View for person of id: 61159
Billy Merasty
Born: 1st Jan 1960 Brochet, Manitoba, Canada
Dept: Acting
Billy Merasty is an actor, playwright, Cree translator, and language keeper. He was born to Viola and Pierre Merasty in 1960 in Brochet, Manitoba. His grandfather was Joe Highway, a famous caribou hunter and champion dogsled racer. He moved to Toronto at age eighteen in search for his uncle René Highway, who was at the time working for the Toronto Dance Theatre. At age twenty-three Billy launched his acting career after graduating from the Native Theatre School for aspiring Indigenous artists. He then went on to work for the renowned Indigenous performing arts company Native Earth Performing Arts. Billy has worked as a film, television, and stage actor for decades and notably played the first Indigenous gay character on television on the CBC series, Liberty Street, in the role of Nathan. Billy received the Order of Manitoba (Order of the Buffalo Hunt) in recognition for his many years as an Indigenous role model in 2010.
[ToDo] Show list of extra photos here.
Film and Tv Credits
Total number of credits listed: 41
Film: 26 (63%)
Television: 15 (37%)
Remaining genres not in graph: Thriller, Music, Action & Adventure, Family, Horror, War & Politics
Filmography
2024
An idyllic childhood with her mooshum and kookum, or grandparents, in her community of Peguis First Nation dissipates as Aberdeen’s hard-partying an ... view
Character:
Alfred
2023
In a small Saskatchewan town in the 1960s, Yvette Wong, a young girl of Chinese and Cree heritage, struggles with her Indigenous identity amidst famil ... view
Character:
Amos Horseknife
Oct 2022 (first aired)
After a botched attempt to move to Winnipeg, Paul retreats back to his eccentric family in the fly-in community of Grouse Lake First Nation. ... view
Character:
Roger Laughingstick (40 ep.)
Original title: Ananghoonska
2022
Set within the fluidity of time, touch, realism and reverie. Some may call this magic realism. Based within Indigenous knowledge and way of life, this ... view
Character:
Auntie 1
Jul 2022 (first aired)
Life, death and drama at 20,000 feet. The series weaves together intense character journeys and high-stakes medical rescues, as we follow the triumphs ... view
Character:
Glen (1 ep.)
2019
As MITZI BEARCLAW turns 25 years-old, she is faced with a tragic decision – stay in the big city to pursue her dream of designing hats or leave her ... view
Character:
William Bearclaw
2019
27 years after overcoming the malevolent supernatural entity Pennywise, the former members of the Losers' Club, who have grown up and moved away from ... view
Character:
Shokopiwah Man
Mar 2019 (first aired)
Follow Marcie Diggs, a star corporate lawyer who reconsiders her priorities after her beloved aunt commits suicide following a malicious prosecution. ... view
Character:
Chief Thomas (1 ep.)
2018
A world-famous Anishinaabe musician returns to the reserve to rest and recharge — only to discover that fame (and the outside world) are not easily ... view
Character:
Draven
Jan 2017 (first aired)
Detective John Cardinal attempts to uncover the mystery of what happened to the missing 13-year-old girl whose body is discovered in the shaft-head of ... view
Character:
Billy Ralph Northwind (1 ep.)
2013
Mohawk Chief John Norton and 80 Grand River warriors hold off American soldiers until reinforcements arrive and the Battle of Queenston Heights is won ... view
Character:
John Norton
May 2011 (first aired)
The sole survivor of a lost whaling ship relates the tale of his captain's self-destructive obsession to hunt the white whale, Moby Dick. ... view
Character:
Tashtego (4 ep.)
2010
Based on a true story, a hot shot Washington DC lobbyist and his protégé go down hard as their schemes to peddle influence lead to corruption and mu ... view
Character:
Bartender
2009
Hoping to leave behind troubled days in the Baltimore city police department, Nate Burns journeys to Alaska, where he takes up a quiet life as a small ... view
Character:
Jacob
Jan 2008 (first aired)
A Victorian-era Toronto detective uses then-cutting edge forensic techniques to solve crimes, with the assistance of a female coroner who is also stru ... view
Character:
Gravekeeper Gary Cardinal (1 ep.)
Nov 2007 (first aired)
A widowed Ukrainian plumber and a widowed Cree waitress fall madly in love resulting in a riotous fireworks display of conflicts with friends and fami ... view
Character:
Mark (13 ep.)
Jul 2007 (first aired)
Moose TV is a Canadian television sitcom, airing on Showcase in the 2007-08 television season.
The show stars Adam Beach as George Keeshig, a Cree fr ... view
Character:
Unknown/various (8 ep.)
2007
Beginning just after the bloody Sioux victory over General Custer at Little Big Horn, the story is told through two unique perspectives: Charles Eastm ... view
Character:
Young Man Afraid
Sep 2006 (first aired)
Fictionalized portrayal of the conflict and standoff in Kanehsatake during the summer of 1990. This major conflict between a Mohawk community and muni ... view
Character:
John Cree (2 ep.)
2005
A drama about explorer John Smith and the clash between Native Americans and English settlers in the 17th century. ... view
Character:
Kiskiak
2005
To remedy his financial problems, a travel agent has his eye on a frozen corpse, which just happens to be sought after by two hitmen. ... view
Character:
Cam
Original title: Nouvelle-France
2004
In the mid-18th Century, as England and France battle over control of Canada, an epic romance between a peasant woman and a trapper unfurls ... view
Character:
Owashak
Mar 2004 (first aired)
Jaye Tyler, a recent Brown University graduate with a philosophy degree, holds a dead-end job as a sales clerk at a Niagara Falls gift shop. Jaye is t ... view
Character:
Jerry (1 ep.)
Jan 2004 (first aired)
Alice De Raey is a newly minted attorney who joins the chaotic world of criminal justice in Toronto. She's exposed to the seamier side of life, the ba ... view
Character:
Brian Perot (as William Merasty) (1 ep.)
2000
A young girl is plucked from small-town obscurity and thrust into the spotlight of the glamorous world of super-models. ... view
Character:
2000
A cowboy finds himself betrayed by his best friend and must choose between bringing him to justice and alienating the pretty schoolteacher he is in lo ... view
Character:
Lee Talltrees
Sep 1999 (first aired)
Sydney Fox is a professor and globe-trotting "relic hunter" who looks for ancient artifacts to return to museums and/or the descendants of the origina ... view
Character:
Inuit Hunter (1 ep.)
1998
This all-Native production, by director Shelley Niro (Mohawk), is part of the Smoke Signals new wave of films that examine Native identity in the 1990 ... view
Character:
Zachary John
Original title: Le Confessionnal
1995
Pierre Lamontagne has returned to Quebec to attend his father's funeral. He meets up with his adopted brother, Marc, who has begun questioning his ide ... view
Character:
Moose
1995
Englishmen come to explore and settle the new world. There they find natives who are curious about their "firesticks" and strange customs. ... view
Character:
Kocoum
1995
A mixed group of adventurers searches for Esperanza, a legendary gold treasure, in the Yukon territory in this Jack London-based tale. ... view
Character:
Mawaki
Jan 1995 (first aired)
Liberty Street was a Canadian drama television series, which aired on CBC Television in 1995.
Produced by Kit Hood and Linda Schuyler, the team behin ... view
Character:
Nathan Jones (26 ep.)
Jan 1995 (first aired)
The Canadian contribution to World War Two was extraordinary in scale and variety. More than one million people, out of nation of just eleven million, ... view
Character:
Unknown/various (7 ep.)
1994
In the upscale Toronto strip club Exotica, dancer Christina is visited nightly by the obsessive Francis, a depressed tax auditor. Her ex-boyfriend, th ... view
Character:
Man at opera
1994
A man is asked by his parents to run an apartment complex they own and becomes acquainted with an intriguing hippie girl and various other people from ... view
Character:
Nathan Jones
1992
Fact-based story of an idealistic single dad who discovers that his beloved Native American adopted son is afflicted with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and c ... view
Character:
Frank Cree
1990
Three Ojibway Natives race to find a mystical ancestral spring before a ruthless industrialist claim it. ... view
Character:
Mathew Hare
1989
Donald Marshall is imprisoned for a murder he didn't commit. ... view
Character:
Donald Marshall, Jr.
Original title: Red Earth, White Earth
1989
Guy Pehrsson is summoned by his grandfather to return to the farming community of his childhood. He arrives from the City to find that his mother has ... view
Character:
Oct 1988 (first aired)
TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today. ... view
Character:
Warrior (1 ep.)