Brenda Kamino is an actress who has performed on many of Canada’s best known stages for 40 years creating many roles in new plays for Cahoots Theatre Projects, Theatre Passe Muraille, Factory Theatre, YPT, Alberta Theatre Projects, the Prairie Theatre Exchange, fu-Gen Theatre, Nightwood Theatre; Kamino has also spent a season at the Shaw Festival as well as performing at the Royal Alex, National Arts Centre and Centaur Theatre in Montreal. Her theatrical career includes the Dora Award Nominated Naomi’s Road, Bachelor Man, Maja Ardal’s Her-2, Ken Williams suicide notes and Rick Shiomi’s ground breaking Yellow Fever. She has made over 100 guest and lead TV, film and radio performances, notably in John Greyson’s movie musical about AIDS, Zero Patience and The Glass Castle starring Brie Larsen as well as appearing in the episodic television series Lost Girl and Degrassi the Next Generation.
Since the 80s, Kamino has been a cultural activist on behalf of non-mainstream performers and for this work, she received the Canadian Actors’ Equity Association’s LARRY McCANCE AWARD. She founded Emerald City Theatre Company, having produced the ground-breaking non-traditionally cast production of Noel Coward’s Private Lives at Factory Theatre starring the late Denis Simpson. Brenda was the Chair of the Non-Traditional Casting Committee of CAEA which spearheaded a National Symposium on Non-traditional Casting ‘Talent Over Tradition.’
Kamino’s volunteer work has included theatre juries at every level, boards of theatre companies such as CanStage and Modern Times, the Executive of CAEA, Theatre Ontario’s Professional Theatre Training Program, and she was also on the Theatre Performance Advisory at Humber College for twelve years. She teaches acting to professional and community actors, adjudicates at festivals, coaches, lectures and serves on panels and juries whenever possible and is a mentor to many young theatre artists.
