Ennis Esmer will star in the second season of comedy series Children Ruin Everything. The Turkish-Canadian actor, comedian, writer, presenter and producer has played a variety of roles since he started acting in 2003.
Nominated for several actor and comedy awards, Esmer won a shared Canadian Filmmakers Festival award for best ensemble cast. He received this for his role in the 2015 comedy film How To Plan an Orgy in a Small Town.
Ennis Esmer launches television career on the “Toronto Show”
Esmer’s first big opportunity came as writer and host of the Toronto Show. A variety show showcasing Canadian musical and comedian talent, Esmer shot 120 shows in just five months. His first significant film role came with 2004’s Decoys. Esmer jokes that the role would have come as a surprise to his Turkish immigrant parents: “I know that they brought me here for different opportunities, but I don’t think they imagined that getting [killed] by an alien in a science-fiction comedy would be one of the opportunities I’d have,” he says.
2006 saw Esmer get proper recognition for his recurring role in the Gemini-awards winning comedy series Billable Hours. His next major role came in the popular Canadian fantasy-drama series The Listener. Esmer received nominations for an ACTR award and two Canadian comedy awards for his performance as paramedic Osman ‘Oz’ Bey.
A series regular on the shows You Me Her, Private Eyes, Red Oaks, and Blindspot, Esmer enjoys playing roles not defined by his ethnicity. In Amazon’s Red Oaks, he plays a Turkish tennis instructor: “It’s fun to play a character who is a pretty decent representation of my ethnicity…His ethnicity doesn’t define the role, and he gets to be a full person aside from that, and in fact, because of that,” he says.
Ennis Esmer learned English from “Sesame Street”
Born in Ankara, Turkey, Esmer moved to Toronto, Canada with his family at the age of three. As a child, Esmer learned English watching Canadian tv shows such as Sesame Street and Today’s Special. His first introduction to acting came in drama class at school, playing several characters in Little Shop of Horrors.
Acting became a way for Esmer, an “overweight, emotional kid whose second language was English”, to overcome his insecurities: “Once I figured out how to make fun of myself before anyone else could, I was good to go,” he says.
Esmer took improv and experimental theater classes at his secondary school. Elected to the student council, he put on miniature talent shows during the school assemblies. The site of his first comedy skit, Esmer sees these experiences as laying important foundations for what would later become his career.
In addition to acting, Esmer spends his spare time involved in various charities, focusing on homelessness, poverty, children and reading.
Ennis Esmer in “Children Ruin Everything”
Esmer now stars in the second season of Children Ruin Everything at Canadian broadcaster CTV. Created by Schitt’s Creek’s Kurt Smeaton, the series returns with 16 episodes and stars Meaghan Rath and Aaron Abrams. The comedy explores the daily trials and tribulations of living with children.
Chuck Tatham, one of the producers behind the highly popular shows Arrested Development and Modern Family, executive produces the show. Mark Montefiore, the other executive producer and president of New Metric Media, had this to say about it: “I say this as a proud father, we are thrilled at how well Children Ruin Everything has been received, which is further proof that children really are the root of all evil.”
Watch the show here.
