Catherine McNally
As a professional actor, teacher, on-set coach, producer and director I bring over 37 years of acting and teaching experience to the work. I am a graduate of Queen’s University (First Class Honours/Drama), London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and an International Fellow of Shakespeare’s Globe London, England under Academy Award/ Tony/ Olivier winner, Mark Rylance. Along with being a coach, I am co-founder of McNally Kennedy Acting, a Professor with Toronto Film School and prep coach for entry auditions to training institutions. With 35 years of coaching, teaching experience, ranging from small boutique studios to large institutions. I have taught Shakespeare, Shaw, and Improvisation, regularly sat on the audition panels for theatre/film schools,where I have also worked with students on monologue coaching, text analysis, and improvisation work. I have also been an adjudicator with Sears Drama Festival/ National Theatre Festival.
I have worked with Academy Award winning actor Mark Rylance, Golden Globe nominee Sebastian Stan, Academy Award nominee Maria Bakalova, Rachel Weisz and Eva Marie Saint, Emmy award winning Jeremy Strong, Elizabeth Moss/Richard Schiff, Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, Cherry Jones, Eva Marie Saint,Yannick Bisson, Julie Benz, Madelaine Stowe and many others. Recently an on-set acting coach to new TV Series Orphan Black Echoes, and Astrid and Lilly Save the World.
My recent film and television credits include: Supporting lead playing Mary Anne Trump opposite Sebastian Stan in Ali Abbasi’’s The Apprentice (Official selection Cannes Film Festival 2024), Out of My Mind (Sundance Film Festival, 2024) recent co-star, guest star and recurring roles in Emmy Award winning Handmaids Tale/Schitts Creek, Screen Actors Award winning Anne with an E, Foxtrot, Gentle Barbarians, Orphan Black Echoes, A Match Made in Manhattan, Accused, Love in Whitbrooke, Coroner, Condor, Tiny Prettty Things, Run This Town, In The Dark, A Charming Christmas, Eyewitness, Rogue, 12 Monkeys, Murdoch Mysteries, Saving Hope, The Whistleblower, Flashpoint, Love, Sex and Eating the Bones, Odyssey 5, as well as numerous independent short films and features.
I am a Dora nominated actor and a recipient of the Tyrone Guthrie Award, Christopher Plummer Fellowship Award, Canada Globe Women in Shakespeare, and was chosen as one of the Top Ten Artists by Now Magazine/Toronto. I have also recently won the Critic’s Circle Award for Best Actress for Mrs. Warren’s Profession (title role, presented at the National Arts Centre in Canada). Selected theatre includes Canadian Stage, Tarragon, Theatre Passe Murialle, Stratford Festival, Factory Theatre, Young People Theatre, Drayton Entertainment, Citadel Theatre, and Theatre Aquarius. I have produced Boston Marriage, Jewel, and Life Sentences for Toronto and across the country.
Robert B. Kennedy
I am a professional actor, teacher and director with over thirty years of experience. Along with coaching some of the busiest actors in the country for auditions and pre-production prep, I have worked at George Brown College, teaching on camera acting for the graduate year in the Media Performance program. I have also instructed the On Camera Acting Course at The University of Toronto, Mississauga and Seneca College. I have sat on the audition panels for University of Toronto, Erindale and Sheridan College where I have also worked with students on monologue coaching, text analysis, and improvisation work.
As an actor, I have had the great pleasure of working with such talented people as Mark Ruffalo, Rachel MacAdams, Kiefer Sutherland, Guillermo del Toro, Thomas Mann, Christina Ricci, Helen Shaver, Molly Parker, and Ben Affleck to name a few.
Select Film and Television credits include Jupiters Legacy, Believe Me, Ransom, Designated Survivor, Schitts Creek, the independent film Our House, The Girlfriend Experience, The Strain, mini series Cardinal and The Lizzie Borden Chronicles, Oscar winner Spotlight, Beauty and the Beast, The Listener, the recurring role of Special Agent Wayne Tarrance in the NBC/Global series The Firm, Murdoch Mysteries, Lost Girl, U.S. Attorney (CBS pilot), The Bridge, Hollywoodland, Odyssey 5, The Killing Yard opposite Alan Alda, and the critically acclaimed short films Silent War and Reunion. I have also worked extensively in theatre. Selected stage credits include the Mirvish production of the hit musical My Mothers Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding, Theatre Awakenings In Darfur, numerous seasons with The Blyth Festival, 1000 Islands Playhouse, Stirling Festival, and A Christmas Carol and Inherit the Wind at Geva Theatre in Rochester, New York.