Canada gained a considerable talent when the Rennies brought their four-year-old from England in the mid-1960s. Callum Keith Rennie did not become an actor until he was twenty-five, but he has made up for it, earning over a dozen nominations and awards and appearing in over a hundred productions. He has been in five TV series this last year, and will feature in ‘The Firm’ in this coming year.

Much of Mr. Rennie’s work associates him with gritty, often antagonistic characters, though he has received critical acclaim for comedy and children’s shows. It seems his forte is the character with rough edges. Some years battling alcoholism likely helped hone those portrayals, but delayed his career.

Fortunately, he returned to acting and began collecting awards. Following a year of TV roles, he was nominated for the Genie Award (Canada’s ‘Oscar’) for best supporting actor in ‘Double Happiness’ (1993). This was one of nine productions for him that year. He has won the Genie twice since then, for ‘Last Night’ (1998) and ‘Normal’ (2007).

‘Last Night’ also earned him a nomination for the Canadian Comedy Award (for his portrayal of a sex-athlete). The same year, he received a nomination for a Gemini Award (Canada’s ‘Emmy’) for ‘Best Performance by an Actor in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role’ –as did his co-star, Paul Gross, both for ‘Due South’ (1997-99).

These two actors have collaborated on several other projects, including 2004’s political thriller ‘H2O’ and comedy-drama ‘Wilby Wonderful,’ and comedy-western ‘Gunless’ (2010). Mr. Rennie has appeared in a number of Hollywood films as well, including ‘Memento’ (2000); ‘The Butterfly Effect’ (2004); and ‘Blade: Trinity’ (2004).

In Canada, he is remembered for such films as David Cronenberg’s ‘eXistenZ’ (1999); ‘Hard Core Logo’ (1996); ‘Trigger’ (2010); and ‘Suspicious River’ (2000). It is in ‘Hard Core Logo’ that he exhibits his singing skills as a rock-band guitarist; he reprised the role for ‘Trigger,’ which starred Molly Parker, who also co-starred in ‘Suspicious River.’

Callum Keith Rennie is perhaps best known for his extensive TV work. He has been seen on ‘The X-Files’ (1993-2002); the reinterpretation of ‘Battlestar Galactica’ (2003-09); the horror-series ‘Supernatural’ (2005-); ‘The L-Word’ and ‘Smallville’ (both 2006); ‘Californication’ (2007-); and ‘24’ (2001-10), for example.

In 2011, he appeared in the US version of ‘The Killing’ and headlined ‘Shattered’ (2010-11), in which he played a detective with multiple personalities; again, he appeared with Molly Parker. In 2012, they will reunite in the high-profile ‘The Firm,’ based on the John Grisham novel and film. The often dark character actor has a bright future indeed.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/cfccreates/

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About the author

Andrew Cameron
There once was a man from Victoria. He would try very hard not to bore you. Why he got into prose, well, nobody knows. But, if you glanced at his work, he'd adore you.

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