Indigenous multidisciplinary artist embraces new role on CBC’s new one-hour drama series
By Rick Garrick
TORONTO—Indigenous multidisciplinary artist Tamara Podemski is enjoying her role on Coroner, CBC’s new one-hour drama series that premiered on Jan. 7 in the 9 p.m. Monday time slot.
“We’re halfway through the season — it’s been a great experience for me,” Podemski says, noting that eight episodes are scheduled for this season. “I had a really great time working on the show, I’ve had a really great time watching the show and it seems that people are responding to it well and enjoying it along with us.”
Podemski says her role as Alison Trent, the coroner’s officer, was not written as an Indigenous role.
“I just had a particular take on her and I think as an artist and just as a woman I carry my Indigeneity with me wherever I go,” Podemski says. “So it’s not in the script anywhere, I don’t even think it has been mentioned once, but I know I have a backstory of who she is and why she came to the coroner’s office to do the work. We’re in a time right now as Indigenous people where our lives are sometimes in the hands of these departments to deliver justice. So for me, that is a very clear connection of why my character of Alison Trent may have found herself in the coroner’s office.”
Podemski says her character is “very good” at her job.
“She works very hard and she takes her job very seriously,” Podemski says. “She understands that people’s lives are dependent on their findings and I really enjoy playing somebody with that much commitment and devotion and respect for their job.”
Coroner was the highest rated new drama series premiere on CBC in more than four years, and it premiered as Universal TV’s highest-ever rated series launch in the UK. Coroner reached 2 million in Canada and delivered an average minute audience of more than one million viewers for each episode on CBC, according to Numeris confirmed data. The series also ranked in the top 30 television programs in English Canada for two consecutive weeks.
“It is a very positive response — it seems that people are enjoying the characters,” Podemski says. “The show looks amazing, it’s beautiful to watch, it’s very filmic. It’s a cast of really good actors so you get some great performances. It speaks to so many different people, so if you like the family drama part of it there’s that, if you like the crime and mystery there is that, and if you like some of the medical procedural stuff there is that. So there is a little bit of everything in it for everyone.”
Podemski began performing along with her sisters in their home and attended a performing arts school in Toronto from eight to 18-years-old.
“I had some really great training and I had a really supportive environment to foster my talent,” Podemski says, noting that her big break came when she auditioned for a music video directed by Bruce McDonald, who hired her a few months later for a role in Dance Me Outside. “After Dance Me Outside, we had a spinoff series called The Rez and it just created momentum.”
Coroner was inspired by the best-selling series of books by M.R. Hall and is produced by Muse Entertainment, Back Alley Films and Cineflix Studios.
“We are exhilarated to see how audiences are responding to Coroner’s unique take on character-driven drama elevated by an awesomely talented ensemble cast,” says showrunner Morwyn Brebner and lead director and executive producer Adrienne Mitchell. “We can’t wait for audiences to see where we take Jenny Cooper for the rest of our inaugural season and beyond.”