight-Thompson speechwork, Peter Wylde and the Wylde Zone of Silence, Uta Hagen, Victorian Period Study, Commedia Dell’arte, and three years of Shakespeare study.
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In the spare time he occasionally finds, Jesse plays the guitar, piano, saxophone, flute and accordion. He sings in open mics and jam sessions, brews homemade wine and mead, writes stories about wizards, makes puppets, plays Dungeons and Dragons, writes ridiculous poetry, and raises a very ill tempered cat.