Billy Merasty
| Billy Merasty | |
|---|---|
| Born |
1960 Brochet, Manitoba, Canada |
| Occupation | Actor, Writer |
Billy Merasty (born 1960) is a First Nations actor and writer of Cree descent.
Biography
Merasty is the ninth child of fourteen children born to Viola Marie Merasty and Pierre Merasty; the grandson of Joe Highway, a famous caribou hunter and champion dogsled racer;[1] and the nephew of playwright Tomson Highway and dancer/choreographer/actor/director René Highway.[2]
He moved to Toronto at the age of 18 in search of his uncle René Highway, who was at the time working for the Toronto Dance Theatre.[3] At the age of 23, he launched his acting career after graduating from the Native Theatre School for aspiring First Nations artists.[4] He then worked for the Native Earth Performing Arts for a long period.[4]
Merasty has worked extensively on the stage and films as an actor and has written one play, Fireweed, produced in 1992. His second play, Godly's Divinia, is in development.[5]
In 2010 Merasty received the Order of Manitoba (Order of the Buffalo Hunt) in recognition for his many years as an Aboriginal role model from Manitoba.[6]
Stage work
His stage credits include appearances in Tomson Highway's The Sage, The Dancer and the Fool, Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing and The Rez Sisters, Daniel David Moses' The Indian Medicine Show, Lanford Wilson's Rain Dance, Marie Clements' Copper Thunderbird, Kevin Loring's Where the Blood Mixes, Steven Cole Hughes' Ghost Dance and David S. Craig's The Neverending Story.
In 2012, he performed the role of Gloucester in an all-aboriginal production of William Shakespeare's King Lear at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, alongside a cast that also included August Schellenberg as Lear, Tantoo Cardinal as Regan, Jani Lauzon in a dual role as Cordelia and the Fool, and Craig Lauzon as Kent.[7]
Film and television
- Justice Denied: The Donald Marshall Story
- Red Earth, White Earth
- Liberty Street
- The Confessional
- Exotica
- Pocahontas: The Legend - Kocoum
- TNT's miniseries Into the West
- Mixed Blessings
- Moose TV
- We Shall Remain
- Elijah (about the Meech Lake Accord story)
- The New World - Kiskiack
- HBO's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
- Moby Dick - Tashtego
References
- ↑ Highway, Tomson (2007-06-29). "— This I Believe". Cbc.ca. Retrieved 2012-04-09.
- ↑ "For Godly and Divinia". Canadianshakespeares.ca. Retrieved 2012-04-09.
- ↑ Rezolution Pictures. "Moose TV - Bio: Billy Merasty". Moosetv.ca. Retrieved 2012-04-09.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Interview With Billy Merasty". Playwrightsworkshop.org. 1998-06-12. Retrieved 2012-04-09.
- ↑ Giese, Rachel (2001-04-26). "Merasty improving with age". Eye Weekly. Retrieved 2007-06-11.
- ↑ "Province of Manitoba | News Releases | Billy Merasty Inducted into Order of the Buffalo Hunt". News.gov.mb.ca. 2010-03-19. Retrieved 2012-04-09.
- ↑ "Aboriginal cast in staging of King Lear". Ottawa Citizen, May 12, 2012.