Distinguished Artists
Encyclopedia
Distinguished Artists is a Canadian interview television series that focuses on all aspects of the arts with the goal of celebrating their guests' careers and achievements to inspire young artists. It profiles big names in music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

, comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

, drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

, and literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

.

Hosted by writer Lorne Frohman
Lorne Frohman
Lorne Frohman is a television comedy writer/producer. He created Pryor's Place starring Richard Pryor. He also created, wrote and produced the syndicated series D. C...

, this interview series is filmed at Assembly Hall, near Humber College
Humber College
Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning is a polytechnic college in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Humber offers more than 150 programs including: bachelor’s degree, diploma, certificate, post-graduate certificate and apprenticeship programs, across 40 fields of study. Humber serves...

 Lakeshore Campus. It is written, produced and crewed by students from Humber College's Television Writing and Producing program for them to gain valuable set experience, mentorship by industry professionals and graduate with on-screen credits in key positions, allowing them to jump-start their careers.

The Humber School of Media Studies, Television: Writing and Producing program developed by Lorne Frohman, created, produced, wrote, shot and edited the series. Music students from the Humber School of Creative and Performing Arts wrote, arranged, and performed the series' theme song.

Distinguished Artists is in fact the first network television show produced entirely by students of a college or university. It is produced by The Production League, a production company created by Executive Producer Brian Ainsworth and formed from graduate students of the Humber College Television Writing and Producing Program. Their proven successes to date include Distinguished Artists (5th season, over 80 episodes), School of Chef (1st season, 13 episodes completed), The Bird Watcher (currently in production), King Kaboom (2nd season) and they continue to enhance their reputation with every program produced.

The show has a brand new season as of March 2011 and is now broadcasted in HD. Its entirely produced by second year Broadcast Television and Videogrpahy students from Humbers' North Campus.

Interviewees [Incomplete list]

Date of initial broadcast listed after the name.

Season 1
  • Joan Rivers
    Joan Rivers
    Joan Rivers is an American comedian, television personality and actress. She is known for her brash manner; her loud, raspy voice with a heavy New York accent; and her numerous cosmetic surgeries...

    , 2 April 2005; comedian, talk show host, awards pre-show host
  • Joe Flaherty
    Joe Flaherty
    Joe Flaherty is an American-Canadian actor and comedian. He is best known for his work on the Canadian sketch comedy SCTV, from 1976 to 1984, and as Harold Weir on Freaks and Geeks...

    , 9 April 2005; comedian, voice actor
  • Alistair MacLeod
    Alistair MacLeod
    Alistair MacLeod, OC is a noted Canadian author and retired professor of English at the University of Windsor.- Academic career :...

    , 16 April 2005; short-story writer and novelist (No Great Mischief
    No Great Mischief
    No Great Mischief is a 1999 novel by Alistair MacLeod.The novel opens in the present day, with successful orthodontist Alexander MacDonald visiting his elderly older brother Calum in Toronto, Ontario...

    )
  • Bill Holman and Jane Bunnett
    Jane Bunnett
    Jane Bunnett is a Canadian soprano saxophonist, flutist and bandleader known for her Afro-Cuban jazz melodies.In 2004, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada...

    , 23 April 2005;
  • Pat LaBarbera
    Pat LaBarbera
    Pat LaBarbera is an American-born Canadian jazz tenor, alto and soprano saxophonist, clarinetist, and flautist born in Mt. Morris, New York, most notable for his work as a soloist in Buddy Rich bands from 1967–1973....

    , 30 April 2005; saxophonist
  • Andrea Martin
    Andrea Martin
    Andrea Louise Martin is an American and Canadian actress and comedienne. She has appeared in films such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding, on stage in productions such as My Favorite Year, Fiddler on the Roof and Candide, and in the television series, SCTV.-Personal life:Martin, the oldest of three...

    ; comedian
  • Colin Mochrie
    Colin Mochrie
    Colin Andrew Mochrie is a Scottish Canadian actor and improvisational comedian, most famous for his appearances on the British and US versions of television improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?.-Early life:...

    , 11 June 2005; improv comedian
  • Jerry Stiller
    Jerry Stiller
    Gerald Isaac "Jerry" Stiller is an American comedian and actor.He spent many years in the comedy team Stiller and Meara with his wife Anne Meara...

     and Anne Meara
    Anne Meara
    Anne Meara is an American actress and comedian. She and Jerry Stiller were a prominent 1960s comedy team, appearing as Stiller and Meara, and are the parents of actor/comedian Ben and actress Amy Stiller.- Personal life :...

    , 18 June 2005; comedy duo
  • Edward Albee
    Edward Albee
    Edward Franklin Albee III is an American playwright who is best known for The Zoo Story , The Sandbox , Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and a rewrite of the screenplay for the unsuccessful musical version of Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's . His works are considered well-crafted, often...

    , 25 June 2005; playwright
  • Michael Brecker
    Michael Brecker
    Michael Leonard Brecker was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Acknowledged as "a quiet, gentle musician widely regarded as the most influential tenor saxophonist since John Coltrane," he has been awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer and was inducted into Down Beat Jazz...

    ; saxophonist
  • Fiona Reid
    Fiona Reid
    Fiona Reid, CM is a Canadian television, film and stage actress. She is best known for her role as Cathy on the TV series King of Kensington....

    ; actress
  • Paul Quarrington
    Paul Quarrington
    Paul Lewis Quarrington was a Canadian novelist, playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, musician and educator.-Background:...

    ; author
  • Jane Bunnett
    Jane Bunnett
    Jane Bunnett is a Canadian soprano saxophonist, flutist and bandleader known for her Afro-Cuban jazz melodies.In 2004, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada...

    ; jazz musician
  • Jayne Eastwood
    Jayne Eastwood
    Jayne Eastwood , also credited as Jane Easton or Jane Eastwood, is a Canadian actress most famous for appearing in the 2002 film Chicago. She was one of the original cast members of the Toronto branch of The Second City, and was a semi-regular on SCTV...

    ; actress


Season 2
  • Ed Robertson
    Ed Robertson
    Lloyd Edward Elwyn Robertson , better known as Ed Robertson, is the Canadian lead singer, as well as a guitarist and songwriter in the band, Barenaked Ladies...

    ; singer/songwriter, Barenaked Ladies
    Barenaked Ladies
    Barenaked Ladies is a Canadian alternative rock band. The band is currently composed of Jim Creeggan, Kevin Hearn, Ed Robertson, and Tyler Stewart. Barenaked Ladies formed in 1988 in Scarborough, Ontario, then a suburban municipality outside the City of Toronto...

  • David Cronenberg
    David Cronenberg
    David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...

    ; director
  • Smothers Brothers
    Smothers Brothers
    The Smothers Brothers are Thomas and Richard , American singers, musicians, comedians and folk heroes. The brothers' trademark act was performing folk songs , which usually led to arguments between the siblings...

    ; musical/comedic duo
  • Bruce Jay Friedman
    Bruce Jay Friedman
    Bruce Jay Friedman is an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor.Raised in the Bronx by Irving and Mollie Friedman, Bruce Jay Friedman graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School. He then attended the University of Missouri as a journalism major, then served as a First Lieutenant in...

    ; novelist, screen writer and playwright
  • Sarah Polley
    Sarah Polley
    Sarah Polley is a Canadian actress, singer, film director, and screenwriter. Polley first attained notice in her role as Sara Stanley in the Canadian television series, Road to Avonlea...

    ; actress
  • Sharon Gless
    Sharon Gless
    Sharon Marguerite Gless is an American character actress of stage, film and television, who is best known for her roles as Maggie Philbin on Switch , as Sgt. Christine Cagney in the police procedural drama series Cagney & Lacey and as Debbie Novotny in the Showtime cable television series Queer...

    ; actress
  • Ha Jin
    Ha Jin
    Jīn Xuěfēi is a contemporary Chinese-American writer and novelist using the pen name Ha Jin . Ha comes from his favorite city, Harbin.-Early life:...

    ; author
  • Richard B. Wright
    Richard B. Wright
    Richard B. Wright, CM, is a Canadian novelist.Born in Midland, Ontario, to Laverne and Laura . Wright graduated from Midland high school in 1956, and attended and graduated from Ryerson Polytechnic Institute in the area of Radio and TV arts in 1959...

    ; novelist
  • Scott Thompson
    Scott Thompson
    Scott Thompson is a Canadian television actor and comedian, best known for his time as a member of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall.-Personal life:...

    ; actor, comedian
  • DM Thomas; author
  • Barry Unsworth
    Barry Unsworth
    Barry Unsworth is a British novelist who is known for novels with historical themes. He has published 15 novels, and has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times, winning once for the 1992 novel Sacred Hunger....

    ; author
  • Diane Dupuy; theatre owner
  • Ranee Lee
    Ranee Lee
    Ranee Lee, CM is a Canadian jazz vocalist and musician who resides in Montreal, Quebec.Lee toured North America in the 1970s as a jazz drummer and tenor saxophonist. She subsequently landed a starring role playing Billie Holiday in Lady Day, and won a Dora Mavor Moore Award for her performance...

    ; musician, actress


Season 3
  • Eugene Levy
    Eugene Levy
    Eugene Levy, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, television director, producer, musician, and writer. He is known for his work in Canadian television series, American movies, and television movies. He is the only actor to have appeared in all eight of the American Pie films, as Noah Levenstein...

    ; actor, comedian, (taped 12 January 2005)
  • Louise Pitre
    Louise Pitre
    Louise Pitre is an actress in musical theatre on Broadway and in Canada. She is best known for her role as Donna Sheridan in the ABBA-themed musical Mamma Mia!, which earned her a 2002 Tony Award nomination.-Biography:...

    ; musician, (taped 3 November 2005)
  • Vivica A. Fox
    Vivica A. Fox
    Vivica Anjanetta Fox is an American actress and television producer. She is best known for her roles in the films Independence Day, Set It Off, Soul Food, Why Do Fools Fall In Love,Kill Bill and Juwanna Mann....

    ; actress
  • Graham Greene
    Graham Greene
    Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...

    ; actor
  • Patrick McKenna
    Patrick McKenna
    Patrick McKenna born May 8, 1960 in Sylvania, Saskatchewan is a Canadian comedic and actor. He is best known for playing Harold Green on the television series The Red Green Show, Marty Stephens on Traders, and the Trudeau miniseries. McKenna is a member of Toronto's The Second City comedy troupe...

    ; actor
  • Clark Johnson
    Clark Johnson
    Clark Johnson , sometimes credited as Clark 'Slappy' Jackson, Clarque Johnson, and J. Clark Johnson, is an American actor and director who has worked in both television and film.-Early years:...

    ; actor, director
  • Karen Kain
    Karen Kain
    Karen Alexandria Kain, CC is a retired Canadian ballet dancer, and currently the Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Canada.-Early Training:...

    ; dancer
  • Jackie Burroughs
    Jackie Burroughs
    Jacqueline "Jackie" Burroughs was an English-born Canadian actress.-Life and career:Born in Lancashire, England, Burroughs acted in live theatre at Ontario's Stratford Festival...

    ; actress
  • Joseph Boyden
    Joseph Boyden
    Joseph Boyden is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. His first novel, Three Day Road won the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize...

    ; author
  • Francine Prose
    Francine Prose
    Francine Prose is an American writer. Since March 2007 she has been the president of PEN American Center. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1968 and received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1991....

    ; author
  • Wayson Choy
    Wayson Choy
    Wayson Choy, CM is a Canadian writer.-Early life:Choy was born in Vancouver in 1939. A Chinese Canadian, he spent his childhood in the city's Chinatown...

    ; author
  • Andy Kim
    Andy Kim
    Andrew Youakim, performing as Andy Kim, is a Lebanese Canadian pop rock singer and songwriter. He grew up in Montreal, Quebec in Canada. Kim is known for a number of hit singles that he released in the late 1960s and early 1970s such as "Rock Me Gently", which topped the US singles charts. In 1968,...

    ; musician, producer
  • Jeanne Beker
    Jeanne Beker
    Jeanne Beker is a Canadian television personality, author and newspaper columnist, who covers fashion and lifestyle news for CTV's FashionTelevision, FashionTelevisionChannel, and The Toronto Star.-Family:...

    ; television host, publisher


Season 4
  • Shirley Douglas
    Shirley Douglas
    Shirley Jean Douglas, OC is a Canadian television, film and stage actress and activist. Her acting career combined with her family name has made her recognisable in Canadian film, television and politics.-Personal life:...

    ; actress
  • Arsinee Khanjian
    Arsinée Khanjian
    Arsinée Khanjian is an Armenian-Canadian actress and producer. In addition to her independent work and stage roles, she is regularly cast by her husband, Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan, in his films...

    ; actress
  • Mark Breslin
    Mark Breslin
    Mark Breslin is a Canadian entrepreneur, stand-up comedian and actor best known for being the founder of Yuk Yuk's, the largest chain of comedy clubs in Canada.He made several guest appearances in the Robocop: The Series television series....

    ; author, comedian, founder of Yuk Yuk's
  • Russell Peters
    Russell Peters
    Russell Dominic Peters is an Indo-Canadian comedian, actor and disc jockey. He began performing in Toronto in 1989 and has been nominated for four Gemini Awards.-Early life :...

    ; comedian
  • Rex Harrington
    Rex Harrington
    Rex Howard Harrington, OC, FRSC is a Canadian ballet dancer. In 2000, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2005, he was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. In 2006, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by York University and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada...

    ; dancer
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