Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Chan

Hi Michael, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.

I may be an actor now, but once upon a time, I wanted to be a doctor. I don’t remember ever wanting to become anything else as a kid. Medicine was my purpose and I spent my childhood and early adulthood working my way towards that. However, everything changed in my second year at the University of Toronto.

By that point, things were going exactly as I wanted. I was in the university I wanted to be in studying Human Biology and had a good GPA. I was part of the Pre-Med Society. My extra curriculars were on point. One of my hobbies, though, caught the attention of some friends of mine who were studying game development. See, I enjoyed imitating the voices of characters I loved in various Anime series and recording them on my computer. In fact, I wrote little skits and jokes about those series, recorded myself voicing all the characters, and posted my work online on message boards. I had shown some of my clips to my game development friends and one day, they asked me if I was willing to do some of my ‘stupid voices’ for their projects. I agreed.

I felt a major shift in me soon after recording for my friends. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before – like my entire world had changed. What I had thought was my life purpose – medicine – crumbled and what rose in its place was this overwhelmingly powerful sense of true calling for the performing arts.

I thought the conversation with my parents would be difficult, and it was in many ways, but in the end, it was far more positive than I had imagined leading up to it. The gist of it was that they would support my shift in career path as long as I finished my Bachelor’s Degree, took the SAT, took the MCAT, took the LSAT, and got my real estate license to work with my dad, who is a real estate broker. The idea was that if acting didn’t work out, I’d have something ‘practical’ to fall back on, whether it be as a doctor, a lawyer, or a Realtor.

For the next few years, I did as my parents asked. All of it. It was arduous, but it was also life experience. When it was done, I enrolled at the Toronto Film School, which was in the CBC Building at the time, and began my journey to becoming a thespian.

It’s been 18 years since I started working professionally as an actor. I went from doing theatre, student films, background work, and voicing small commercials to joining ACTRA, appearing in various TV shows and commercials, being one of the leads in the YTV series ‘Popularity Papers’, and realizing my childhood dream of becoming an actual Starfleet Officer in Star Trek.

My road has been long and filled with more ups, downs, twists, and turns than any roller coaster you can think of. I wouldn’t change a thing, though. Following my heart is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?

My journey as an actor has definitely not been smooth, and while there are countless struggles I could speak of, I want to talk today about one in particular – being Asian in the entertainment industry.

You would think that being in a city as diverse as Toronto would mean that race wouldn’t be much of an issue, but right from the onset, my being Asian was thrown in my face faster than a pitch by Aroldis Chapman. I was the only Asian in my class while I was in school and, boy, did it get brought up a lot by some of the teachers. For example, one teacher refused to let me study any Shakespearean scenes like everyone else got to because “Asians don’t get cast in Shakespeare”. I was told repeatedly that “Asian eyes are not expressive”, so I was more likely to book commercials because I couldn’t “bring enough emotion to film or television”. One teacher even had the audacity to tell me that they felt I was just “an Asian trying to be white”. A place of learning, especially when it comes to the performing arts, is supposed to be safe and supportive. My experience was anything but.

Working as an actor, I lost part of my name due to constant mocking and mispronunciation. I started out being billed as Michael Chee-Wah Chan, which is my full name. I ended up changing it to Michael Chan by the time I joined the union. I’ve been told in auditions that my eyes are not expressive enough, just like back in film school. I’ve been asked in auditions about my ‘accent’, though I was born and raised in Toronto and have no accent. I’ve been told by more than one director that “Asians men are not attractive” and that when it comes to commercials, we “represent men women get with when they’re ready to settle down” (which is filled, by the way, with more issues than just mere racism).

The good news is that things have improved in the last 18 years. Most of my bad experiences come from earlier in my career and some of the issues I and others had to endure are pretty much non-existent nowadays. There is still work to do, of course, but there are incredible people in this industry making sure that progress continues to move forward day after day. It’s why I have an incredible sense of hopefulness when it comes to the future of this industry.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?

Nowadays, I mostly appear in television series and commercials. As I mentioned earlier, I’m in the show ‘Popularity Papers’ on YTV. I play Alex, one of the lead girls’ dads. This definitely is the role I’m proudest of, not only because it was my first time as a lead, but also because it allowed me to represent both my Asian and LGBTQIA2+ communities on television. It’s the most ‘me’ role I’ve ever had, and I got to play it in what I truly feel is one of the best family shows to ever come out of Canada.

I’ve appeared in many other incredible shows as well. I was a recurring Starfleet Officer in ‘Star Trek: Discovery’, I’ve been in three episodes of ‘Mayday’, which is also known as ‘Air Crash Investigation’, I was part of a hilarious skit in the latest season of ‘The Kids in the Hall’, and I made my good friends Jen and Ryan’s daughter very happy by appearing in ‘The Hardy Boys’, a show she loves very much.

TV and commercials may be my bread and butter, but I have been in a few films. My favourites are ‘The Love Club: Tara’s Story’ and ‘Swindler Seduction’. They were so much fun to work on, and the latter was filmed in Ottawa, which allowed me to visit friends I hadn’t seen in a long time. Outside of acting, I podcast. I co-host ‘The Hellbound Podcast’ with filmmaker Alex Blackburn, where we talk about all things horror. I am also a part of the United Federation of Podcasts where I review Star Trek series on ‘Live Long and Podcast’ and take part in exciting script reads on ‘Star Trek Radio Theatre’. Finally, I tell Dad Jokes on TikTok. At my age, I may not understand how TikTok works, but that hasn’t stopped me from making everyone groan on that platform.

Any big plans?

The reality of being an actor is that you can’t really plan for the future. Jerry O’Connell once talked in an interview about having no control over his career and that is a truth for all actors. It doesn’t matter how talented and/or well trained an actor is, a career can always hit what Jerry calls a ‘downturn’. So, what planning we can do is outside of acting where we have more control. I, for example, am a Realtor to make sure I can keep a roof over my family’s heads and food on our table while having a flexible enough schedule for my acting career. I am starting to learn some behind-the-camera roles to expand what I can do in the industry. Finally, I am in the process of coming up with a course to teach new actors the basics of the non-acting side of this career.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.michaelchan.ca
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaelcwchan
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michaelcwchan
• Twitter: https://x.com/michaelcwchan
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@michaelcwchan

Image Credits

Photography Credits:

Headshot – Denise Grant
Mayday – Cineflix
Popularity Papers – YTV / BBC Studios
Firecracker Department Photo – Racheal McCaig