Ella Ballentine
Canadian actress, Ella Ballentine was born in 2001, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is the recipient of the Canadian Screen Award (2018), Runner-up of the Fangoria Chainsaw Award (2017), Honourable Mention of the Whistler Film Festival (2020).
Ella started her film career in a Hallmark TV movie, Baby's First Christmas (2012), starring Casper Van Dien. Since then she has played leading and supporting roles alongside such distinguished actors as Susan Sarandon (The Calling (2014)), Martin Sheen (Anne of Green Gables (2016), L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables: The Good Stars (2017), L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables: Fire & Dew (2017)), Ryan Reynolds and Rosario Dawson (The Captive (2014)), Laurence Fishburne and Thomas Jane (Standoff (2016)), and Zoe Kazan in the critically acclaimed feature, The Monster (2016). Ella's lead performance in the feature, Black Conflux (2019) received great reviews from across the press and earned her an Honourable Mention from the Whistler Film Festival (2020). The feature, The Dark and the Wicked (2020) starring, Marin Ireland and Michael Abbott Jr. teamed her up second time with director Bryan Bertino. Films in which Ella has appeared have won several awards and have been screened at a number of film festivals, including Cannes, Santa Barbara, St. John's, Whistler, Tribeca, Montreal, Sitges, etc.
Ella's television experience includes roles in the historical fantasy Reign (2013) and on the medical drama series Saving Hope. She played a guest starring role in The Detail: It Takes a Village (2018). Her role as the iconic character of Anne Shirley in L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables: Fire & Dew (2017) earned Ella her first award, the Canadian Screen Award in 2018.
Ella's theatre career encompasses independent and professional productions staged in her native Toronto, beginning with The Railway Children (Roundhouse Theatre, 2010) and then Numbers (Toronto Fringe Festival, 2013). Her triple-threat role in Numbers earned her the first of many award nominations for excellence by a young performer in film, theatre, and music. Ella was one of the young actors chosen to play the coveted role of Little Cossette/Young Éponine in Mirvish Productions' Les Miserables (Princess of Wales, 2013-2014), starring Ramin Karimloo and Earl Carpenter.