Marc Richler is talented, versatile, and fresh!! A new, up-and-coming actor living in Toronto, Richler’s multi-faceted talent ranges from the stage to the screen, from the dramatic to the comedic, and from the spoken word to the melodic one. He lives everyday with a voracious devotion to his craft and ambition, yet remains grounded through humour and an infectious, easy-going sense of joie de vivre. “After all,” he says, “what could be that bad in a world that provides both pizza and baseball?”
Richler is a recent “graduate with Honours” from the Dalhousie University Acting Programme in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He spent his four university years out east studying the world of theatre as it exists today, revisiting its origins, and honing and developing his own personal technique and growth. It was in this environment more than any that had come before it, where he began to make tremendous strides as both a performer and an individual. This culminated in his final year, in which he received positive review after positive review for his performances in the DalTheatre productions that season.
Unlike many who have chosen the life of an actor, however, Richler did not come out of the womb searching for a stage or a camera. Growing up in Toronto, his life ambitions were simple, nonnegotiable, and few; two to be exact: To play shortstop for the Toronto Blue Jays, or shooting guard for the Indiana Pacers (pre-Raptors, of course). But after waking up one terrible morning and realizing he was neither Joe Carter nor Michael Jordan, he decided to give up on his athletic ambitions, and instead pursue a far more attainable dream; fame, fortune, and an Academy Award.
With this far simpler task at hand, Richler got right to work. At 10, he was cast in his very first production, “The Most Happy Fella”, where he discovered his knack for singing. Over the next few years, Richler landed lead roles in youth performances of “Grease”, “Bye Bye Birdie”, and “Fiddler on the Roof”. At age 13, Richler auditioned and was accepted into the Arts York Vocal Program at Unionville High School for the Performing Arts, where he would continue to train and grow as a singer. In time, however, Richler began to realize his true love was in acting. No longer driven by the desire for fame, fortune and an Academy Award – though certainly not adverse to any or all of those things – Richler found passion and a craft. He found a need to explore the stage in a way which can only be grasped when the motivation lies beyond the material surface. He took on productions which provided more emotional depth to walk around in, such as “The Crucible” and “The Laramie Project”. This brings us back to Nova Scotia. As he was getting ready to graduate high school, Richler applied to Dalhousie University, and wasted no time declaring Theatre as his major.
As mentioned, four years later, Richler came out of Dalhousie a very different person, and a very different artist. His desire to keep exploring was as strong as ever, and so he ventured into the film and television mediums through workshops, classes, student films, etc., as well as booking his first professional theatre gig playing Lucky in “Waiting For Godot”. Over the next year, Richler would continue to hone the subtle nuances of his new found passion for acting on camera, while remaining active on the stage.
Now, equipped with all the right tools, this new and professionally untapped talent is poised to break out and leave his mark on the professional worlds of film, television, and of course theatre. Whether or not fame, fortune, and an Academy Award are in the cards, only time will tell. Richler is well aware he may have to settle for only two out of the three. But one thing is for sure; while it may not be for the Toronto Blue Jays, Marc Richler is ready to make his impact felt in the Big Leagues.