Pronto Toronto: from Degrassi to Being Erica

This week’s epsiode of Being Erica saw the return of Lauren Collins (best known for playing Paige on Degrassi)!

As with all Canadian shows, we’ve seen a lot of familiar faces on Being Erica. Below are the Degrassi stars we’ve seen on Being Erica!

Paula Brancati

The ultimate accomplishment. Paula Brancati was a series regular on both Degrassi & Being Erica at the same time. While it’s impressive she was on two shows, what’s more impressive is on the shows she played ages 17 and 32, respectively.

 Jane Vaughn (Degrassi)                                     Jenny Zalen (Being Erica)

John Bregar

Dylan Michalchuk (Degrassi)                                 Barrett (Being Erica)

Aubrey Graham

Jimmy Brooks (Degrassi)                                 Ken (Being Erica)

Cory Lee

Ms. Oh (Degrassi)                                 Chantel (Being Erica)

Lauren Collins

Has appeared in two episodes as Young Barb (Erica’s mother).

Paige Michalchuk (Degrassi)                                 Young Barb Strange (Being Erica)

Jake Goldsbie

Jake Goldsbie, Jake Epstein, & Alexandria Benoit were all in the same episode together.

Toby Isaacs (Degrassi)                                 Beezer (Being Erica)

Jake Epstein

Craig Manning (Degrassi)                                 Malcolm Abrams (Being Erica)

Alexandria Benoit

Sadie Rowland (Degrassi)                                 Rachel Zimmerman (Being Erica)

Shannon Kook-Chun

Rich Taiwanese playboy partier of undetermined age. Everything he did was hilarious.

Zane Park (Degrassi)                                 Kendrick Kwan (Being Erica)

Adamo Ruggiero

Adamo has made two appearances as Brant’s assistant at River Rock Publishing.

Marco Del Rossi (Degrassi)                                 Luis (Being Erica)

Tamara Duarte

While I don’t actually like Charlie on Degrassi (recurring character), Tamara Duarte’s guest spot on Being Erica is one of the funniest things I’ve seen. She played a Latina Floridian that gets in a fight with her cheating boyfriend & Jenny (Paula Brancati).

Her whole scene is throwing things & yelling in Spanish. It is amazing.

Charlie (Degrassi)                                 Rando (Being Erica)

This Week’s Favorite Guest Stars

Some very exciting guest stars this week!

Katie Leclerc from Switched at Birth (Daphne Vasquez) was on The Big Bang Theory! I was so excited to see her. I can’t wait for Switched at Birth to come back.

Cousin Emily (90210) showed up for a few seconds on Suburgatory!

Detective Jo Rosati from Rookie Blue (Camille Sullivan) guest starred on The Secret Circle

Kelly Parker from Make It Or Break It (Nicole Gale Anderson) and Grace Bowman from The Secret Life of the American Teenager (Megan Park) appeared as mean girls in Happy Endings

The Newest Recruit of 15 Division

Look who showed up as a new recruit on the Season 2 Finale of Rookie Blue!

It’s Shannon Kook-Chun, better known as Zane Park from Degrassi!

I believe this now the fifth Degrassi actor to guest star on Rookie Blue, all in the second season. Another classic “keeping it in the Canada!” Who can forget Cory Lee (Ms. Oh) & Samantha Munro (Anya MacPherson) in episode 206? Jordan Todosey (Adam Torres) appeared in 204. And John Bregar (Dylan Michalchuk) in 209.

Castle Guest Stars: One Life to Lose

This past week’s Castle was centered around a murder at a fictional daytime soap. As a result, several actual soap stars made guest appearances. And some very exciting non-soap actors guest starred too!

Rebecca Budig

Greenlee from All My Children

Tina Majorino

Mac from Veronica Mars

Jane Seymour

This Week’s Favorite Guest Stars

François Chau (Lost’s Dr. Pierre Chang) guest starred on The Chicago Code as the head of Chicago’s Chinatown, Chairman Lao.

Lee Thompson Young joined The Event as Corporal Bell. One of the Inostranka guards.

I literally laughed out loud when Zoie Palmer (Lauren from Lost Girl) showed up on Degrassi as a police officer. From one Canadian show to another!

 

Ken Leung on The Good Wife

This past week on The Good Wife (“Great Firewall”) featured a guest appearance by Ken Leung. Leung played Shen Yuan, who was suing a blogware company for revealing his IP address to Chinese officials, which resulted in his imprisonment and torture for over five years. Out favorite law firm, Lockhart, Gardner & Bond were representing him.

The subject matter was nothing new, as this plot was a “ripped from the headlines” sort of deal. But one thing I was really impressed with was Ken Leung himself! His character spoke English with a slight-to-moderate Chinese accent. And he did it to PERFECTION. I was seriously in awe.

So many times we see those ridiculous just-for-laughs (or in our case, just-to-offend) thick caricature accents. For someone who himself does not speak with an accent, Ken Leung did an AWESOME job for the specific character he was supposed to play. The accent sounded so real and just RIGHT. Probably because I’ve heard it within my own family and Leung probably has too.

10,000 points for you, Ken Leung! You are the man!

This Week’s Favorite Guest Stars

This week had some excellent guest stars. Some favorites highlighted below:

America Ferrera as Natalie Flores on The Good Wife

Chloe Moretz as Kaylie Hooper on 30 Rock

Laura Breckenridge (from Related & I just remembered she was on Gossip Girl too!) on Grey’s Anatomy

Adrian Pasdar looking very Nathan Petrelli in his suit as Agent Mark Fallon on Castle