Andy is a multi-award winning producer, writer, actor, director, video designer and filmmaker based out of Yaletown in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He is the founding Artistic & Managing Director of The Virtual Stage, a Vancouver-based theatre company dedicated to the investigation of emerging technologies in theatre and the President of Random Acts Entertainment Inc.
BIOGRAPHY
Andy was born and raised in Chilliwack, British Columbia. After graduating from Sardis Senior Secondary School with honours in science (with a special emphasis on physics and math), taking the advice of his mother he changed his plans to immediately become an engineer and spent his scholarship money to study arts at what was then called Fraser Valley College (now The University of the Fraser Valley).
Under the guidance of theatre professor Ian Fenwick, Andy was afforded several opportunities to perform in plays at the college level and soon decided that acting was the most fun he had ever had. He spoke with a college career counsellor about what an acting career might look like. The counsellor told Andy that actors manage to make a living acting about 10% of the time. The odds sounded great!
After three years at Fraser Valley College, he got accepted to the professional acting training programs at both Studio 58 and the National Theatre School. After a period of youthful indecision and a stint in both programs, Andy settled back in Studio 58 and studied the craft of acting for three years. To put himself through school, Andy worked with people challenged with mental disabilities and illnesses: a line of work that Andy considers to have greatly influenced the development of his personal skill set and level of community engagement.
A couple of years after graduation from Studio 58, Andy made his professional theatre debut playing Nikola Tesla in the acclaimed production of Brilliant! with The Electric Company. Since then he has worked regularly in theatre, film and television as an actor. In the year 2000 he founded The Virtual Stage and began broadening his horizons in playwriting, directing and video design.
As a playwright, he won Playwrights Theatre Centre‘s 24-hour playwrighting competition in 1995 with his play The Birth of Freedom, which The Virtual Stage produced in 2002 and for which he was nominated for two Jessie Richardson theatre awards. Directing credits include SPANK! (The Virtual Stage), the hit show The Bastard (Vancouver Fringe Festival), Two Hander (Women In View Festival) and the short films Mayor Mulligan (Vancouver Film Race 2010), The Present (Vancouver Film Race 2009) and Game Over - The Virtual Stage’s inaugural production.
A versatile artist with interest and abilities in many different areas, Andy has been nominated for a total seven Jessie Richardson Theatre awards in acting, writing and design categories.
At the 2010 Winter Olympics, Andy was seen roving the streets with a couple of thick-skulled gigantic hockey players with his comedy troupe, Vancouver stilt walkers Duh Hockey Guys.
Photos by Michael Julian Berz.
