Natasha Negovanlis is a Canadian actress, writer, producer, and singer. She achieved international recognition for portraying Carmilla Karnstein in the

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

web series A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...

Carmilla ''Carmilla'' is an 1872 Gothic fiction, Gothic novella by Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. It is one of the earliest known works of vampire fiction, predating Bram Stoker's ''Dracula'' (1897) by 25 years. First published ...

'' (2014–2016) and in the 2017 feature film based on the series.

Career

Before acting professionally, Negovanlis studied

musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...

and film at the Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts in

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and Voice Performance at The Schulich School of Music at McGill University. In 2014, Negovanlis was cast as the title role in the

Canadian Screen Award The Canadian Screen Awards () are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media ( web series) productions. Given annually by the Academy ...

winning

''. In the series, which is based on the 1871-1872 gothic novella of the same name, Negovanlis portrays the

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and c ...

Carmilla Karnstein, who appears after her roommate's previous roommate vanishes. The series premiered on Vervegirl (rebranded as KindaTV as of February 2016) channel on August 19, 2014, and has achieved worldwide recognition and praise for its near all-female cast and positive representation of various

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

characters. In 2015, she also starred with her ''Carmilla'' co-star

Elise Bauman Elise Bauman (born October 23, 1990) is a Canadian actress, director, filmmaker and singer. She portrayed the role of Laura Hollis, the lead character of the web series ''Carmilla'' (2014–2016). Career Bauman began working professionally in t ...

in the feature film '' Almost Adults'', which screened at several film festivals in 2016 before premiering on

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

. Also that year, she appeared as herself in an episode of the Canadian

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

horror television series '' Slasher'', and ranked 5th on

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's annual Hot 100 List. At the

5th Canadian Screen Awards The 5th annual Canadian Screen Awards were held on March 12, 2017, to honour achievements in Canadian film, television, and digital media production in 2016. Nominations were announced on January 17, 2017. Awards in many of the technical categor ...

, Negovanlis won the Fan's Choice Award, reportedly receiving over two million votes, for her work on ''Carmilla.'' Her acceptance speech, in which she discussed the importance of

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

representation, attracted media attention from various publications, including

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and the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

''. In 2017, Negovanlis guest-starred in an episode of ''

Murdoch Mysteries ''Murdoch Mysteries'' is a Canadian television drama series that premiered on Citytv on January 20, 2008, and currently airs on CBC. The series is based on characters from the ''Detective Murdoch'' novels by Maureen Jennings and stars Yannick ...

'' and reprised her role of Carmilla Karnstein in '' The Carmilla Movie'', a spin-off feature film based on the series. Later that year, alongside her ''Carmilla'' co-star Annie M. Briggs, Negovanlis successfully funded a digital series called ''CLAIREvoyant'' through an

Independent Production Fund The Independent Production Fund (IPF) is a Canadian private independent foundation that supports the production of Canadian dramatic digital media entertainment content and television series. It also provides professional development services and ...

grant as well as an

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campaign that raised over US$25,000. The comedy was co-created, co-written, and co-produced by Negovanlis and Briggs, and it premiered on the KindaTV YouTube channel on May 16, 2018, and won an award at the New York Web Fest later that year. In 2017, Negovanlis co-starred in her first American feature film, ''Freelancers Anonymous'', which premiered at the historic

Castro Theatre The Castro Theatre is a historic movie palace in the Castro District of San Francisco, California. The venue became San Francisco Historic Landmark #100 in September 1976. Located at 429 Castro Street, it was built in 1922 with a California ...

in San Francisco on June 15, 2018.

Personal life

Negovanlis is of Macedonian and Greek descent on her father's side, while her mother is of mixed Irish, French, and Indigenous ancestry. She has had relationships with both men and women and has publicly identified as

pansexual Pansexuality is sexual, romantic, or emotional attraction towards people of all genders, or regardless of their sex or gender identity. Pansexual people may refer to themselves as gender-blind, asserting that gender and sex are not determ ...

, or

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

. Negovanlis has an adopted

rescue dog Pet adoption is the process of transferring responsibility for a pet. Common sources for adoptable pets are animal shelters, rescue groups, or other pet owners. Some organizations give adopters ownership of the pet, while others use a guardian ...

named Charlie.

Filmography

Accolades

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Negovanlis, Natasha Activists from Toronto Actresses from Toronto 21st-century Canadian actresses Canadian film actresses Canadian LGBTQ actresses Canadian voice actresses Canadian pansexual people Canadian LGBTQ rights activists Living people Canadian web series actresses Canadian people of Macedonian descent Canadian people of Irish descent Canadian people of Greek descent Pansexual actresses McGill University School of Music alumni Canadian people of French descent 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people Year of birth missing (living people)