Jana Gillis
Biography
Jana Gillis is a professional skit artist, comedian, and bagpiper from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Her skits have taken many forms over the years. Sometimes as short films (screened at SJIWFF, AIFF, The Nickel, HIFF, TOSketchFest & various Sci-Fi & Fantasy Conventions throughout Atlantic Canada); as plays (St. John’s Short Play Festival, Cape Breton Stage Company) as “sketches” (NL SketchFest, Is This a Bit?, Almost Baymous, The Second City Toronto Sketch Conservatory) and straight up make ‘em ups (St. John’s Improv, Extreme Improv XStreamed, Movie Night Productions). She’s also acted in longform television skits (Hudson & Rex, Son of a Critch, Astrid & Lilly Save the World, Hallmark’s Everything Christmas). Jana studied professional skitcraft and earned a red t-shirt with a chair on it from The Second City Toronto and a BFA in Theatre Acting from Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland. Her first short film, “Must Be a Zombie Apocalypse”, produced through the SJIWFF Inaugural FRAMED West filmmaking program screened at SJIWFF, HIFF and several Sci-Fi conventions throughout Atlantic Canada. Her second short, “Up Close & Personal” premiered at the FIN Atlantic International Film Festival. Her latest short comedy “Multiverse” was produced with the help of ACTRA Toronto’s YEAA Creates program and premiered at the Nickel Independent Film Festival. She likes telling strange stories in bite sized bits.
Known For & Full Filmography6 Titles
Drama Series - 2019, 16 episodes • as Deepfake woman #1
Detective Charlie Hudson teams up with what he calls his "highly trained law enforcement animal" German Shepherd dog named Rex who he prefers to team up with because he doesn't talk his ear off. Based on the Austrian–Italian series, Kommissar Rex.
Drama Series - 2019, 16 episodes • as Nancy
Detective Charlie Hudson teams up with what he calls his "highly trained law enforcement animal" German Shepherd dog named Rex who he prefers to team up with because he doesn't talk his ear off. Based on the Austrian–Italian series, Kommissar Rex.
Drama Series - 2022, 16 episodes • as Memoragatu
High school is hard enough when you're different, but when outcast BFFs Astrid and Lilly accidentally crack open a portal to a terrifyingly quirky monster dimension, it gets a lot more complicated. It's up to them to vanquish the creepy creatures and save the world, becoming the badass heroes they were meant to be. That is, if they can survive the horrors of high school.
Movie - 2018, 2h 15m • as Caroline
A young women craving attention in her relationship, finds a lump in her breast.
Movie - 2023, 2h 15m • as Julia
Christmas lover Lori Jo and her roommate head to Yuletide Springs for a longtime tradition to honor her late grandmother — and meet two men, Carl and Jason, along the way.
Movie - 2017, 2h 15m • as Mom
When Darrell, a lonely widower, leaves his house in the morning he has no intentions of returning. However, a chance run-in with a bright, hurting young girl might just be the thing to save him.