Ron Pederson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ronald Pederson is a Canadian stage and screen actor who has performed extensively throughout Canada and in the United States.
He was born in Edmonton, Alberta on January 8th, 1978 and entered Edmonton’s vibrant theatre community in 1987 when he began taking classes at the Citadel Theatre School. He went on to perform in many Citadel Theatre School plays.
In 1991, when Ron was only thirteen years old, he auditioned for Edmonton’s prolific playwright Stewart Lemoine, Artistic Director of Teatro la Quindicina. The two would go on to forge a strong artistic relationship. Ron appeared first in Lemoine’s The Spanish Abbess of Pilson in Spring 1992 with what would become Teatro Bambino, and made his professional acting debut in Neck Breaking Car Hop that summer.
At 16 years old, Ron appeared in Suzanne Lebeau’s play Burt for which he was nominated for an Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award for Best Actor in 1994.
Ron has performed with such notable theatre institutions as the Vancouver Playhouse, Citadel Theatre, Phoenix Theatre, Free Will Players, Northern Light Theatre, Workshop West, Theatre Network, Kill Your Television, Shadow Theatre, Manitoba Theatre Centre, The Canadian Stage Company, Fringe Theatre Adventures, as well as two seasons at The Chicago Improv Festival.
He has worked with such notable directors as Robin Phillips, Duncan MacIntosh, Ron Jenkins, David Storch and Bob Baker.
Ron was nominated for five additional Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Awards. He won in 2002 for his portrayal of Ray Dooley in Martin McDonagh’s play The Beauty Queen of Leenane.
In 1995, at the invitation of Second City legend Dana Andersen, Ron joined the cast of the live improvised Soap Opera Die-Nasty with whom he performed every Monday night at the Varscona Theatre for eight years. Here Ron had the privilege of working with such guest stars as Mark McKinney, Mike Myers and Joe Flaherty.
Ron turned down an offer to become a main stage cast member of the Toronto Second City cast, but appeared at the L.A Second City on countless occasions.
In January 2002, and in March Joe Flaherty invited him and several others in the cast of Die-Nasty to perform in his Los Angeles Soap The Soap Also Rises. It was in this soap that Ron ending up performing along side Martin Short and Catherine O’Hara and Fred Willard. Martin Short, impressed with Ron, alerted MADtv executive producer Dick Blasucci and two days later Ron was auditioning for the show.
On September 4th, 2002 Ron made his debut on Fox’s comedy sketch series MADtv, where he would perform for three seasons. He quickly became a fan favourite.
While on hiatus from MADtv, Ron returned home to Edmonton and the Varscona Theatre where he performed Stewart Lemoine plays with Teato La Quindicina and subsequently became an Artistic Associate of Lemoine’s company Teatro la Quindicina and he appeared in various productions of the renowned playwright’s work.
He was nominated for a Best Television Performance Canadian Comedy Award for his work on the tenth season of MADtv and went on to write and perform original sketches on CBS’ The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson for one season, turning down a second to return to Canada and dedicate himself to the stage.
In 2007, Ron played Brad Majors in The Rocky Horror Show at the Manitoba Theatre Centre and the Canadian Stage Company directed by Ted Dykstra. He went on to appear in Teatro's East of My Usual Brain and spent the summer playing two critically acclaimed cameo roles in The Winter's Tale and the musical version of Two Gentleman Of Verona at River City Shakespeare Festival.
In November 2007, he returned to Toronto and the Canadian Stage Company to star in their production of Little Shop of Horrors in a performance that was hailed “the singing and dancing Seymour of your dreams” [1]
In May, June and July, 2008 Ron can be seen as Carmen Ghia in the Vancouver Arts Club’s production of Mel Brooks’ musical The Producers. As well, Ron will return to the Edmonton Fringe Festival in August with a new play by Stewart Lemoine.
In March 2009 he set to star in the world premiere of a one-man show written and directed by Ron Jenkins called Extinction Song.
Ron currently lives in Toronto, Ontario, but returns to Die-Nasty whenever he is back in Edmonton.
He has also completed their annual 53 hour Soap-A-Thon.
