
Acting
Don McKellar
Born
1963-08-17 (63)
Place of birth
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Known for
Acting
Credits
98 titles
Don McKellar CM (born August 17, 1963) is a Canadian actor, writer, playwright, and filmmaker. He was part of a loosely-affiliated group of filmmakers to emerge from Toronto known as the Toronto New Wave. He is known for directing and writing the film Last Night, which won the Prix de la Jeunesse at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, as well as his screenplays for films such as Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, The Red Violin, and Blindness. McKellar frequently acts in his own projects, and has also appeared in Atom Egoyan's Exotica and David Cronenberg's eXistenZ and Crimes of the Future. He is also known for being a fixture on Canadian television, with series including Twitch City, O…
Known for
7.6The life of a group of adolescents going through the trials and tribulations of teendom at Degrassi Community School.
Degrassi
2001
7.5An elite squad of detectives investigate high-profile crime and corruption in metro Toronto.
Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent
2024
7.0Jake 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
7.5As bass guitarist for a garage-rock band, Scott Pilgrim has never had trouble getting a girlfriend; usually, the problem is getting rid of them. But when Ramona Flowers skates into his heart, he finds she has the most troublesome baggage of all: an army of ex-boyfriends who will stop at nothing to eliminate him from her list of suitors.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
2010
7.5After being laid off and humiliated by a ruthless job market, a veteran paper mill manager descends into violence in a desperate bid to reclaim his dignity.
No Other Choice
2025
6.0With his partner Caprice, celebrity performance artist Saul Tenser publicly showcases the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances. An investigator from the National Organ Registry obsessively tracks their movements, which is when a mysterious group is revealed... Their mission — to use Tenser's notoriety to shed light on the next phase of human evolution.
Crimes of the Future
2022
Film credits
2020s · 7 titles
6.0With his partner Caprice, celebrity performance artist Saul Tenser publicly showcases the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances. An investigator from the National Organ Registry obsessively tracks their movements, which is when a mysterious group is revealed... Their mission — to use Tenser's notoriety to shed light on the next phase of human evolution.
Crimes of the Future
2022
6.2Ex heroin junkie, Daniel Léger, gets involved in a drug deal with the wrong people for the wrong reasons. When the deal goes sour, Daniel gets thrown into a Thai prison and slapped with a 100-year sentence. While he tries to survive his Bangkok incarceration, the news of his conviction captures the attention of Globe and Mail journalist Victor Malarek, who decides to go after the shady undercover cops responsible for wrongly accusing Daniel.
Target Number One
2020
6.1Frank Farrelli takes on the job as a middle man in the God-forsaken town of Karmack, USA, a community in a depression so deep that they need a middle man to professionally communicate more of the bad news.
The Middle Man
2021
5.4A devout community suffering from a plague is torn apart by a beautiful young woman and the forces of witchcraft, black magic, and possession.
The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw
2020
NRNash The Slash was deliciously surreal, verging on demented. A mummy wrapped in surgical bandages, an invisible man in full formal white tuxedo and top hat buzz-sawing his violin through endless reams of electronics, melodies and distortion. His music and image were demanding. His life was rock fantasy. ‘NASH THE SLASH RISES AGAIN!’ uncovers the sinister Canadian electronic music innovator. A classically trained violinist and multi-instrumentalist, he created music that was an unlikely combination of prog-rock, punk-rock, classic-rock, psychedelic fused with techno and industrial before they had names. The end result is an unearthly life drenched in film history, enveloped in a wall of sound that would do Phil Spector justice. A career embodied in artistic integrity, courage and the price-tag that comes with it. ‘NASH THE SLASH RISES AGAIN!’ unwinds the bandages of a ground-breaking, mad musical scientist whose career decomposed before the world caught up.
Nash the Slash Rises Again!
2025
NRA pretentious but loving couple discover a mysterious trinket shop run by an enigmatic man . When the young woman becomes entranced by a perfect Coalport tea set, she subsequently vanishes.
Collectors
2026
NRBased on the short ghost story of the same name by Algernon Blackwood from 1909, The Occupant of the Room centers on a schoolteacher whose late-night arrival at a hotel in the Alps leads to a sleepless night full of uncanny occurrences.
The Occupant of the Room
2025
2010s · 15 titles
7.5As bass guitarist for a garage-rock band, Scott Pilgrim has never had trouble getting a girlfriend; usually, the problem is getting rid of them. But when Ramona Flowers skates into his heart, he finds she has the most troublesome baggage of all: an army of ex-boyfriends who will stop at nothing to eliminate him from her list of suitors.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
2010
5.8A multi-dimensional interface between a comic book artist, a novelist, and a film director. Each lives in a separate reality but authors a story about one of the others.
Zoom
2016
5.2Mica is born smelling of fish that soap and doctors can't remove. Problems increase starting school as no one'll be his friend. He sees a therapist. His life seems doomed until he meets Laura.
Treading Water
2013
5.2The disappearance of a young Cree woman in Toronto traumatizes her Northern Ontario family, and sends her twin sister on a journey south to find her.
Through Black Spruce
2019
4.5A businessman gets caught up in an assassination plot when he travels to Cuba.
Three Days in Havana
2014
6.7A young Canadian poet with Chinese and Persian parents travels to Iran to perform at a poetry festival.
Window Horses: The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming
2017
6.6A devoted wife and mother is forced to reassess her reverence for her husband after she finds another woman’s thong in his laundry.
Meditation Park
2017
4.9A political activist helps take care of a group of America’s most wanted fugitives, including a well-known, recently radicalized heiress.
American Woman
2019
4.8A naïve but internet savvy 22 year old navigates the reality of her boring, small town Canadian life juxtaposed with the fantasy of her provocative and powerful Instagram celebrity.
Lolz-ita
2017
4.7Tortured by the memory of a childhood trauma, a woman returns after a decade to her family's fly-in hunting lodge to assist her siblings with their dying father, only to find herself stuck in a life threatening nightmare.
Blood Honey
2017
4.8Ten years after ending their partnership as rock musicians, two women become re-acquainted in the course of one night.
Trigger
2010
NRA conversation about guilty pleasures turns into one man's quest to find others on a library waiting list, while simultaneously examining the fate of the famous Hollywood bomb Ishtar (1987).
Waiting for Ishtar
2017
5.6Johnna's dad changed the world. Or so he says. Whilst Johnna and her dad are talking, they can't seem to connect, each growing more and more frustrated with one another, revolving around one another in their own orbits.
Your Mother and I
2016
5.2A road movie romance that conjures a heady concoction of free love and end of the world conspiracy.
I'm Yours
2012
3.6Inside the Canadian diplomatic compound in New Delhi, a mischievous cook affects the lives of her employers and fellow staff.
Cooking With Stella
2010
2000s · 18 titles
6.5When a sudden plague of blindness devastates a city, a small group of the afflicted band together to triumphantly overcome the horrific conditions of their imposed quarantine.
Blindness
2008
6.2An ambitious reporter probes the reasons behind the sudden split of a 1950s comedy team.
Where the Truth Lies
2005
6.4After she ends up in prison and loses custody of her son, a woman struggles to assimilate outside her former life and remain clean long enough to regain custody of her son.
Clean
2004
5.9A fictional documentary discusses the effects the Iraq war has had on soldiers and local people through interviews with members of an American military unit, the media, and local Iraqis.
Redacted
2007
5.8Manhattan prosecutor Nick is charged with looking into the untimely death of city resident Matt, a musician who had AIDS. As she questions Matt's loyal family members — mother Lila and sister Dana — she comes to learn that his closest pal, health-care worker Brian, is an ardent believer in assisted suicide and that he threw Matt a big party before his death. This presents a dilemma for the humane but dutiful Nick.
The Event
2003
4.3A young jury member becomes infatuated with Leslie, a troubled teenager and former homecoming princess, who became a follower of Charles Manson's cult and is now on trial for murder.
Leslie, My Name Is Evil
2009
5.8Four young office workers have a bet going to see who can last the longest without going outside. In the maze that is the downtown core of a large city, glass skywalks connect apartment buildings, office towers and shopping malls. Its day 28 of the bet and over the lunch hour, as the office prepares for the company founder's retirement party, things start to seriously unravel.
Waydowntown
2002
8.2This docu-drama spans fifteen turbulent years in the political and personal life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, one of the most enigmatic and polarizing Prime Ministers in Canadian history. The film explores the many facets of his character and his vision for his country which has both inspired and frustrated Canadians.
Trudeau
2002
6.0This compelling documentary explores Canadian film culture and tries to discover what defines Canadian film through interviews with notable filmmakers.
Weird Sex and Snowshoes: A Trek Through the Canadian Cinematic Psyche
2004
4.3A dark, wryly funny film about a game show run by smug pseudo-intellectuals that awards money to the contestant with the most pathetic life. The "contestants" are unaware they're even playing the game: the show's producers infiltrate houses, install surveillance cameras and broadcast footage for viewers to judge in such existential categories as doubt, alienation and disillusionment. A biting critique of the culture of surveillance as entertainment.
Public Domain
2003
5.2An experimental filmmaker takes a job as a driver for a foul-mouthed child actor and his ambitious stage mother.
Childstar
2004
Alessa Woo (Lee) is an ambitious art dealer who meets her match in gifted painter Ben Crowchild (Beach) in this romantic comedy.
The Art of Woo
2001
6.5A festival is a concentration of hope. Audiences hungering for something startingly new, famously familiar or just plain "good". Actors hoping their well-conceived sincerity and ritual entrances have that special glow. Press and critics poised to love or hate lucidly. And proud, desperate filmmakers looking for that little blessing on their latest self-projection. All squeezing together for a few days, in a few rooms wondering whether this will truly be the perfect place at the perfect time. Of course, it rarely is. Mostly it's just a collection of almosts. Delicious, shared almosts.
This Might Be Good
2000
9.0A little boy found wandering the streets is taken in by Bob and Joan, a kindly couple. The boy is cold, wet and desperate for shelter, but Bob and Joan are perplexed by his claims that he was once a rat. Meanwhile, rumours are rife at the newspaper about the prince's new love: a girl who captivated everyone at the palace ball.
I Was a Rat
2001
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Green Door
2008
4.6The new manager of a full-body massage parlor must make sure his employees do not grant sexual favors to clients.
Rub & Tug
2002
4.4Two ex-revolutionaries living underground have their lives turned upside down by a sexy young radical who goes from smashing SUVs to fighting gentrification with firebombs.
Monkey Warfare
2006
7.4Toronto filmmaker Alan Zweig analyzes the phenomenon of record collecting.
Vinyl
2000
1990s · 19 titles
6.8A game designer on the run from assassins must play her latest virtual reality creation with a marketing trainee to determine if the game has been damaged.
eXistenZ
1999
7.3300 years of a remarkable musical instrument. Crafted by the Italian master Bussotti (Cecchi) in 1681, the red violin has traveled through Austria, England, China, and Canada, leaving both beauty and tragedy in its wake. In Montreal, Samuel L Jackson plays an appraiser going over its complex history.
The Red Violin
1998
6.6In the upscale Toronto strip club Exotica, dancer Christina is visited nightly by the obsessive Francis, a depressed tax auditor. Her ex-boyfriend, the club's MC, Eric, still jealously pines for her even as he introduces her onstage, but Eric is having his own relationship problems with the club's female owner. Thomas, a mysterious pet-shop owner, is about to become unexpectedly involved in their lives.
Exotica
1994
6.3Camille is a professor at a Protestant college and is in a long-term relationship with Martin, a respected minister and fellow professor. When Camille meets Petra, a bold and flamboyant performer in a circus troupe, she is inexplicably drawn. Pursuing Petra, Camille throws her whole conservative life into disarray.
When Night Is Falling
1995
6.6Various citizens of Toronto anxiously await the end of the world, which is occurring at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day.
Last Night
1998
7.0A collection of vignettes highlighting different aspects of the life, work, and character of the acclaimed Canadian classical pianist.
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
1993
6.0An uptight insurance man and his film-censor wife become a kinky couple's landlords.
The Adjuster
1991
5.0Author Ayn Rand becomes involved with a much younger and married man, to the dismay of those close to her.
The Passion of Ayn Rand
1999
6.6At 14, Amanda is a perfect swimmer and a great student. When the factory where his father works closes and he must go to work in another city, she feels very sad. One morning she meets the McRea, a very nice elderly couple who, like her, cannot live without the sea, although in another sense.
Sea People
1999
6.8A naive Canadian barber who knows US popular culture inside and out meets a flamboyant roadie who needs someone to drive her and her "brother's" corpse from Thunder Bay, Ontario to New Orleans. Chaos ensues after the barber agrees to drive her, the corpse, and the drugs stashed within all the way.
Highway 61
1991
6.5The film explores the relationships that a limousine driver, a doctor, and a real estate agent have amongst each other and with Yo-Yo Ma as he travels to Canada to perform Bach's Cello Suites.
Sarabande
1997
4.9Still living at home with his avant-garde actress mother, constantly rejected by art schools, and without a lover, aspiring painter Andrew decides to enter a contest in hopes of winning a six month stay in Kenya. Though things aren't great for Andrew, neither are they wonderful for his lesbian friend Lucy who constantly bickers with her lover Ingrid. Lucy complicates Andrew's life when she introduces him to the suspicious-looking, enigmatic Jerry.
Never Met Picasso
1997
5.6Freda Lopez, an aspiring musician, travels with her husband to the beautiful beaches of Georgia where she befriends Camilla, an odd and exotic elderly woman who plays the violin. When the two embark on a journey together, Camilla reclaims a lost love and makes peace with herself and her son, while Freda discovers inner resources she never knew she had.
Camilla
1994
5.6Josephine has her eye on Joe, a hot-headed, petty criminal who taps phones for a living. When she finally worms her way into his heart she realises it's not a nice place to be. But is it too late?
Joe's So Mean to Josephine
1997
5.7In the Warsau ghetto of 1943, one man's struggle to keep his family together leads him to the ultimate crisis of faith and one final chance at redemption.
In the Presence of Mine Enemies
1997
9.0A man claims to have found a dinosaur skeleton in a vacant lot next to his apartment building.
Arrowhead
1994
6.7Shadowed by the death of her mother, Julie Kumagai's life with her widower father is marked by pained, turbulent exchanges. Indifferent to a break-up with her boyfriend and the lure of a long-planned trip, she finds some refuge in her workplace where she meets Tetsuro, a young Korean man newly emigrated from Japan who is obsessed with all things American. But together they discover no easy resolutions.
My Niagara
1992
7.0Ever more bizarre criteria are used to eliminate couples from a secret dance event.
Elimination Dance
1998
8.0A boy with an alcoholic father befriends a jazz musician.
Giant Steps
1992
Series credits
7.6The life of a group of adolescents going through the trials and tribulations of teendom at Degrassi Community School.
Degrassi
2001
7.5An elite squad of detectives investigate high-profile crime and corruption in metro Toronto.
Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent
2024
7.0Jake 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
6.1Once a Thief is a 1997 Canadian television show inspired by the 1996 film of the same name.
Once a Thief
1996
7.4This darkly comic Canadian series follows the fortunes of a dysfunctional Shakespearean theatre troupe at the fictional New Burbage Festival, exposing the high drama, scorching battles, and artistic miracles that happen behind the scenes.
Slings & Arrows
2003
8.5Twitch City is a surreal sitcom set in the Toronto, Ontario neighbourhood of Kensington Market, and follows Curtis, a television addict who refuses to leave his apartment, and his friends and roommates Nathan and Hope. In the series' first episode, Nathan is sent to prison for killing a homeless man with a can of cat food, leaving Curtis and Hope to find a replacement roommate to help with the rent.
Twitch City
1998
5.8In 1930s Saskatchewan Tommy Douglas, a small town pastor, sees the poverty and injustice around him which seem beyond his power to address from the pulpit. Douglas enters politics with the socialist Canadian Commonwealth Federation where his idealism runs into powerful opposition from the wealthy and the powerful. Despite the long odds, Douglas' new calling would soon make him a leader who transformed Canada.
Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story
2006
4.7Odd Job Jack was a Canadian animated comedy television show featuring Don McKellar, about one man's misadventures in temporary employment. Seen on and produced for the The Comedy Network, a cable specialty channel, and shown on Adult Swim in Latin America, the show has currently finished its production run as of its fourth season. The second season has been released to DVD, and seasons two through four can currently be seen on the on demand streaming video service Hulu.
Odd Job Jack
2003
1.0Nothing is safe when fearlessly off-the-charts senior citizen Lady and her chain-smoking best friend embark on a rampage of urban vengeance, upturning everything in their path.
Hey Lady!
2020
6.4Davina and her husband Al try to revamp their lives as they struggle with the uncertainties of middle age.
Sensitive Skin
2014
NRFrom Severin Films and Kier-La Janisse, a new series of chilling short form horror in the tradition of telling ghost stories for Christmas. From Severin Films and renowned author, producer, and filmmaker Kier-La Janisse comes The Haunted Season. Created by Janisse, one new episode of The Haunted Season will arrive on Shudder each December with chilling short form horror tales in the tradition of telling ghost stories for Christmas.
The Haunted Season
2024
Behind the camera
7.5After being laid off and humiliated by a ruthless job market, a veteran paper mill manager descends into violence in a desperate bid to reclaim his dignity.
No Other Choice
2025
6.5When a sudden plague of blindness devastates a city, a small group of the afflicted band together to triumphantly overcome the horrific conditions of their imposed quarantine.
Blindness
2008
6.7A small fishing village must procure a local doctor to secure a lucrative business contract. When unlikely candidate and big city doctor Paul Lewis lands in their lap for a trial residence, the townsfolk rally together to charm him into staying. As the doctor’s time in the village winds to a close, acting mayor Murray French has no choice but to pull out all the stops and begin The Grand Seduction.
The Grand Seduction
2014
7.3300 years of a remarkable musical instrument. Crafted by the Italian master Bussotti (Cecchi) in 1681, the red violin has traveled through Austria, England, China, and Canada, leaving both beauty and tragedy in its wake. In Montreal, Samuel L Jackson plays an appraiser going over its complex history.
The Red Violin
1998
5.2The disappearance of a young Cree woman in Toronto traumatizes her Northern Ontario family, and sends her twin sister on a journey south to find her.
Through Black Spruce
2019
6.6Various citizens of Toronto anxiously await the end of the world, which is occurring at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day.
Last Night
1998
6.6Various citizens of Toronto anxiously await the end of the world, which is occurring at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day.
Last Night
1998
7.0A collection of vignettes highlighting different aspects of the life, work, and character of the acclaimed Canadian classical pianist.
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
1993
6.8A naive Canadian barber who knows US popular culture inside and out meets a flamboyant roadie who needs someone to drive her and her "brother's" corpse from Thunder Bay, Ontario to New Orleans. Chaos ensues after the barber agrees to drive her, the corpse, and the drugs stashed within all the way.
Highway 61
1991
NRCommissioned by the Toronto International Film Festival to mark the event's 25th anniversary in September 2000, the "Preludes" program consisted of ten short films by Canadian directors which were inspired in some way by the festival. Each film screened as a prelude to a feature film in the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival program. The full "Preludes" anthology was screened on the web in November 2000, and was given theatrical retrospectives at the TIFF Lightbox in the subsequent years.
Preludes
2000
6.6Explores the sensitive, and tense, relationship between life on an First Nations reservation and life in the outside world. When Native Canadian Silas Crow is forced to write a personal essay in order to get a much-desired job, he tells the story of the rape and murder of an Indian girl by a drunken thug. When the killer received a lenient two-year sentence for manslaughter, the First Nations community felt shock and anger—and tried desperately to deal with the after-effects of this lack of justice.
Dance Me Outside
1995
5.2An experimental filmmaker takes a job as a driver for a foul-mouthed child actor and his ambitious stage mother.
Childstar
2004
5.2An experimental filmmaker takes a job as a driver for a foul-mouthed child actor and his ambitious stage mother.
Childstar
2004
3.6Bruno wakes up in bed next to Caroline, his long time crush. But tomorrow she's off for school in France, and maybe she only granted this miracle as a parting gift for her long time friend. So tonight is Bruno's last chance. And tonight, as it happens, Broken Social Scene, her favourite band, is throwing a big outdoor bash. Maybe if Bruno, with the help of his best pal Blake, can score tickets and give Caroline a night to remember, he can keep this miracle alive.
This Movie Is Broken
2010
7.0Ever more bizarre criteria are used to eliminate couples from a secret dance event.
Elimination Dance
1998
7.0Ever more bizarre criteria are used to eliminate couples from a secret dance event.
Elimination Dance
1998
6.0New carpet factory footage intercut with old porn creates a brief but telling glimpse into the human psyche.
Blue
1992
6.0New carpet factory footage intercut with old porn creates a brief but telling glimpse into the human psyche.
Blue
1992
NRA filmic love letter. One out of two. Premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival; Screened at the 2007 Pocket Festival Film in Paris
Phone Call From Imaginary Girlfriends: Istanbul
2007
NRA filmic love letter. One out of two. Premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival; Screened at the 2007 Pocket Festival Film in Paris
Phone Call From Imaginary Girlfriends: Istanbul
2007
6.0A music promoter sends a young woman on a road trip in search of a band who hasn't been showing up for their gigs.
Roadkill
1989
NRRelationships can be an endless cycle of breakups.
It's Not You
2015
NRRelationships can be an endless cycle of breakups.
It's Not You
2015
NRA filmic love letter. One out of the two. Premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival; Screened at the 2007 Pocket Film Festival in Paris.
Phone Call From Imaginary Girlfriends: Ankara
2007
NRA filmic love letter. One out of the two. Premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival; Screened at the 2007 Pocket Film Festival in Paris.
Phone Call From Imaginary Girlfriends: Ankara
2007
7.0Don McKellar’s autobiographical, wryly comic short looks at Toronto International Film Festival–goers’ fierce desire to get into a screening.
A Word from the Management
2000
7.0Don McKellar’s autobiographical, wryly comic short looks at Toronto International Film Festival–goers’ fierce desire to get into a screening.
A Word from the Management
2000
