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Sera-Lys McArthur

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Sera-Lys McArthur
McArthur in 2021
Born1986[1]
Alma materEast 15 Acting School
OccupationActress
Years active1999 – present

Sera-Lys McArthur is a Canadian actress whose roles include Hailey Martin in CBC's Arctic Air, Amanda in Hard Rock Medical, and Kodie Chartrand in season 3 of The CW's legal drama television series Burden of Truth. McArthur is proud of her indigenous Assiniboine heritage and hopes to act as role model for aspiring actors of all diverse ethnicities. As for video games, in the twenty-first expansion to be added into Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, she plays the role of Mina "Thunderbird" Sky—a Canadian operator of Nakota ancestry.[3]

Early life

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McArthur was born and brought up in Regina, Saskatchewan,[2] Her father was Nakota/Assiniboine Pheasant Rump Nakota First Nation[1] and her mother was a German-Canadian actress.[4]

McArthur started her training at high school age, singing, acting, dancing attending musical theatre and TV and film workshops.[1] At the age of 18,[5] McArthur moved to the United States[1] to study post-secondary music theatre training at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City.[4] Following this she moved to British Columbia to study method, Studio and Meisner technique acting classes, also general arts at Capilano University in Vancouver.[1] She furthered her acting education in England at from East 15 Acting School[6] at the University of Essex in Loughton, Essex, to become a classically trained actor,[5] graduating with a Master of Arts degree in acting with distinction.[4] McArthur moved back to New York City and Toronto and likened the travelling of her acting career to "following the buffalo," as was the nomadic way of her Nakota/Assiniboine ancestors.[7]

Career

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McArthur's debut screen appearance was at age 13 [1] while working for a children's modelling agency [2] in the 1999 CBC TV movie/miniseries Revenge of the Land as the daughter of fellow native American and Outlander actress Carmen Moore.[4] McArthur played the role of Azrael in The Lost Angel in 2004.[8] Between 2012 and 2014, McArthur played Hailey Martin for 8 episodes of CBC's Arctic Air.[9] The same year, while filming Skye & Chang in 2014, McArthur performed many stunts herself, having previously completed three months of taekwondo and martial-arts training.[9] McArthur was purported to be proud that her work on Arctic Air and Skye & Chang both heralded diversity, and highlighted McArthur herself as a television role model for Native American youth,[9] as fellow indigenous actress Tantoo Cardinal is to her.[2] McArthur was a lead actor in the TV-movie Skye & Chang which won the award for best short live feature at the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco.[9][1] McArthur was nominated for best lead actress for films with strong aboriginal characters, for both Skye & Chang and The Wolf of Waubamik Woods at the American Indian Film Festival.[1]

Between 2015 and 2018, McArthur played Amanda for 13 episodes of Hard Rock Medical,[4] also in 2018 she plays female lead in Amazon Prime's indie heist film Robbery,[2] followed with a single appearance in 2019 in the Starz television series Outlander as the Mohawk healer Johiehon.[10][11] In 2020, McArthur stars as Kodie Chartrand, who is of Ojibwe heritage,[5] for 7 episodes of season 3 of The CW's legal drama television series Burden of Truth.[4]

McArthur had main acting roles in two short films chosen to be shown at the 2020 Indianer Inuit: North American Film Festival in Stuttgart, Germany.[12] McArthur played Sasha in Magic Madeleines[13] and Amanda in Blood Lineage both were due to be shown in February 2020.[14] McArthur starred in the film in Monkey Beach which was a selection for the Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival (WAFF) in December 2020.[15]

She won the award for Best Actress at the 2022 American Indian Film Festival, for her performance in the film Broken Angel.[16]

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Role
2004 The Lost Angel[8] Azreal
2008 Free to Go (Short) Laura
2010 Hard Core Logo 2 Jules
2011 Nootka Rose (Short) Chinook
2013 The Wolf of Waubamik Woods (Short) Amber-Lynn Murphy
2014 The RODE We Choose (Short) Sera-Lys
2017 Blood Lineage (Short) Amanda
2017 Pharmalarm (Short) Karen
2018 We Catori
2018 Magic Madeleines (Short) Sasha
2018 Robbery Winona
2018 Alterscape Kimberly
2019 The River You Step In Ailene
2020 To Serve or Protect (Short) Detective Emily Romero
2020 Naval Gazing (Short) Therapist
2020 Monkey Beach [15] Tabitha
2020 The Corruption of Divine Providence Dr. McArthur
2021 Kwêskosîw: She Whistles (Short) Stephanie
2021 Don't Say Its Name Stacey Cole
2021 Heaven and Earth; A Ritual (Short) May
2022 Broken Angel (MaaShwaKan MaNiTo) Angel
2023 Café Daughter Katherine Wong
2024 Angela's Shadow Angela

Television

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Year Title Role Notes
1999 Revenge of the Land [4] Mary TV movie
2001 Incredible Story Studios [4] Witch Children's TV
2008 Aliens in America Cyra 1 episode - Community Theater
2008 The Englishman's Boy Young Assiniboine Girl Part One and Part Two
2014 Skye & Chang [9] Skye TV movie
2012-2014 Arctic Air Hailey Martin 8 episodes
2015-2018 Hard Rock Medical Amanda 13 episodes
2019 Outlander Johiehon Season 4 - 1 episode - Providence
2019 Friends from College Helena 1 episode - Out All Night
2020 Burden of Truth Kodie Chartrand 7 episodes
2019-2020 Running with Violet Martha 3 episodes - Call Me Clara - Role Play - Sleepy Town
2020 Meet Me for Coffee Guest - Sera-Lys McArthur 1 episode
2021 Diggstown Ronnie Maloney 2 episodes - Ivy Maloney and Nina Francis
2021 Pretty Hard Cases Sgt. Gabrielle Beauchamp 10 episodes

Awards and nominations

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Year Award Category Nominated work Result Ref.
2013 American Indian Film Festival Best lead actress for films with strong aboriginal characters Skye & Chang and The Wolf of Waubamik Woods Nominated [1]
2020 FFTG Awards Best Supporting Actress We Won [17]
2021 Leo Awards Best Supporting Performance by a Female in a Motion Picture Monkey Beach Nominated [17]
Blood in the Snow Awards Best Lead Acting Performance in a Feature Don't Say Its Name Won [18]
Best Lead Acting Performance in a Short Film Kwêskosîw: She Whistles Won [18]
2022 Sunny Side Up Film Festival Best Actress in a Western - Short Heaven and Earth; A Ritual Nominated [17]
American Indian Film Festival Best Actress Broken Angel Won [16]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Indigenous Women Iksokapi profile: Sera-Lys McArthur". iksokapimagazine.com. February 16, 2015. Archived from the original on February 19, 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Interview with CW's "Burden of Truth" actress Sera-Lys McArthur". naludamagazine.com. May 28, 2020.
  3. ^ "Rainbow Six Siege North Star: release date, Thunderbird, and more". The Loadout. May 23, 2021. Retrieved July 23, 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h "Sera-Lys McArthur". cbc.ca. Archived from the original on July 23, 2020. Retrieved July 23, 2020.
  5. ^ a b c "A Conversation with Sera-Lys McArthur". medium.com. June 17, 2020.
  6. ^ "East 15 Notable Alumni". east15.ac.uk. 2020.
  7. ^ "OutlanderBTS: Sera-Lys McArthur, on Playing Johiehon". Outlander BTS on Youtube. July 4, 2019.
  8. ^ a b "The Lost Angel (2004)". digiguide.tv. 2004.
  9. ^ a b c d e "Martial-arts movie Skye & Chang breaks ground for diversity". o.canada.com. May 19, 2014. Archived from the original on September 30, 2014.
  10. ^ "'I've never been in something of this scale before': Regina actor scores role on popular TV show Outlander". cbc.ca. January 23, 2019.
  11. ^ "Outlander - Cast". tvmaze.com. 2020.
  12. ^ "Indianer Inuit: The North America Film Festival". nordamerika-filmfestival.com. 2020.
  13. ^ "Magic Madeleines". nordamerika-filmfestival.com. February 9, 2020.
  14. ^ "Blood Lineage". nordamerika-filmfestival.com. February 7, 2020.
  15. ^ a b "Monkey Beach". winnipeg.ctvnews.ca. 2020.
  16. ^ a b "BROKEN ANGEL and POWERLANDS Win Top Awards at 2022 American Indian Film Festival". Vimooz, November 16, 2022.
  17. ^ a b c "Sera-Lys McArthur Awards". imdb.com. October 29, 2018. Retrieved August 22, 2021.
  18. ^ a b "The 2021 Bloodies Award Nominations". bloodinthesnow.ca. Archived from the original on November 19, 2021. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
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