She has graced the screen in the cult classic movie Napoleon Dynamite. Received a Gemini award for her role in the immensely popular supernatural TV drama The Collector. Is venturing into a new, real-life role as a producer.  And is a spokesperson for the venerable Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Yet in spite of a host of successes that would give most of us swelled
egos, Ellen Dubin, LEFT, appreciates it all and definitely remembers who
helped her along the way.

“I never forget who gave me my first jobs,” the attractive, Toronto-born actor-producer says.

“I always love coming back and doing repeat business for those producers.”

To that end, Dubin just wrapped up a movie role for A Teacher’s Crime, a film that will air on the Lifetime Network. It was produced by the same producer who gave her the very first role she played in a movie.

She keeps busy, dividing her time between Toronto, Los Angeles and Vancouver.

In addition to A Teacher’s Crime, Dubin recently completed her first gig as a producer for a movie called Lost and Found, now in post-production. And she also lent her voice as a narrator for a series of sci-fi/fantasy books.

“The character I played spoke so low and gravelly, I had to drink warm water and honey in between recordings,” she says.

Dubin is funny and vivacious, and quite comfortably reveals these gifts on the big and little screen. Although she often appears in dramas, she has a knack for injecting humour into her roles.

“Like life, nothing is black and white in acting – no character is entirely serious or funny,” says Dubin, who has also appeared in such shows and films as Lexx, Highlander: The Raven, Dead Zone and A Wrinkle in Time.

In a drama, she finds the lighter moments, “so when the heavy dramatic section occurs, you can surprise the audience and take them in a different direction,” she says.

It was, in fact, a ballet teacher who helped take Dubin in the direction of acting.

She was a shy kid, and her father, Carl, and her mother, Rose, who incidentally was a director of the Leah Posluns Theatre school, enrolled their daughter in a ballet class to help her come out of her shell.

The ballet teacher was tough as nails, but also had a keen eye for talent and after seeing Dubin showcase comedic antics on stage, suggested that acting was in the cards.

“She told me that I had the ability to move an audience to tears and also make them laugh,” Dubin says.

So she began acting in school, did small-town theatre, summer stock and paid her dues.

“I always tried to keep studying and learning new things – singing, improv, comedy – [and then] taking the leap and moving to the United States to really learn the business of acting,” she says.

“I never think of myself as well-known. I just want to work, and I think if you have that frame of mind, it is a better way to focus on a career in acting.”

So what’s next for the nearly six-foot-tall thespian?

The film she produced will be entered into festivals and is slated to air on Bravo. Other films, including Abducted, The Perfect Neighbour and The Wives He Forgot, can be seen on the Movie Network. And when she isn’t acting or producing, quality time with her husband, Jay Switzer, the former president of CHUM Television and a well-known media consultant, is cherished.

Wherever she is and whatever she is doing, you can be sure Dubin and the team working with her will be laughing together.