Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #30, Tatiana Maslany

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #30, Tatiana Maslany

Our annual ranking of the people whose smarts, connections and clout are changing the city as we know it

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Tatiana Maslany

Orphan Black

30 Evidence of Maslany’s sci-fi clout was on display at this year’s Comic-Con in San Diego, where fans in costumes inspired by her BBC America and Space series, the Toronto-shot Orphan Black, packed a ballroom to see her speak about the show. On Orphan Black, which pulled in 1.27 million viewers during its April season premiere, Maslany portrays a gaggle of clones (10 to date), each with unique mannerisms—an act of thespian fortitude that has made her the most buzzed-about Canadian actor since Gosling. This year, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences corrected one of the worst injustices in recent Emmy history when it finally nominated her for best actress in a drama series (injustice number two: she didn’t win). In what seems like a sign of things to come, Maslany has begun landing quality film roles: this year she performed in Woman in Gold with Helen Mirren.

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Maslany is rumoured to be in the running for a role in Star Wars: Episode VIII, a gig that would vault her into the nerd-culture firmament and maybe even win her the ultimate signifier of sci-fi ­success: a line of action figures.

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Clarification

December 2, 2015

An earlier version of this article called Orphan Black a BBC America show. In fact, it’s a coproduction between BBC America and Space.