{"id":143475,"date":"2025-09-14T14:25:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T14:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/143475\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T14:25:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T14:25:14","slug":"degrassi-cast-reunite-for-doc-world-premiere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/143475\/","title":{"rendered":"Degrassi Cast Reunite for Doc World Premiere"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tStars of Degrassi<\/a>, the longrunning Canadian high school series that changed teen TV, had a class reunion on Saturday night at the Toronto Film Festival<\/a> that nearly never happened.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe are thrilled to be here at TIFF<\/a> and to celebrate this iconic series,\u201d Carrie Mudd, producer of Degrass: Whatever It Takes, told a Scotiabank Theatre audience for the documentary\u2019s world premiere. \u201cI\u2019d like to thank the lawyers, the journalists, the publicists, our incredible cast and crew and the Degrassi fans for sticking with us this week. Without you, this film may not have screened,\u201d Mudd added.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeries co-creator Linda Schuyler earlier this week withdrew a threat <\/a>of legal action against Lisa Rideout\u2019s documentary, allowing the film\u2019s first look to go ahead this weekend. Schuyler was a no-show for the world premiere at Scotiabank Theatre, as was Drake<\/a>, who along with former co-stars from the Canadian teen drama\u00a0reunited for the documentary that looks back at the show\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n

\n\tSchuyler and Kit Hood as co-creators over four decades built the\u00a0Degrassi\u00a0franchise into an edgy, inclusive teen high school series.\u00a0The Degrassi: Whatever It Takes doc featured interviews with stars Dayo Ade, Stefan Brogren, Amanda Deiseach, Maureen Deiseach, Shenae Grimes-Beech, Jake Epstein, Shane Kippel, Miriam McDonald, Stacie Mistysyn, Melinda Shankar, Amanda Stepto and Jordan Todosey.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI grew up being a fan of the show, and it\u2019s pretty amazing to have directed it,\u201d director Rideout said when introducing her film to the TIFF audience. Stepto, who played Christine \u201cSpike\u201d Nelson, during a post-screen Q&A, said seeing her character and those of her fellow cast members on screen moved her.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s quite emotional, not only just watching what happened with our own generation, but seeing those same feelings, that we\u2019re all human, no matter what generation we were on,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe beloved franchise began with\u00a0Kids of Degrassi Street, which aired from 1979-86.\u00a0Degrassi Junior High\u00a0and\u00a0Degrassi High\u00a0followed before\u00a0Degrassi: The Next Generation\u00a0premiered in 2001. The series, which starred Drake, Grimes-Beech, Nina Dobrev and more actors before their big breaks, ultimately ended in 2015. However, the franchise continued when\u00a0Degrassi: Next Class, which\u00a0aired on Netflix from 2016-17.<\/p>\n

\n\tAde, who played Bryant Lester Thomas, BLT, in the Degrassi TV franchise, recalled the groundbreaking series tackling a host of \u00a0challenges of teenage life \u2014 from abortion to anorexia and a school shooting \u2014 and helping many fans of the show get through them. \u201cWe touched a lot of people, and us being able to tell these stories, we were able to help a lot of other people figure out a lot of things,\u201d Thomas insisted.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m finding myself overwhelmed,\u201d an emotional McDonald, who played Emma Nelson, told the TIFF audience as the documentary \u201cbrought me back to some tough childhood moments, and I have found so many friends in our fan base. Some of the messages you guys have sent really uplifted me.\u201d In the film, McDonald recalled featuring in a Degrassi storyline where Emma battled an eating disorder.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat episode shoot came at at a time when McDonald had an eating disorder in real life and she lost her sister to the same health condition. The Toronto Film Festival wraps on Sunday with awards giving in Toronto.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stars of Degrassi, the longrunning Canadian high school series that changed teen TV, had a class reunion on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,22449,5320,75,15896,2559],"class_list":["post-143475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-degrassi","tag-drake","tag-entertainment","tag-tiff","tag-toronto-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}