Honour bestowed annually in celebration of International Women’s Day
Toronto, ON (March 7, 2022) – Canadian performers are shining a spotlight on ACTRA member Juanita Peters by naming her this year’s ACTRA National Woman of the Year.
“We are proud to honour Juanita Peters as our ACTRA National 2022 Woman of the Year. Juanita, a Nova Scotian living in Dartmouth, has an extensive body of work as a performer, director, writer, journalist and documentarian,” said ACTRA National President Eleanor Noble. “She began her career as a news reporter and anchor for CBC News in the ‘80s and ‘90s and she is the current Executive Director of the Africville Museum in Halifax, Nova Scotia.”
“I am thrilled and shocked!” said Juanita Peters upon being named ACTRA’s 2022 Woman of the Year. “What an incredible honour to receive this amazing award from my colleagues. ACTRA has given me the opportunity to live out my childhood dreams of performing and being able to be part of stories that matter.”
An ACTRA member for 20 years, Juanita has performed in over 30 films and television series, including Sex & Violence, Forgive Me, Splinters, Hobo With a Shotgun, Cloudburst and the Emmy-nominated Homeless to Harvard. Juanita’s director credits include the CBC Television series Diggstown and Studio Black and, in 2021, she directed the feature film Rebirth 8:37. For more than 15 years, Juanita served as a journalist and news anchor in the Maritimes and hosted four seasons of the CBC documentary series Doc Side.
Juanita is a founding member of Women In Film and Television (Atlantic) and Nova MultiFest, Atlantic Canada’s newest multicultural festival. She has served on the boards of Women In the Director’s Chair (WIDC), Playwrights Atlantic Resource, Matchstick Theatre and the Robert Pope Foundation. In recent years, she has worked for the Council on African Canadian Education and also as Knowledge Lead for the Home for Colored Children Restorative Inquiry.
ACTRA bestows the National Woman of the Year Award each year upon an ACTRA member who uses their passion to support ACTRA members and women within the broader audiovisual industry. For a list of past recipients, please visit www.actra.ca.
About ACTRA
ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) is the national union of professional performers working in English-language recorded media in Canada. ACTRA represents the interests of over 28,000 members across the country – the foundation of Canada’s highly acclaimed professional performing community.
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Media Contact: Carol Taverner, Public Relations Officer, ACTRA National, tel: 416-644-1519, email: ctaverner@actra.ca