Cast

Peter Keleghan as Jerry
Peter is one of Canada’s best-known comic actors and has an impressive array of film, television and theatre credits in Canada and U.S. They include film industry CEO Alan Roy on Rick Mercer’s Made in Canada, news anchor Jim Walcott on The Newsroom, and Ranger Gord on The Red Green Show. Peter has also made many U.S. TV appearances including Murphy Brown, Cheers, and Seinfeld, in which he played George Costanza’s archnemesis, Lloyd Braun. A Second City alumnus, Peter will be starring in the new CBC/ABC sitcom Eighteen To Life and recently played alongside Pierce Brosnan in the movie thriller Butterfly On A Wheel. In Eating Buccaneers, Peter plays Jerry, the driving A-type EVP of Account Services at the ad agency.

Leah Pinsent as Vanessa
Leah Pinsent is a multi-Gemini award winner and Genie nominee. An actress and writer, Leah lived in the US (NYC and LA) for half her life, but after surviving the two largest earthquakes in LA's history, decided to move back to her real home. Her TV credits include ReGenesis, Made in Canada and This Is Wonderland. Film credits include The Bay Boy with Liv Ullmann and Kiefer Sutherland, Waking the Dead with Jennifer Connelly and the upcoming The Bend. Leah’s daily life is filled with her love of cooking, spirituality (she's been meditating since age 11), ballroom dancing, volunteering and her three guys: her father, Gordon Pinsent; her actor husband, Peter Keleghan; and her cocker spaniel, Higgins. In Eating Buccaneers, Leah plays the role of Vanessa, the new-age art director with a knack for picking the wrong men.

Shannon Beckner as Andrea
A rising star, Shannon is currently finishing post work on her first action movie, Hybrid, from the producers of Terminator 3. This year she won her first National Canadian Comedy Award for her work with the sketch comedy troupe The Sketchersons. Previous credits include American Pie—Beta House, The Jane Show, and Charms For the Easy Life with Gena Rowlands and Mimi Rogers. She’s currently on air as a series lead on the satiric mockumentary-based sitcom, Punched Up on The Comedy Network and has just completed her second season playing Daphne on the hit comedy, Billable Hours. In Eating Buccaneers, Shannon plays Andrea, the perky junior account executive with wilderness survival training.

Steven McCarthy as Stewart
After graduating from Montreal’s renowned National Theatre School, Steven landed plum movie roles in Eye Of The Beholder with Ashley Judd and Ewan MacGregor, Soldier of Fortune directed by Jerry Bruckheimer, and Dear America on HBO. Steven is also a celebrated theatre actor having performed with the Necessary Angel Theatre company and at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Revisited, a play Steven co-wrote and performed, was recently awarded one of the Top Five Plays of the Year by Toronto's Now Magazine. Other recent credits include The Murdoch Mysteries, This Is Wonderland and Dead Mary. In Eating Buccaneers, Steven plays Stewart, the client brand manager who can’t make a decision without a focus group.

Jeff White as Doug
A relative new comer to comedy, Jeff’s natural comic abilities have landed him a reoccurring role in CBC's hit comedy Little Mosque on the Prairie. He is a graduate of the Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre in Stratford, Ontario and was a Stratford company member for the 2001 Festival season appearing in The Merchant of Venice, Love’s Labour’s Lost and Inherit The Wind. His film and television credits include Our Fathers with Ted Danson and Christopher Plummer, Resident Evil, Queer as Folk, Mayday, and The Session. Jeff lives and performs in both Vancouver and Toronto. In Eating Buccaneers, Jeff plays Doug, the irreverent, hot-shot copywriter with writer’s block.

Neil Crone as The Pilot
Neil currently stars in CBC’s hit sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie as Fred, the right wing radio host. A Second City alumnus, Neil has appeared in dozens of TV shows and feature films including Hairspray with John Travolta, Hollywoodland with Adrian Brody and Ben Affleck, Against The Ropes with Meg Ryan, and The Recruit with Al Pacino and Colin Farrell. A talented voice actor, Neil voices a number of characters in YTV's hit series Erky/Perky and the upcoming Adventures of Bob & Doug Mckenzie and Pearlie. He is also an award winning syndicated humour columnist for Metroland papers. In Eating Buccaneers, Neil plays The Pilot, the foul-mouthed flier who actually has more wisdom than the rest of the bunch.

Crew

Writer/Director: Bill Keenan
Executive Producers: Bill Keenan and Tracy Keenan
Producers: Mark Montefiore and Jennifer Mesich
Casting: Stephanie Gorin
DOP: Wes Legge
Editor: Andy Ames
Music: Ari Posner

Bill Keenan Writer/Director
Bill studied film and television at Ryerson University in Toronto before joining The Second City Touring Company where he performed and improvised comedy sketches throughout Ontario. Bill has also written comedy commercials—winning many international awards for his work—and had one of his TV campaigns directed by David Cronenberg. He co-wrote, directed and produced an 18-minute short comedy called The Homework Bureau that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (“a dead-on satire of television cop shows”). The Homework Bureau screened at film festivals around North America including Vancouver, Atlantic Canada, Boston, and Palm Springs (“a wonderful film”). The Homework Bureau was broadcast on The Comedy Network and Global Television (“hilarious”) in Canada, and won Best Original Story in a recent comedy shorts festival in Toronto. Bill makes his feature debut with Eating Buccaneers.

Mark Montefiore Producer
Mark is a young producer/creator, recently graduated from the Canadian Film Centre’s Producer Lab. He was nominated for the Ontario Premier’s Award for Most Successful Recent Graduate and a recipient of the Corus Entertainment Young Filmmakers Initiative. He’s made several award-winning short films, Back in ’93 and Career Day (both Bravo!FACTs). He has also created a live-action sitcom Ella and a prime-time drama Byron Bay, both in development with Decode Entertainment, and a late-night animated series in development with marblemedia called Ditch Pirates. Mark is also in development as a producer on several feature films including a hockey bio-pic directed by Bruce McDonald, a family adventure/comedy, Little Red Turnbuckle, and a documentary with CTV, Sammy, about a former classmate of Mark’s now serving a life-sentence in the USA for his role as a high level Al-Qaeda operative. Mark remains involved in the non-profit sector as well, line-producing a long format commercial for the child sponsorship organization Children International which took him to the slums of Colombia and Zambia in 2008.

Jennifer Mesich Producer
Jennifer has been fascinated with movies ever since her first membership at her hometown video store. Now a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre Producer’s Lab, and having produced the short film Night which has played at numerous film festivals, Jennifer is proud to have her first feature film Eating Buccaneers coming to theatres this fall. Jennifer studied filmmaking at Niagara College then moved to Toronto to work as the International Sales Coordinator at Cinemavault Releasing. While there, she traveled around the world to international film festivals and markets such as the Berlin Film Festival, American Film Market and the Cannes Film Festival. Now having recently completed her position on Casino Jack, starring Kevin Spacey and Barry Pepper, Jennifer is now in development on her next two feature films Tillsonburg and Grease My Spokes.

Stephanie Gorin Casting Director
Stephanie is a two-time Emmy nominated casting director (The Tudors) and two-time Gemini nominee (The Border and Being Erica). With her exhaustive knowledge of actors, both experienced and up-and-coming, Stephanie has: cast many high-profile film and TV projects including Moby Dick with William Hurt, Camp Rock with the Jonas Brothers, Saw II - VI, and Degrassi; co-cast Hairspray with John Travolta and Take The Lead with Antonio Banderas; and dance cast for Chicago with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere. Stephanie has also cast many of the top shows in Toronto’s theatre district including We Will Rock You, The Sound of Music, Boys in the Photograph, Mamma Mia, and Beauty and the Beast.

Wes Legge Director of Photography
Wes is a talented young DOP who has photographed a wide range of projects. He started shooting 2nd unit work on TV series like The Wilkinsons and Crystal: Living the Dream before progressing to full DOP status on a series of Canadian Film Centre and BravoFACT shorts. Recently, Wes has been busy shooting The Tara Diaries, a TV documentary series and Three Chords from the Truth, a Movie Central 10 part comedy series. Eating Buccaneers is his first feature film.

Andy Ames Editor
Andy is one of the top TV commercial editors in Canada and co-founder of Panic and Bob, the country’s foremost post-production company. He specializes in comedic storytelling spots and has won many international awards for his work. Over the past 20 years, Andy has edited TV spots with some of the top commercial and feature film directors in Canada and the U.S., including Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men), Vadim Perelman (The House of Sand and Fog) and Simon West (The General’s Daughter, Lara Croft—Tomb Raider). Advertising agency DDB Chicago and client Anheuser-Busch have entrusted Andy Ames to deliver the highest levels of editing excellence for Budweiser and Bud Light during the Super Bowl broadcasts—widely regarded as the crème de la crème for the television commercial industry. Eating Buccaneers is Andy’s first feature film.

Ari Posner Music Composer
Ari completed an Honours Fine Arts degree in Music at York University in Toronto. With a strong background in classical and popular piano, his studies at York focused on jazz performance, composition and music for film and television under the direction of renowned composer Paul Hoffert. Posner now composes an eclectic variety of music for series television, feature and documentary films, as well as radio and TV commercials through Pirate Toronto, Canada’s premier audio post house for commercials. Ari is one half of a composing duo that has been nominated for a prime time Emmy for outstanding Main Title Music on Disney's animated series Get Ed (2006). They won a Gemini for their underscore on Decode's animated series King (2005), and currently share composing duties on CTV/CBS’s hit drama, Flashpoint. Ari is also a celebrated music producer, having produced the Juno award winning children's album Music Soup (2008).