Accent on Inclusion

By Andrea Gallo, Yvette McKoy & Mladen Obradović

Last year, Yvette McKoy was in Ottawa shooting her first Hallmark Christmas movie. Although she had worked on bigger productions before, this one holds a special place for her, her agent, and many Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) actors as well as performers who speak with accents.

Why? Because it is very challenging for Yvette to get auditions in Toronto because of her German accent, especially with her BIPOC appearance. What made Yvette’s Ottawa shoot different – if not magnificent – was how her accent and appearance were embraced. In fact, “the film’s producer and director told me they specifically searched for me and found me because of those traits.”

Latinx performer, Andrea Gallo, shared that in the “seven years I have been in the industry, I have only booked ONE role that was listed on the casting breakdown as “Open Ethnicity.” Most of my bookings have been for roles where an accent is required/requested. I often follow the project I auditioned for and check out who got the role when it airs, but am disappointed to learn only about 10 per cent of the roles end up casting people with accents.

Additionally, even releases or breakdowns for Latinx people, specifically, are often only booked by Latinx people who don’t have an accent when speaking English. To me it seems like they want the look, but have no interest in authentically representing the world in which we live.”

Mladen Obradović, who is originally from Montenegro but now lives and works in Toronto, says, “as a performer with an accent, I have experienced just a few instances where other artists are interested in me because of my accent. Most prominently, the wonderful director Atefeh Khademolreza used my accent to add to the story of the character I played in her beautiful film Birthday.

However, this was an exception. More often than not, I am discriminated against because of it. People with little knowledge of accents ask me to portray some distorted, perverted version of what they imagine a character from Europe sounds like. If they wanted an Eastern European, they would ask me to sound like Gru from Despicable Me or, for a Southern European character, they want me to sound like Mario from Super Mario Bros. Of course, they don’t explicitly tell me that, but it is implied.”

The Canadian population is becoming increasingly diverse and Canadian audiences want to see and hear themselves reflected on screen. And this includes linguistic diversity, which is seeing exponential growth in Canada. According to Statistics Canada 2021 Census data, 12.7 per cent (and growing) of the Canadian population predominantly speak a language other than French or English at home and one in four Canadians – that’s 9 million people – had a mother tongue other than English or French.[1] Multilingualism is also on the rise in Canada with 21 per cent (3.1 million) of Canadian households – or just over a quarter (26.2 per cent or 9.5 million people) of the total population living in a private household – speaking at least two languages at home. In Ontario, more than 25 per cent of households were multilingual in the 2021 Census, a higher percentage than in the other provinces or territories (except Nunavut).[2]

Interestingly but unsurprising, the Census also found that the languages known and spoken in Canada are closely linked to the identity and culture of Canadians and to their relationship with their community.[3] And this is where the need for authentic casting comes in: Where people’s appearances and accents are celebrated and supported, and our screens reflect the people who call Canada home.

Despite television, films and commercials in Yvette’s home country reflecting German culture by featuring numerous BIPOC actors, she says “many casting directors in the GTA don’t give me an audition because of my accent, especially an accent that, in their mind, doesn’t fit my look. My agent was even once insulted by a casting director for submitting me for a German/Austrian/Swiss role.”

Andrea strongly believes the issue of creating real change lies with networks and producers. “While I see an incredible effort from my union to make BIPOC performers more visible, and certainly some casting directors are bringing people of all colours and accents forward, we rarely make the cut as it almost seems actors who have natural accents are not welcomed by people at the top.”

Mladen, who is co-lead with Yvette of the ACTRA Toronto Accent Discrimination Sub-Committee, sees the issue of accent discrimination as a common occurrence after talking to other members of the sub-committee. Performers’ accents “are either stereotyped or fetishized, or both. We need to be recognized as artists who have more to offer than just our accents and be accepted as a rightful representation of what Canada sounds like. Things are not going to change until the industry’s gatekeepers (directors, writers, producers, agents) are properly educated about diversity and are brave enough to create characters who sound like all of us.”

The Accent Discrimination Sub-Committee is an ACTRA Toronto member-led initiative created as an extension to the ACTRA Toronto Diversity & Inclusion Committee. It gathers members to share their experiences of workplace-related accent discrimination. Professional performers with accents that may not be considered standard/mainstream Canadian accents often face many obstacles within the industry. The ACTRA Toronto Accent Discrimination Sub-Committee is dedicated to addressing these obstacles and educating industry professionals about their responsibility to abide by non-discriminatory practices.

Andrea Gallo is a Venezuelan-Canadian actress and producer, based in Toronto. Born in Venezuela, Andrea began performing in local school competitions for singing and poetry at the age of 7 years old while receiving Flamenco lessons and gymnastics classes. At the age of 22, Andrea moved to Canada, which marked the beginning of her acting career. Her modelling background earned her first commercial bookings for brands like Tim Hortons, Rogers and Nike.

Currently, Andrea is highly active in the industry as an actress. She has participated in numerous commercials, short films, TV movies and series. Some of her credits include Star Trek Discovery (Paramount+), Shadowhunters (Netflix), and A Christmas Fumble (OWN).

As a BIPOC performer, and an advocate for diversity and inclusion, Andrea continues to fight for Hispanic and Latinx representation in the film industry in North America. Her goal is to help pave the way for more artists to be allowed – and encouraged – to tell their stories regardless of the way they speak or the way they look.

Yvette McKoy was born in East Germany to a German mother and an African father (Mali). She was a member of the East German National Track and Field team and became a world-class athlete, ranked top ten in the world in the 800 and 1500 meters event. An even more successful career was spoiled by the East German Secret Service (Stasi) after they discovered that she had contact to Canadian sprinter, Mark McKoy (Olympic Gold Medalist 1992), her husband-to-be. Therefore, she was prohibited from competing in the West.

Yvette’s acting career started in Germany and continued in Canada after the Berlin Wall was taken down. She starred alongside actors such as Forrest Whitaker in Anne Rice’s Feast Of All Saints, Terrence Howard in Street Time, Meaghan Rath in Children Ruin Everything, Nicole Ari Parker in Soul Food and Peter Weller in Rabbit Hole. Yvette also stars in her Biography movie (Gemini Nominee) Cold War Love, The Mark and Yvette McKoy Story produced by The History Channel. Because of her athletic ability, she is also a successful stunt performer. She is represented by The Bella Agency.

Mladen Obradović is the co-lead of ACTRA Toronto’s Accent Discrimination Sub-Committee. He is an actor, director, writer, producer and a drama teacher with an MFA in Acting from York University. Originally from Montenegro, he lives and works in Toronto. He founded Pulse Theatre, a theatre company which focuses on immigrant/audible minorities performers and plays that are tackling social issues.

Notable theatre credits: The Woods are Dark and Deep (Pulse Theatre 2019), Foreign Tongue (Next Stage Festival Toronto 2019), A Flea in Her Ear (Toronto Fringe 2017, Pulse Theatre), Counting Sheep (Summerworks Festival 2015), and many others. Notable TV/Film credits: Air Crash Investigations (2023), The Recruit (2022, Netflix), The Boys (2022, Amazon Prime), The Dark Side of the 90s (2021, VICE), Haunted Hospitals (2021), Disasters at Sea (2019), Birthday (2019; Best Film, Indian Cine Fest 2019), and many others. www.mladenobradovic.com.