Joanne Vannicola

Joanne Vannicola is an Emmy award winning Canadian actress, born in Montreal, Quebec. She is most notable for her roles as Dr. Naadiah in Being Erica, Dr. Mia Stone in PSI Factor, Jerri in Love and Human Remains, Sam in Stonewall, voice of Jake in Crash Canyon and as the voice of Willy Zilla in Gene Simmons' animated television show My Dad the Rock Star. She began her career as a child and moved from Montreal to Toronto where she continued to pursue her career as a teen, moving on to receive multiple award nominations including Genie, Gemini and ACTRA awards. In 1990, she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance in a Children's Special in Maggie's Secret. She also dedicated a large amount of time to activism and founded a not for profit organization to raise awareness about child abuse, Youth Out Loud, from the years 2004-2009. Vannicola organized and delivered a number of speeches in the early 2000s at LGBT rallies for same-sex marriage and hosted a number of events to raise awareness around domestic violence issues and child abuse and continues to speak out about homophobia and sexism culturally and within the film industry. Vannicola has also appeared in many other shows and movies such as Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce, Rookie Blue, Slasher, Degrassi, Stardom, Betrayal of Silence, The Ultimate Betrayal, Relic Hunter, Mutant X, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues and Night Heat and the film Derby. Vannicola is currently writing a memoir, Walking Through Glass, slated for publication in 2016.