AMANDA J. BARKER. actor. writer. funny bitch.
Hey LOVES,
Here's the quickie career update: Check me out on Season 2 of Designated Survivor playing the head of the ARSR with the FAA. That means I pretend to know about planes. The FAA got wind of it and will be featuring me in their newsletter so I am officially geeking out (apparently, they watch it). ALSO - there's an HBO show called The Handmaid's Tale - don't know if you've heard of it? Won some Emmys. Anyway Check out Season 2 this April....and sorry to be cryptic... What else? I'm back on air most mornings with Sirius XM Channel 168 with Humble and Fred. Also, since June I shot 8 commercials (check out my voice here) and continued session directing for a commercial casting house which has been an amazing ride; working with directing talent from all over the world. I shot 4 tv series, a movie, and two webseries in addition. I'll post it all here shortly so I have it to show my mom. Or just go here to see the list, mom. These past 2 years have been all about writing - the fabulous Dale Boyer and I wrote Jann Arden's "Together for the Holidays with 98.1 CHFI" at Massey Hall which featured Sarah McLachlan, Johhny Reid, Holly Cole and Jordan Smith. I also wrote this thing for Toronto Life and this thing for the IFAW. Now, just closing out the year and working on two writing projects with some of the most amazing women I know. More on that to come. That's it. Hold the people you love tight and don't be shitty. Happy holidays. Barks 
Wrapping up the news of the year (with hilarity). December, 2014
Its called SATIRE friends and its on The Current on CBC with yours truly on Dec 22nd. Piya Chattopadhyay, Terry Fallis and I wrap up this year in a racially tense, misogyny exposing, Putin booing bow. Also, the Olympics happened this year but do you remember them? I don't. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ Let’s do this 2015. Here’s what’s I've been up to:
JAN - I am in this sexy awesome Canadian feature. - 88. My name is Jude. It is out in the United States and will have a Canadian premiere this spring. Same goes for Blood Empires where I play a Russian prostitute that gets murdered. It's a glamorous life folks. Its having its festival premier this January - here. FEB - SPANK!: A 50 Shades of Grey Parody comes to Denver’s Paramount Theater (where I snagged the “Best Colorado Newcomer” Award), Pike's Peak's Center in Colorado Springs (SPANK's largest audience to date) and at the Orpheum in Witchita. I hit the two year mark with SPANK! in October, 2014. With it I have received 3 Broadway world wins, a Canadian Comedy Award nomination, countless reviews and have taken it to Just for Laughs, Off Broadway and beyond. Yes, I still love to perform in this show. Scroll down or click the bluey SPANK above for more. MARCH - I play Frieda Fiver (a villian who does things in fives) on ODD Squad airing on PBS and TVO. Even if you don’t have kids, you should watch this show. It is MATHTASTIC. - *UPDATE - THIS SHOW WAS JUST NOMINATED FOR 6 EMMYS!!!* COULDN'T BE MORE PROUD TO BE PART OF THIS AMAZING SHOW! APRIL - Moose on the Loose April 9 - 26 (with a possible one week extension) I couldn't be more thrilled to make Thunder Bay my home this month, performing in the show with Magnus Theatre in the role of Gina - an Italian girl from Northern Ontario who comes home. Its a beautiful show with a strong ensemble cast with four generations of some of Canada's best performers. MAY/JUNE - Release The Stars: The Ballad of Randy and Evi Quaid May 13-15 Stratford, ON She’s back boys. The show that brought Randy and Evi Quaid out of hiding in the 2012 Toronto Fringe Festival and the hit of the 2014 NextStage festival is getting its third run. In June, we bring the show to Toronto's Storefront Theatre June 23 &24 and in May, it will be at Stratford’s SpringWorks festival. It will be an intimate version of the piece both at the Storefront and at Factory 163. JUNE - I am in ZOOM, a great arthouse film (is that douchey to say?) alongside Alison Pill and Gael Garcia Bernal. It was shot in Toronto and Brazil. I AM NOT IN THE BRAZIL PART. ___________________________________________________________________________ OTHER STUFF THAT HAPPENED IN 2014: 
I'm on Humble & Fred!
2014 I am co-hosting Toronto's best known morning show Humble and Fred! You can listen in every morning from 7 - 9 am on Sirius Satellite Channel 168 - The Canada Laughs Channel. Don't have satellite? Listen in on Newstalk 1010. Don't live in Toronto? Check out the daily podcasts here: www.humbleandfredradio.com. Now you have no excuse not to tune into me alongside the 4 time winners of "The Best Morning Show in Canada". And if you don't hear me, it means the amazing Eileen Ogden-Ross is back from birthing. And she's amazing. 
12 hours straight of sexy sexy... podcasting. Oct, 2014
They said it couldn’t be done. They said we would fall asleep. We didn’t but we hope you did! On Oct 4/5, I joined the incredible talents behind The Insomniac Show for a 12 hour podcast installation as part of Nuit Blanche. It is one of the funniest podcasts around as it actively tries to put people to sleep. Listen to comedians try their damnedest to be boring. They can’t laugh but you will. |
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Award Presenting.
SEPT 2014
Marco Timpano and I got glammed up to present the awards for Best Male and Female Performance in a film at the 2014 Canadian Comedy Awards. We made out a lot after. We are married which makes that situation way easier.
SEPT 2014
Marco Timpano and I got glammed up to present the awards for Best Male and Female Performance in a film at the 2014 Canadian Comedy Awards. We made out a lot after. We are married which makes that situation way easier.
THANKS AND SPANKS!
Jan - May 2014
We got nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award!
www.canadiancomedy.ca
Voting opens June 24th!
In May, we wrapped an amazing winter/spring season of SPANK! We toured both Northern Ontario and the East Coast of Canada, Ohio, West Palm Beach, Wyoming, Ohio, North and South Dakota, Ohio, Harrah's Mississippi and finished it off with the sweetest week ever as part of the Bass Off Broadway series in Ft. Worth, Texas. SPANK! continues this fall, check out www.spankshow.com for details. Pretty sure we will be back in Ohio.
Jan - May 2014
We got nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award!
www.canadiancomedy.ca
Voting opens June 24th!
In May, we wrapped an amazing winter/spring season of SPANK! We toured both Northern Ontario and the East Coast of Canada, Ohio, West Palm Beach, Wyoming, Ohio, North and South Dakota, Ohio, Harrah's Mississippi and finished it off with the sweetest week ever as part of the Bass Off Broadway series in Ft. Worth, Texas. SPANK! continues this fall, check out www.spankshow.com for details. Pretty sure we will be back in Ohio.
I won, folks. Eat it voice teacher who told me I "wouldn't have a career". EAT IT.
Jan, 2014
Three Awards?!! Fo reals?
Well 2013 was an amazing year and I feel very blessed to have performed on over 100 stages across North America, including off-Broadway and as part of the Just for Laughs Festival. The year ended in a big way for me - 3 Broadway World awards for the role of "EBJ" in SPANK and I managed to sweep all three nominations!! I won Best Actress in Nashville, Best Featured Actress in Toronto, and Best Colorado Debut in Denver! Such an honour to be nominated in three of my favourite cities - thanks to all who voted.
Jan, 2014
Three Awards?!! Fo reals?
Well 2013 was an amazing year and I feel very blessed to have performed on over 100 stages across North America, including off-Broadway and as part of the Just for Laughs Festival. The year ended in a big way for me - 3 Broadway World awards for the role of "EBJ" in SPANK and I managed to sweep all three nominations!! I won Best Actress in Nashville, Best Featured Actress in Toronto, and Best Colorado Debut in Denver! Such an honour to be nominated in three of my favourite cities - thanks to all who voted.
RTS rocks NEXTSTAGE!
Jan, 2014
We release the stars....again...
Incredibly proud of the critical and audience response of "Release The Stars: The Ballad of Randy and Evi Quaid"; a show which I co-wrote and starred in and which was part of the prestigious Next Stage Festival Jan 8 - 19, 2014 in Toronto. This festival was an honor to be part of as we were one script of the ten chosen (out of nearly 100 applications). Then, we presented this script in a panel discussion as part of the Canadian Association for Theatre Research's Conference at Brock University in May 27th, 2014.
2013:
Jan, 2014
We release the stars....again...
Incredibly proud of the critical and audience response of "Release The Stars: The Ballad of Randy and Evi Quaid"; a show which I co-wrote and starred in and which was part of the prestigious Next Stage Festival Jan 8 - 19, 2014 in Toronto. This festival was an honor to be part of as we were one script of the ten chosen (out of nearly 100 applications). Then, we presented this script in a panel discussion as part of the Canadian Association for Theatre Research's Conference at Brock University in May 27th, 2014.
2013:
XMAS in Fredericton!
Dec, 2013
Let's face it: It's a Miracle I got cast
For the month of December I was a member of Theatre New Brunswick's skilled ensemble in "A Miracle on 34th Street", a gorgeous show that saw me playing 8 characters and touring New Brunswick. It was a thrill to be part of such a spectacular production and to come home again to play.
Dec, 2013
Let's face it: It's a Miracle I got cast
For the month of December I was a member of Theatre New Brunswick's skilled ensemble in "A Miracle on 34th Street", a gorgeous show that saw me playing 8 characters and touring New Brunswick. It was a thrill to be part of such a spectacular production and to come home again to play.
I WENT OFF BROADWAY!
I went off Broadway bitches! I was honoured/honored (both as a Canadian and an American) to take "SPANK! A 50 Shades of Grey Parody" off Broadway this June at the Gramercy Theatre. After touring this show for 9 months, I was proud to give birth to it in the city that never sleeps, but often, as it turns out, spanks. Thanks to the ushers for kicking out that drunk guy who was on his phone.
I'M SPANKING JUST FOR LAUGHS!
I will be taking SPANK! to comedy mecca, aka, Just for Laughs this July in Montreal. We have a jam packed schedule July 16 - 28, playing at the amazing Centaur Theatre. I am thrilled to be performing alongside comedy bitch legends, like Joan Rivers and Sarah Silverman, with Alice Moran and Pat Whalen.
RELEASE THE STARS IS PRESENTED IN ORLANDO
I am a proud playwright this August as Release the Stars: The Ballad of Randy and Evi Quaid is being presented at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education conference in Orlando on August 4th. The show is part of a round table discussion: “Play/Ground: a place where theory, practice, and play come together". Presenter Sue Shawyer examines our show as: "intersections of celebrity culture with personal experiences of loss and death". However, I won't be there to witness my writing as part of a smarty pants discussion because....
I'M GOING TO THE JERSEY SHORE...BITCH!
I am paying homage to my hero, Snookie this August, bringing "SPANK!" to Atlantic City, NJ - playing at the Golden Nugget from Aug 2 - 18. Shows run Fri, Sat, and Sun. Thanks to Mills Entertainment for bringing me there!