Billy Merasty

Actor

January 1, 1960 (66 years)

Brochet, Manitoba, Canada

Biography

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. H…

Filmography

6.5

American Experience

Warrior

TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

7.7

Murdoch Mysteries

Gravekeeper Gary Cardinal

A Victorian-era Toronto detective uses then-cutting edge forensic techniques to solve crimes, with the assistance of a female coroner who is also struggling for recognition in the face of tradition, based on the books by Maureen Jennings.

8.0

This Is Wonderland

Brian Perot (as William Merasty)

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 backroom deals that make the system work accompanied by the usual eccentric characters.

6.7

Relic Hunter

Inuit Hunter

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 original owner. She is aided by her linguistic assistant Nigel and occasionally by her somewhat air-headed secretary Claudia. She often ends up battling rival hunters seeking out artifacts for the money.

6.8

It Chapter Two

Shokopiwah Man

27 years after overcoming the malevolent supernatural entity Pennywise, the former members of the Losers' Club, who have grown up and moved away from Derry, are brought back together by a devastating phone call.

6.9

Cardinal

Billy Ralph Northwind

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 an abandoned mine. At the same time, he comes under investigation by his new partner, Lise Delorme, a tough investigator in her own right.

6.8

SkyMed

Glen

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, heartbreaks and tribulations of budding nurses and pilots flying air ambulances in remote Northern Canada. They’re all in over their heads, and on their own, with no one to rely on but each other.

6.8

Diggstown

Chief Thomas

Follow Marcie Diggs, a star corporate lawyer who reconsiders her priorities after her beloved aunt commits suicide following a malicious prosecution.

7.7

Wonderfalls

Jerry

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 the reluctant participant in conversations with various animal figurines — a wax lion, brass monkey, stuffed bear, and mounted fish, among others — which direct her via oblique instructions to help people in need.

6.6

Exotica

Man at Opera

In the upscale Toronto strip club Exotica, dancer Christina is visited nightly by the obsessive Francis, a depressed tax auditor. Her ex-boyfriend, the club's MC, Eric, still jealously pines for her even as he introduces her onstage, but Eric is having his own relationship problems with the club's female owner. Thomas, a mysterious pet-shop owner, is about to become unexpectedly involved in their lives.

6.5

The New World

Kiskiak

A drama about explorer John Smith and the clash between Native Americans and English settlers in the 17th century.

5.7

Moby Dick

Tashtego

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.

6.2

The Big White

Cam

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.

6.2

Battle of the Brave

Owashak

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

6.5

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Young Man Afraid

Beginning just after the bloody Sioux victory over General Custer at Little Big Horn, the story is told through two unique perspectives: Charles Eastman, a young, white-educated Sioux doctor held up as living proof of the alleged success of assimilation, and Sitting Bull the proud Lakota chief whose tribe won the American Indians’ last major victory at Little Big Horn.

N/A

Moose TV

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 from the fictional community of Moose in northern Quebec, who returns home after a decade living in Toronto to become manager of the local community television station. The cast also includes Gary Farmer, Jennifer Podemski, Nathaniel Arcand, Michelle Latimer, Diane Flacks and Billy Merasty. The show's head writer is Paul Quarrington. The series was directed by Tim Southam. Produced by Rezolution Pictures for the Showcase network in Canada, the series received the Indie Award for Best Comedy Series from the Canadian Film and Television Producers Association in 2008.

3.7

Liberty Street

Nathan Jones

Liberty Street was a Canadian drama television series, which aired on CBC Television in 1995. Produced by Kit Hood and Linda Schuyler, the team behind the long-running Degrassi series of television shows, Liberty Street was an attempt to create a similar series depicting the lives of a group of young adults living on their own for the first time. The pilot film, X-Rated, aired in 1994 and was developed into an 11-episode series. The cast included Henriette Ivanans, Joel Bissonnette, Billy Merasty, Kimberly Huie and Pat Mastroianni. Parts of the show were shot in and around the Liberty Village area of Toronto.

5.8

Casino Jack

Bartender

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 murder.

5.0

Acting Good

Roger Laughingstick

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.

7.0

Indian Summer: The Oka Crisis

John Cree

Fictionalized portrayal of the conflict and standoff in Kanehsatake during the summer of 1990. This major conflict between a Mohawk community and municipal, Quebec and Canadian governments was over the expansion of a golf course into an aboriginal cemetery. Based on the book by John Ciaccia (Quebec Liberal cabinet minister and negotiator) : The Oka Crisis, A Mirror of the Soul