sara canning

Canadian actress Sara Canning is known to fans of the supernatural for playing Jenna Sommers in five seasons of The Vampire Diaries between 2009 and 2017, to medical drama fans for her award-winning role as Dr Melissa Conner in Remedy, and to comedy fans for playing Arthur Poe’s secretary Jacquelyn Scieszka in the acclaimed A Series of Unfortunate Events TV series. Her film credits include War for the Planet of the Apes and Black Field among many others.

Canning was born in Newfoundland, Canada, in July 1987. Her initial passion was figure skating, and she competed in events until her teens when acting took over. She made her professional stage debut aged 18 and trained at the Vancouver Film School. In 2008, she found an agent and began appearing in television productions in Canada, with early roles including playing Paris Hilton’s sister Nicky in a biopic about the hotel heiress. In 2009, she got her major break, being cast in The Vampire Diaries, a supernatural series that became essential viewing for millions of supernatural fantasy fans. Her character, Jenna, starred in the first two seasons before being killed off, but she returned to appear in further series.

Canning’s work on the medical drama Remedy between 2014 and 2015 won her two Best Actress Awards — a Leo and a UBCP/ACTRA Award. She would be nominated for further Leos for her work on A Series of Unfortunate Events, Hell on Wheels, and the TV movie, On the Farm. Over the last couple of years, she has worked mainly on television films and currently has several projects in post-production.