Catherine Bruhier is an award-winning actress and filmmaker; The Sacrifice, filmed in Los Angeles through the Screen Actors Guild, marks her directorial debut and first project from co-founded production company BREAKING GROUND PRODUCTIONS devoted to diversity in filmmaking. The Sacrifice screened at 12 festivals and won 4 awards. Catherine was awarded an Ontario Art Council Emerging Filmmaker Grant to direct her 2nd short Clean Teeth Wednesdays made through ACTRA’s T.I.P. Program, which she completed while 8 months pregnant! The film was an official selection at 6 festivals, nominated best narrative short at Montreal Black Film Festival and Chicago’s Gene Siskel Film Center Black Harvest Film Festival and the young lead was nominated for a Young Artists Award (Presented by The Young Artist Awards Academy (YAAA), which was founded by The Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s (Golden Globes) recognized historian, Maureen Dragone.
Born in Belize, Central America raised in New Brunswick, Canada – Catherine moved to Toronto where she completed her formal education. A graduate of the George Brown College Theatre Program she also attended York University and studied in LA with renowned LA Film School coach/director Jim Pasternak in his Art & Technique of Film Directing Private Consulting & Coaching Workshop. She was honored to be 1 of 8 selected across Canada to attend the 2010 Women In the Directors Chair at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
In her career as an actor she has performed on stage and screen in leading and supporting roles in both Canada & the US. For the stage, most notably: The Shaw Festival; Grand Theatre London; Factory Theatre; Theatre Passe Muraille; Theatre Aquarius; Theatre New Brunswick; Theatre Plus Toronto and in the Dora awarded production of the teen play, Carrying the Calf. For the screen: most recognizable 3 seasons as Elaine Besbriss on the Paul Haggis created Gemini awarded CBS/Alliance series Due South. The show aired in 62 countries rating ‘top pick’ on the UK’s BBC network and continues to air in syndication. Most visible to young audiences she co-hosted 2 seasons of the children’s program The Polka Dot Door, which also aired around the world. Recent work: Catherine was honored to act alongside Viola Davis on How to Get Away With Murder as Dr. Sheila Greenlee with Lea Thompson on ABC Family’s Switched at Birth and with Morris Chestnut, Taye Diggs & Sanaa Lathan in the UNIVERSAL STUDIOS box office hit sequel The Best Man Holiday. She also recurred as Dr. Powell on The Young and the Restless. Other screen credits include: Rookie Blue (ABC/CanWest Global), Days of Our Lives (NBC), Flashpoint (CTV/CBS) Soulfood (Showtime), Yes Dear (CBS), Frasier (NBC), Angela’s Eyes & 1-800-Missing (Lifetime), Forever Knight (USA/CBS) – and recurring on the ABC soap Port Charles.
One of Catherine’s earlier achievements was on the main- stage of Theatre New Brunswick: in David French’s Salt-water Moon directed by playwright Sharon Pollock, co-starring Eric McCormack from Will & Grace fame. Being a minority as the female lead, the play was considered untraditional casting. Based on her experience in Salt-water Moon she wrote an article called DARKNESS VISIBLE published in THEATRUM MAGAZINE. The article went on to be republished in part by Prentice Hall Canada as an inspirational piece for grades 7 to 9 in a school textbook entitled PLAY MAKING MAGAZINE. Ms. Bruhier was an invited jury member of the CANADIAN ACADEMY OF CINEMA AND TELEVISION choosing the performers to be nominated for the 1995 Gemini Awards. She is a member of C.A.E.A. (Canadian Actors Equity Association), A.C.T.R.A (Alliance of Canadian Television and Radio Artists), SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild) and previously a member of Women in Film Toronto and L.I.F.T (the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto).
Awards & Nominations
Clean Teeth Wednesdays (7min short)
2014 Nominations, Lead Actress, Young Artist Award, 35th Annual Young Artists Awards, Studio City, U S A
2013 Nomination Best Narrative Short, Montreal Black Film, Montreal, Canada
2013 Nomination, Gene Siskel Film Center Black Harvest Film Festival, Chicago, U S A
The Sacrifice (21 min short)
2005 Honorable Mention, Through Her Eyes: Women of Color Film Festival (Jun 2005)
New York, U S A
2004 Best Short Drama, Best Actress (Catherine Bruhier), Bare Bones International Independent Film Festival, Muskogee, Oklahoma, U S A
2004, Audience Award Best Short, Denver 5th Starz Pan African Film Festival,
Denver, Colorado, U S A