That which is impenetrable to us really exists. Behind the secrets of nature remains something subtle, intangible, and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion.”
-Albert Einstein
William Shatner Sings O Canada
Jacob Medjuck, Director, Paul McNeill, Producer
A former DreamWorks animator and stand-up comedian, Jacob Medjuck wrote, directed and acted in Summerhood, a John Cusack-narrated feature comedy that has won audience awards around the world and earned a special screening at Pixar. Jacob is also the founder of Film Raiser, a unique distribution company that enables schools and charities to fundraise by selling tickets to award-winning independent movies.
William Shatner
2011 Lifetime Artistic Achievement (Screens and Voices (formerly Broadcasting and Film))
Actor, director, producer, writer, spokesman and philanthropist
William Shatner is one of Canada’s most celebrated cultural icons. In a wide-ranging career spanning six decades, he has recreated himself many times over, each time revealing a new alter ego who seems to completely define him for the moment. Famous for his roles as Captain James Kirk in the original Star Trek TV series and attorney Denny Crane on The Practice and Boston Legal, he has starred in five TV series (Star Trek, T.J. Hooker, The Practice, Boston Legal, and Third Rock from the Sun) and more than 30 films, including Judgment at Nuremberg, seven Star Trek movies, Airplane II: The Sequel, and Miss Congeniality. He is an award-winning actor, accomplished director, best-selling author, and dedicated philanthropist and environmentalist whose compassion, creativity, and irrepressible sense of humour are integral to his life and work.
He has written fiction and non-fiction, released several albums, made close to 100 guest appearances on TV, and raised millions of dollars for charity. He currently hosts three TV series (Aftermath, Shatner’s Raw Nerve, and Weird or What?) and several websites, and plays the irascible father on the hit show $#*! My Dad Says and the dramatically persuasive “Negotiator” for the discount travel site priceline.com. He is also working on an album, a book, and an autobiographical documentary.
“I’m an actor, a performer,” he says. “There’s nothing I’d rather be doing. I love to entertain, to make people laugh and cry. I love to create the vehicles to do that, or at least to contribute to that.”
Mr. Shatner was born in Montreal in 1931 and obtained a BA in Commerce from McGill University, where he acted in student theatre and radio productions. In the late 1950s he appeared at the Stratford Festival and on Broadway, and made his film debut in The Brothers Karamazov (1957).
Awards and honours include two Emmys, for The Practice (2004) and Boston Legal (2005); Golden Globe (2005); Streamy Award, Best Reality Web Series (2009); Banff World Television Festival Lifetime Achievement Award (2010); inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1983) and Canada’s Walk of Fame (2000).