The 24th ACTRA Awards in Toronto brought together Canada's finest performing talent for a landmark evening at Koerner Hall on May 11, 2026. Adrian Walters took home Outstanding Performance – Male for his searing role in It Comes in Waves, while Paul Sun-Hyung Lee received the Award of Excellence. With eight competitive categories, political tributes, and powerful voices on the red carpet, it was a night the city won't soon forget.
On the evening of Monday, May 11, 2026, Koerner Hall at the TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning lit up with the kind of energy that only happens when a city truly sees itself on stage. The 24th ACTRA Awards in Toronto, proudly presented by AFBS, gathered over 15,000 members' worth of collective pride into one room and gave it a night to match.
Hosted by the sharp and warm Nadine Bhabha, the evening ran across a record-breaking eight competitive categories, including a brand-new Videogame Voice Award, and delivered wins that felt personal, earned, and deeply connected to the stories Toronto loves to tell about itself. Politicians sat alongside performers. Nominees cheered each other on. And for a few hours, the business of Canadian screen culture felt less like an industry and more like a community.
ACTRA Toronto, the largest branch of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, represents more than 15,000 professional performers working in recorded media across Ontario. Its advocacy has shaped the industry since 1943, securing fair pay, creative rights, and structural protections for the people who bring Canadian stories to life. The awards ceremony is the annual moment where that advocacy becomes a celebration.
Mayor Olivia Chow opens the evening
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow took the stage early in the evening and set a tone that was both personal and expansive. She spoke about a trade mission she recently led to the UK and Ireland, which included the city's film office and ACTRA Toronto as key partners. "When we're making the tape of this city, we make it together," she said. "ACTRA Toronto and the city and the whole crew, we go together."
Her message reached beyond economics. In a world, she told the room, that needs more sharing, cooperation, empathy and inclusion, the arts crack open what's possible. "That's why this industry matters. That's why this city is behind you. Thank you for telling our story. Toronto is lucky to be the place where bringing all of these stories to life."
Ontario ministers make their case for the industry
Ontario Minister of Tourism, Culture and Gaming, the Honourable Stan Cho, followed the mayor with a speech that balanced provincial pride with genuine warmth. Fresh from his own trade mission to Los Angeles, he told the room he was glad Hollywood hadn't kept him. "I am so proud of where I come from," he said. He spoke directly to the economic and cultural power of what Ontario's screen industry represents, a province spanning two time zones and the equivalent of 14 European countries, where performers come from anywhere in the world and are accepted as themselves. Cho was clear that domestic production anchors everything. "While selling film and television to the world is important, domestic production is what keeps the light on, and you are the powerhouse that keeps that light on."
The Honourable David Piccini, Ontario's Labour Minister, used his remarks to spotlight the STAR Act, incoming legislation that would require agencies to pass performer commissions within 10 business days, separate workers' earnings from agency operating funds, and ensure no performer has to chase a paycheque for work already done. "In Ontario, if you do the work, you get paid. It's that simple." He singled out ACTRA Toronto President Kate Ziegler by name for her leadership in making that legislation happen. "She did that for you," he told the room.
Adrian Walters wins outstanding performance – male
The evening's most talked-about moment came when Adrian Walters took home the award for Outstanding Performance – Male, for his role as Akai in It Comes in Waves (Zargara Productions and Lenz Films in association with BDB Productions).
The film swept five awards at the 2025 Reelworld Film Festival, including Outstanding Feature Film, Outstanding Actor, Outstanding Cinematographer, Outstanding Writer and Outstanding Producer. It also claimed the Audience Choice Award at the Sidewalk Film Festival and Audience Favourite at the Ottawa Canadian Film Festival, building a festival momentum that few Canadian debut features have matched in recent years.
It Comes in Waves centres on a Rwandan-Canadian family reestablishing their lives in Ottawa as refugees, with Akai, played by Walters, forced to step up and care for his younger sister Zera after their mother's health takes an unexpected turn. Walters delivers what reviewers described as one of the year's best lead performances, drawing comparisons to Moonlight for its emotional register and diaspora storytelling.
Before It Comes in Waves, Walters built his career through recurring roles in acclaimed productions including The Handmaid's Tale, Ben Stiller's In The Dark, the crime series Dare Me, and Star Trek: Discovery. He also appeared in CBC's The Porter, which won twelve Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Drama Series and earned a Dora Mavor Moore Award nomination for his stage debut in Obsidian Theatre's Judas Noir.
He stepped onto the Koerner Hall stage on Monday with a year's worth of festival ovations behind him, and the ACTRA Toronto win confirmed what audiences across North America have already felt: This is a performer at the full height of his talent.
Nominated in the same category was Ashton James, the Saint Lucian-Canadian actor best known for his leading roles in Boxcutter, which premiered at SXSW 2025, and Youngblood, a reimagining of the 1980s classic that premiered at TIFF 2025. A 2023 Canadian Screen Award nominee for Revenge of the Black Best Friend, James has also appeared in The Boys, Five Days at Memorial, Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent, and Netflix's The Madness.
Paul Sun-Hyung Lee receives the Award of Excellence
The Award of Excellence, ACTRA Toronto's highest honour, was presented to Paul Sun-Hyung Lee by Alistair Hepburn. Lee, a Canadian-South Korean actor born in 1972, is best known for his role as the family patriarch, Appa, in Kim's Convenience, both the beloved stage play and the CBC television series that ran from 2016 to 2021. He has won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series four times for that role and received multiple Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations across his theatre career. The room's response to his recognition was immediate and full.
Outstanding Performance – Female and other category winners
Nina Kiri won Outstanding Performance – Female for her role as Sandra Perron in Out Standing (GPA Films, January Media), a category that drew strong performances from across the field.
The full list of winners across the evening's eight categories reflects the breadth and depth of Canadian performing talent. Here is the complete record:
- Outstanding Performance – Female: Nina Kiri as Sandra Perron in Out Standing
- Outstanding Performance – Male: Adrian Walters as Akai in It Comes in Waves
- Outstanding Performance – Non-Binary/Gender Non-Conforming: Ci Hang Ma as Quinn in School Spirits, "Anatomy of a Fallout Shelter" (Paramount TV Studios)
- Outstanding Performance – Commercial: Alison Deon as Maisy in Visa's "Not Like Us" (Publicis)
- Outstanding Performance – Gender Non-Conforming or Female Voice: Gabbi Kosmidis as Gracie in Night of the Zoopocalypse
- Outstanding Performance – Gender Non-Conforming or Male Voice: Pierre Simpson as Xavier in Night of the Zoopocalypse
- Outstanding Performance – Youth Voice: Athan Giazitzidis as Pants in Mittens & Pants, "Puppy Detective and the Case of the Smelly Smell"
- Outstanding Performance – Videogame Voice: Nicole Law as Rebecca in Hell Is Us (Nacon)
- Award of Excellence: Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (presented by Alistair Hepburn)
- Members' Choice Series Ensemble Award: Heated Rivalry
- Stunt Ensemble Award: Twisted Metal, "OHLYNTE"
- Life Memberships: Tig Fong, Nina Keogh, and John Nelles
- Sandi Ross Award: Cameron Pictures and Shant Joshi
On the red carpet: Voices worth hearing
The red carpet brought out a remarkable cross-section of Toronto's screen community.
Dana Solomon, an actor and filmmaker of Anishinaabe and Guyanese heritage, spoke on the carpet about the importance of Indigenous storytelling in film. Solomon had a remarkable 2025 TIFF run, premiering two separate projects at the festival: NIIMI (She Dances), a short film she wrote, directed, and starred in, and Blood Lines, her debut feature lead in director Gail Maurice's Métis same-sex romance. "I'm actually so excited that we have so many Indigenous filmmakers telling our stories," she said earlier. "We are just scratching the surface. There's so much more to come."
Angelica Lisk-Hann, who served as host of the 23rd ACTRA Awards and is a 2023 ACTRA Toronto Award of Excellence recipient herself, was among the VIP guests. A veteran of more than three decades in the global entertainment industry, Lisk-Hann holds a place in Canadian screen history as the first Black female stunt coordinator in the country and one of a small handful worldwide.
Among the presenters was Zarrin Darnell-Martin, a Montreal-born actor of African American and English heritage, best known to audiences as Dr. Lily in Netflix's Ginny & Georgia. Morrissa Nicole, a multi-award-winning music artist and actress with film, television, stage, and voice-over credits, was nominated in the Outstanding Performance – Gender Non-Conforming or Female Voice category.
Also in attendance were Nicola Correia-Damude, known for her roles in Shadowhunters, Resident Alien and Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent, and Sydney Kuhne, the Black mixed-race artist and activist known for her work on SkyMed, Ginny & Georgia, and Schitt's Creek.
Where Canadian culture stands
The 24th ACTRA Awards arrived at a moment of real momentum for Ontario's screen industry. As the Honourable David Piccini noted in his remarks, the sector contributes over $2.6 billion to the provincial economy and supports nearly 45,000 jobs. ACTRA Toronto President Kate Ziegler called the evening "a night to remember" and noted that bringing together members, industry guests, and sponsors to celebrate Canadian talent "is thrilling on so many levels." With a record eight competitive categories, including the newly launched Videogame Voice Award, the ceremony itself signalled the industry is growing and diversifying.
What makes an evening like this meaningful goes beyond the trophies. It is the accumulation of stories being told, the performers who show up and do the work, and the city that, as Mayor Chow put it, goes together. From Walters's breakthrough year to the quiet power of watching Dana Solomon talk about Indigenous storytelling on a red carpet in Toronto, the 24th ACTRA Awards captured something real about where Canadian culture is headed.
It takes a long time to build an industry that feels like a community. On Monday night at Koerner Hall, Toronto had exactly that.
The 24th ACTRA Awards in Toronto were held on Monday, May 11, 2026, at Koerner Hall at the TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning. The evening was proudly presented by AFBS, with production by Yellow House Events. Sponsors included ACTRA National, Netflix, Creative Arts Financial, USW, Goldblatt Partners LLP, Whizbang Films, Nordicity Group Limited, Vapor Music Group and Ted Rosnick, Balancing Act and Point Blank Creative, among others.
