Actor, singer and writer, Peter Graham-Gaudreau has been a professional performer since 1986. A graduate of the George Brown Theatre School in Toronto, he also studied at Queen's University, and has performed in many plays and musicals across Ontario and B.C. Peter's numerous film and TV credits includes supporting lead roles in Universal's feature film SlapShot 2, the PAX Cable feature Devil Winds, Trademark Entertainment's feature Sea Ghost, and many others.
As a singer and musician he has played many venues small and large, and recently released his first CD. Peter has written over 100 songs, and a number of stage and screenplays, as well as a short book on generosity.
The Whole Story ...
The youngest of nine children born to the Graham family in Conway, Ontario, pop.55, Peter Edward Graham was conceived the night his father, Robert Edward Graham, promised his mother, Eugenie Edna Gaudreau, an automatic clothes washer.
All these years later, Peter Graham-Gaudreau, as he is now known in the performing world, is still airing the bittersweet laundry of the past, as can be evidenced in his songs, plays and new short film. Or is he? Autobiographical artist, you ask? Hmmm.... possibly…
Peter made his first stage appearance as a hamburger, combining his love for junk food with his ongoing desire to play absurd, greasy characters. And so it has gone. An award winning athlete, Peter won a scholarship to Queen's University, where he studied Physical Education and Drama, and won the Rookie of the Year award in 1981-82.
However, his love of the stage and music won out and led him to Toronto, where he entered the renowned George Brown Theatre School. While in school, he landed his first professional acting job with Patricia Hamilton's Masterclass Theatre Company. The play, an adaptation of Goldoni's Mirandolina, was performed at Toronto's prestigious Tarragon Theatre, and directed by Laszlo Marton, then-director of the Comedy Theatre of Budapest. Peter earned his Canadian Actor's Equity Apprenticeship, and became a full member after playing a lead role in Mass Appeal with Peter Mandia of Theatre Aquarius. Since graduating in 1987, Peter has performed in many professional stage productions across the country, including shows with companies such as Theatre Passe Muraille, Sudbury Theatre Centre, 1000 Islands Playhouse, Upper Canada Playhouse, the Arts Club Theatre and Western Canada Theatre Company, among others. A solo cycling trip in 1989 took him from England to Egypt, and a VW bus trip across Canada brought him to Vancouver in 1990, where he began again to study acting with prominent teachers such as R.H. Thomson, Rosemary Dunsmore and David Rotenberg. He continues to study and perform for both theatre and film and TV.
In 1996, Peter began teaching circus skills, acting and songwriting for young adults at the Ailanthus Center for Youth, and was asked to join the artistic directing team that fall. He also began to work as a child care worker for Family Services, and as a personal aid worker for the disabled, and became an advocate for head injured adults. He combined his acting and music work with his advocacy work by next writing a show about his experiences in the world of brain injury, Headsoar Tales, which he performed in 1997. He plans to write a play and docudrama based on these stories and songs. After travels overseas and around North America in 1998-00, Peter returned again to Vancouver and acting . He formed Ku-Al Productions in early 2001 with partner Jennifer Juniper Angeli, and his latest project is a short 35 mm film that he co-produced , co-wrote and co-starred in. The script won first prize at the AWA Scene Contest in Nov. 2000, and is based on a scene from his recent stage play, GOING SOMEWHERE SLOW, which had it's premiere at the 2001 Vancouver Fringe Festival (see review under PRESS). Peter has also performed in many commercials, industrial films, and film and tv projects - check out his acting resume for more details.
Also in 2001, Peter released his first CD, also entitled GOING SOMEWHERE SLOW. Music has been a big part of Peter's life, from singing with garage bands (he was the lead singer for The Rodents in 1980, whose core members went on to form Canada's great rock band The Tragically Hip) to playing a lead role for 6 months in DADS: THE MUSICAL at the Arts Club Theatre shortly after his arrival in Vancouver. He has played 100's of shows across Canada, mostly as a singer/songwriter performing his own material, often at benefits for charities. His song InAction, which he performed with singer Clare OCallaghan, was first runner-up on the Vancouver tv show, Dreamseekers, and was presented to a capacity crowd at Brock Tully's Clam Chowder For the Soul 2000 at The Chan Center for the Arts. More recently, he performed at the Ranchfest Roots Music Festival and The Alibi Unplugged Scriptreading Series at The Sutton Place , where he is now the music co-ordinator. Check out his music resume for the latest gigs!
"Peter Graham-Gaudreau proves himself a capable actor as well as a playwright"
- Chris Dafoe, Vancouver Sun
