Caroline Lesley is an American-Canadian actor and singer. She had a role in the movie ''

Fruitvale Station ''Fruitvale Station'' is a 2013 American biographical drama film written and directed by Ryan Coogler. It is Coogler's feature directorial debut, and is based on the events leading to the death of Oscar Grant, a young man killed in 2009 by B ...

'' which won the Grand Jury and Audience Awards at

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

, and the Future Award at

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

. Lesley's recent work includes roles on

FX on Hulu FX Networks, LLC, commonly known as FX Networks, is an American media company built around FX, FXX, and FX Movie Channel, plus their associated production company, FX Productions, and is a subsidiary of Disney General Entertainment Content, th ...

series Y: The Last Man (TV series),

Amazon Studios Amazon MGM Studios is an American film and television production and distribution company owned by Amazon, and headquartered at the Culver Studios complex in Culver City, California. Launched on November 16, 2010, it took its current name on O ...

series '' The Boys'',

National Geographic Channel National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney Enter ...

show Air Crash Investigation (TV series),

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

show

Condor (TV series) ''Condor'' is an American Thriller (genre), thriller television series based on the novel ''Six Days of the Condor'' by James Grady (author), James Grady and its 1975 film adaptation ''Three Days of the Condor'' written by Lorenzo Semple Jr. and ...

Ion Television Ion Television (referred to on-air as simply Ion) is an American broadcast television network and FAST television channel owned by the Scripps Networks subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August ...

series

Private Eyes (TV series) ''Private Eyes'' (during production first known as ''The Code'') is a Television in Canada, Canadian comedy-drama television series based on the novel of the same name by G.B. Joyce, created by Tim Kilby and Shelley Eriksen starring Jason Priestl ...

. Lesley performed at the

Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre The Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) is an improvisational and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The original incarnation of the group consisted of Amy Poehler, Matthew Walsh, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, Ad ...

(UCB) in New York City, and

The Groundlings The Groundlings is an American improvisational and sketch comedy troupe and school based in Los Angeles, California. The troupe was formed by Gary Austin in 1974 and uses an improv format influenced by Viola Spolin, whose improv techniques we ...

in Los Angeles. Lesley guest-starred on the satire TV series The Onion News Network on

Independent Film Channel IFC is an American basic cable channel owned by AMC Networks. Launched in 1994 as the Independent Film Channel, a spin-off of former sister channel Bravo, IFC originally operated as a commercial-free service, devoted to showing independent fi ...

. Her one-woman show, Doppelganger Joe, premiered at the

New York International Fringe Festival The New York International Fringe Festival, or FringeNYC, was a fringe theater festival and one of the largest multi-arts events in North America. It took place over the course of a few weeks in October, spread on more than 20 stages across se ...

. Lesley co-created Periscope's first TV Channel, Parachute TV. Parachute TV won the Digital Entertainment World startup award.

Early life

Caroline attended the Ryerson Theatre School in Toronto, where she received her BFA with honors. She played Queen Isabella in her graduate production of Richard II directed by John Neville.

Career

Early career

She was a guest host on Toronto's urban FLOW 93.5 radio (where she was also a copywriter) and she lent her voice to numerous radio and TV commercials. Lesley continued her work in theater and performed improv shows in Ontario with the Canadian Improv Showcase. She also appeared in shows at the Summerworks Festival in Toronto and the Toronto Fringe Festival. She starred in 13 episodes of

Rogers Cable Rogers Cable is Canada's largest cable television service provider with about 2.25 million television customers, and over 930,000 Internet subscribers, primarily in Southern and Eastern Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. Roger ...

improv show ''The Canadian Improv Showcase''. She performed in the play ''In Between'' at the Centre for the Arts in Toronto. Caroline received rave reviews for her role as Wendy, a neurotic misfit, trying to find her place. She guest-starred on ''

Soul Food Soul food is the ethnic cuisine of African Americans. Originating in the Southern United States, American South from the cuisines of Slavery in the United States, enslaved Africans transported from Africa through the Atlantic slave trade, sou ...

'' on

Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...

and

BET Black Entertainment Television (BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting Black American audiences. It is the flagship channel of the BET Media Group, a subsidiary of Paramount Global's CBS Entertainment Group. Originally launched ...

. She also appeared in a number of short films and TV commercials, including

Bud Light Anheuser-Busch, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, is the largest brewing company in the United States, with a market share of 45 percent in 2016. The company operates 12 breweries in the United States and nearly 20 in oth ...

Bell Canada Bell Canada (commonly referred to as Bell) is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell in the borough of Verdun, Quebec, in Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in the province ...

, and

TJ Maxx TJ Maxx (stylized as T•J•maxx) is an American discount department store chain. It has more than 1,000 stores in the United States, making it one of the largest clothing retailers in the country. TJ Maxx is the flagship chain of the TJX Comp ...

Hosting work

In 2004, Lesley was a host on the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...

television series '' The X''. Lesley was a red carpet correspondent for

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

. She performed one-on-one celebrity sit-down interviews and covered red carpets for EW parties, film festivals (including

Sundance A Sun Dance is a Native American ceremony. Sun dance or Sundance may also refer to: Places ;Canada * Sundance, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * Sundance, Manitoba, a ghost town ;United States * Sundance, New Mexico, a census-designated pl ...

and

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

) and

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

and

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

events. Caroline was the official periscope live-streaming red carpet Daytime Emmy host for the 2016 Daytime Emmy Awards. Lesley covered the red carpet for the opening of ''

Billy Elliot ''Billy Elliot'' is a 2000 British coming-of-age Comedy film, comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Daldry and written by Lee Hall (playwright), Lee Hall. Set in County Durham in North East England during the 1984–1985 miners' strike, the fi ...

'' on Broadway and appeared in the ''Finding Billy'' documentary produced by

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

with

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...

. She also covered the

Tony Awards The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cere ...

. She hosted several YouTube shows called "Simple Do's and Don'ts", "The Captain Humphrey's Project", and created the comedic mom show "Eating My Cake Too." She created a weekly show on Parachute TV called "Puppet's Place" that she hosted and voiced the puppet.

Voice work

Lesley was the voice of Yoplait and is the voice of the little boy Kam Kamazaki on ''

Medabots ''Medabots'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese role-playing video game franchise created by Rin Horuma (Horumarin) and currently owned by Imagineer. The main series of RPGs focus on collecting and battling with the titular robots. The bulk of t ...

'', an anime television series. She is the voice of Lidda on the ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

'' movie: '' Scourge of Worlds''. Caroline was also the sultry intermission voice on early episodes of

The Starters ''The Starters'' was a podcast, blog, and television program that analyzed, and often satirized, the National Basketball Association (NBA). The show was written and hosted by Canadians Tas Melas and Phil Elder (J.E. Skeets), Australian Leigh Ell ...

when it was known as the Basketball Jones podcast.

Other work

Caroline filmed a television pilot with Eddie Steeples in Los Angeles. Lesley did several episodes of the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

daytime soap opera ''

As the World Turns ''As the World Turns'' (often abbreviated as ''ATWT'') is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS for 54 years from April 2, 1956, to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created ''As the World Turns'' as a sister show to her other so ...

'' She starred in the indie film: ''Sister Blister'' in New York City and jumped out of a plane for the role. Lesley appeared in a TV commercial for

Anderson Cooper Anderson Hays Cooper (born June 3, 1967) is an American broadcast journalist and political commentator who anchors the CNN news broadcast show ''Anderson Cooper 360°''. In addition to his duties at CNN, Cooper serves as a correspondent for ''6 ...

's daytime talk show: ''Anderson''. She wrote, produced, and directed her own short film, ''Audio Guide'', which screened at the NYC Downtown Short Film Festival and the Long Island International Film Festival. She has several sketch comedy videos on

Funny or Die Funny or Die, Inc. is a comedy video website and production company owned by Henry R. Muñoz III that was founded by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Mark Kvamme, and Chris Henchy in 2007. The website contained exclusive material from a regular staf ...

and appeared in sketches for Details.com and EW.com. Lesley was the face of Farmland Dairies milk ad seen in ''Shape'' and on billboards across New York City and New Jersey. She released a single called ''The Rainbow''.

Filmography

References

External links

Official site of Caroline Lesley
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lesley, Caroline Canadian television actresses Canadian voice actresses Living people Year of birth missing (living people)