Jackie English is a Canadian television host, actress, dancer, choreographer, director, filmmaker and performer. She is best known for hosting the TVOntario children's block TVOKids, writing/directing the Telefilmfeature filmBecoming Burlesque and performances on TV and stage at theatres throughout Ontario and Toronto incl. Mirvish Panasonic, Petrolia Playhouse, Huron County etc.
After leaving the corporate world, English became a host of TVOKids, TVOntario's after school block of children's programs, alongside Milton Barns, Mark Sykes and Nicole Stamp, and later Ryan Fields. English appeared in live interstitial breaks between shows such as Art Attack, Arthur, Dino Dan and The Magic School Bus. During these segments she would talk to viewers, perform original characters including Jigsaw Jill and interview noteworthy Canadians including Robert Munsch and Perdita Felician. English also appeared in number of original TVO Kids series BOD TV, as Artbot in Artbot, Nifty Girl in Super Citizens, the mayor in The Reading Rangers, and was the in-house choreographer for music videos. Later English became the on-location host to in-studio hosts Kara Harun and Dalmar Abuzeid, where she reported on kids news including interviewing Chris Bosh, visiting Cirque du Soleil and the ROM. Best known was her 40 episodes of the series Jackie's School of Dance which was nominated for two A.C.T. Awards. In 2008 English co-opened a theatre space and bar in Kensington Market called the Bread and Circus which hosted festivals such as NXNE, the Toronto Fringe Festival, Canadian Music Week. She performed there in the first fringe festival hit by Hein and Sankoff which she performed produced by Mirvish Production at the Panasonic Theatre]. English was an actor, assistant director and choreographer in this production. In 2011 Jackie English wrote and directed her first film, a one minute short film called NIMBY which won first prize at the Toronto Urban Film Festival where judge Atom Egoyan called it "extraordinary." She then started a film collective called The Splinter Unit which produced 8 films, including Out directed by Jeremy Lalonde, which premiered at TIFF. In 2017 English's first feature film Becoming Burlesque, starring Shiva Negar with the support of Telefilm, premiered at Whistler Film Festival. The film was the opening film at the Canadian Film Festival and won Best Film at the Tryon Film Festival in North Carolina before its Canadian and American Theatrical release, followed by digital distribution in North America on iTunes and Amazon. English was declared a Canadian Director To Watch by Broadway World. As an actress, English has appeared in TV series CBC's Frankie Drake Mysteries, new Netflix Series Dare Me, Rookie Blue, and Beauty and the Beast. As a choreographer English created 60 episodes of TFO series Minivers, dances for Second City MainStage, I, Martin Short, Goes Home.
