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6 TV Stars You Had No Idea Were Canadian

You may be surprised by some of these.
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A lot of the time it's super easy to assume that all your favourite movie and TV stars are American - that's where Hollywood is, after all! When you do some digging though, you may be surprised at just how many of them have Canadian roots. Canadians like Drake and Justin Bieber have taken the world by storm over the years, but there's plenty of others that deserve recognition too! Here are six Canadian TV stars you need to know about!

All the people on this list were either born in Canada, or grew up here. There's definitely some serious talent, and you may even find your favourite actor or actress:

Nathan Fillion

Castle star Nathan Fillion was born in Edmonton, Alberta. He's the youngest of two sons and spent most of his early childhood in the Mill Woods neighbourhood of Edmonton. He graduated from Holy Trinty Catholic High School, Concordia University College of Alberta, as well as the University of Alberta. He became a U.S. citizen in 1997.

Eugene Levy

You may recognize Eugene Levy from the Canadian classic Schitt's Creek, which he created and stars in with his son, Dan Levy. He was born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1946 into a Jewish family. Levy attended Westdale Secondary School and then went on to McMaster University, where he became vice-president of the McMaster Film Board.

Howie Mandel

Howie Mandel is basically the king of reality TV - he's been on Deal or No Deal and America's Got Talent, and has also had stints on other shows. He was born in the Willowdale area of Toronto and was actually expelled from high school for impersonating a school official. He worked as a stand up comic at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, and eventually went on to work in the industry in L.A.

Sandra Oh

A lot of us first fell in love with Sandra Oh when she took on the role of Christina Yang on Grey's Anatomy, but after finding out that she's Canadian, it's easy to love her even more. She was born in 1971, in Ottawa's Nepean suburb to middle-class parents that had immigrated from Korea. She began acting and ballet at the age of four and graduated from Sir Robert Borden High School.

Matthew Perry

You probably recognize Matthew Perry from his iconic role of Chandler Bing on Friends, but did you know that he's actually Canadian? He was born in Massachusetts, but his mother is a well-known Canadian journalist and former press secretary to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. He was raised in Ottawa and attended West Carleton Secondary School and Ashbury College.

Michael Cera

Michael Cera was born in Brampton, Ontario in 1988. He enrolled in acting classes at Second City Toronto after becoming obsessed with the profession when he saw Ghostbusters at the age of three. He attended Conestoga Public School, Robert H. Lagerquist Senior Public School, and Heart Lake Secondary School, but then completed grades 10-12 online.