The Cast
HAKIM BRAHIMI
Ramy
Born in Algiers, Algeria, Hakim Brahimi moved to Quebec, Canada when he was 10 years old. He speaks English, French and Arabic. He was cast as one of the principal characters in ANTIGONE (by Sophie Deraspe), Canada's submission for the Oscars. Without any prior acting training, MONTRÉAL GIRLS is his first leading role. He trained with director and Chi Energy acting coach Patricia Chica for a year to prepare for the role of RAMY. Currently, Hakim is studying Architecture at McGill University.
JASMINA PARENT
Désirée
Jasmina Parent studied theater at Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf, where she received the Vadim Schneider scholarship there. In 2017, she directed, wrote and coproduced her first short film Good Girl. This film was selected in official competition at the Fantasia Festival and the Rendez-Vous Québec Cinéma. The film will be distributed by the feminist company Groupe intervention video. Subsequently, she began a BAC in Film Production at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema (Concordia University). This is also where she received the Matthew Cesney Merit Scholarship. During her film studies, she appeared on television series (Lourd, District 31, Ruptures V), and in films (Genesis, The Fireflies Are Gone). In 2020, Jasmina then studied international relations at Sciences Po Paris as part of a student exchange. Acting as a photographer in Patricia Chica's film, she herself took the photographs for the film's exhibition scenes. In order to get ready for her role in Montréal Girls, Jasmina trained in Chi Energy with director and coach Patricia Chica.
SANA ASAD
Yaz
Sana Asad is a Toronto based film and television actress. A graduate of Ryerson’s School of Performance program, her work can be seen on CBC’s Kim’s Convenience, Netflix’s Workin’ Moms and most notably, she has worked with director Stacie Passon on the Amazon Prime and Starz’ production of American Gods. Sana can next be seen as the lead in iThentic’s web series pitch Get Up, Aisha and the upcoming feature film The Fight Machine by Raven Banner Entertainment, which was released at Fantasia in 2022.
JADE HASSOUNÉ
Tamer
Jade Hassouné was born in Lebanon but grew up in Switzerland, then in Montreal, where he spent most of his life. He studied at John Abbott College where he graduated in the Professional Theater program. He is also a member of the Canadian Film Center since 2012. He was a member of the dance group Enigma Dance Productions and together they participated in the TV show Canada's Got Talent where they arrived in the quarter finals. In 2011, Hassouné got his first acting role in the film Laurentie by Mathieu Denis and Simon Lavoie. In 2015, he got the role of Meliorn in the Shadowhunters series broadcast by Freeform and Netflix outside the United States. In 2016, he appeared in season 2 of the web series That's My DJ on YouTube and plays the role of Sam. The Season 3 focuses on his character Sam, which makes him the main actor in the series. He recently collaborated with Ubisoft Toronto to develop the video game Starlink: Battle For Atlas. In 2019, he released his EP Love Letter to a Fandom under the artistic name J4DE. Singles include Insta Story, To the Next, Living Right Now and Human.
NAHÉMA RICCI
Sophia
Nahéma is born in Montreal to Franco-Tunisian immigrant parents. She has recently completed her Dance as a profession 2018-2019 program at Danceworks school in Berlin (Germany). In 2017, Nahéma obtained a role in the feature film Ailleurs by Samuel Matteau (2017). Furthermore, she is the author, director, and interpreter of the play Identikit presented at the Fringe Festival in June 2019. In a near future, she will play Alix in an independent drama feature called Before El Finâ. Nahéma has played the lead role in the feature film Antigone by Sophie Desrape (2019). The movie has been awarded at many international festivals and it has been selected to represent Canada for Best International Film in the 2020 Oscars race. Recently, she won the Prix Iris Révélation de l’année at the 22nd Gala Québec Cinema, the Best Actress Award at the 2020 Canadian Screen Awards as well as the Interpretation Prize at the 2020 Whistler Film Festival.
MANUEL TADROS
Hani
Tadros was born in Cairo, Egypt to a Christian family. His first album Manuel Tadros which featured the song Un trésor de velours, topped the Quebec charts. Toward the end of the 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Tadros turned to writing songs for other artists, including the hit tune C'est zéro for Julie Masse. He also wrote for Véronic Dicaire, Roch Voisine, Nicole Martin, Patrick Norman and Natasha St-Pier and for shows including Cirque du Soleil's Alegria. At the beginning of the 1990s, Tadros diversified, doing voice-overs for movies and TV series. He acted on stage including in the 2001 play Roméo et Juliette, de la haine à l'amour. Tadros wrote the French versions of the music in Chicago in 2003 (including the French-language musical comedy adaptation of the film) and Nostalgia in 2004. He is the voice of Rodrigo Borgia in the Ubisoft game Assassin's Creed II and its follow-up Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood in addition to the short film Assassin's Creed: Lineage. He has dubbed close to 750 films and series. In 1996 he started his career as an actor especially in his son Xavier Dolan’s feature films (I Killed my Mother, Laurence Anyways, Tom at the Farm). In 1999, he played in Patricia Chica's short La Promesse. He is himself in the documentary Salut Dino by Jimmy Larouche. More recently, he plays in De père en fils by Émile Gaudreault, in Maryanne Zéhil’s 2019 comedy La face cachée du Baklava and Montréal Girls by Patricia Chica.
GUILLAUME RODRIGUE
Phénix
Graduate of the Conservatoire d'art dramatique de Montréal in 2013, Guillaume works with Catherine Vidal and Frédéric Gravel in Project Hotel (tour) presented by La deuxieme porte à Gauche. He was part of Les trois mousquetaires (2015) and Roméo et Juliette (2016) directed by Serge Denoncourt at the TNM. He also worked in Les Zurbains (2016) presented by Le Clou! We can hear him sing in the play Sylvie aime Maurice (2017) by Florence Longpré et will be part of the Moulin à musique upcoming show Nocturne ( 2017- 18). He's making his first appearance at the big screen in Et au pire on s'mariera (2017) directed by Léa Pool. Guillaume is thrilled to join Jeunesse Musicales Canada in 2017 for the new production Opera Candy: The Gourmet Adventure of Hansel and Gretel.
THOMAS VALLIÈRES
Etienne
Thomas Vallières has been training since 1999 in various acting and dance classes and recently graduated from LAMDA with a Masters in classical theatre. His stage credits include The horrifically real virtuality (m.e.s. Marie Jourdren), Pericles, Prince Of Tyre (dir. Rupert Hands), Last Ten Year (dir. Louise Shepherd), The Double Dealer (dir. Hannah Eidinow), Le jeu de l’amour et du hazard (dir. Isabelle Duperray), Don Juan (dir. Isabelle Duperray), A State Of Madness (dir. Penny Cherns) and many more. On TV, Thomas played recurring, leads and principal characters in shows like Un doute raisonnable II, Les yeux fermés, Ruptures (Radio-Canada), N.O.U.S., (Club illico), Piégés (addikTV), Nomades (Tou.TV). He has also acted in numerous movies such as Le guide de la famille parfaite (Ricardo Trogi), Morning After and Montréal Girls (Patricia Chica), Midway (Roland Emmerich) and many more. Thomas has lent his voice to many commercials (FIZZ, Loto-Québec, Subway etc.) and animation series such as The Dump saison I and II.
SIMON THERRIEN
Alphonse
Simon Therrien is a bilingual actor from Montreal, known for X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Le scaphandrier (2015), Ascension (2014) and Montréal Girls (2022).
MARINA HARVEY
Marie-Claude
Marina Harvey is a French-Canadian actress from Montreal, known for Montréal Girls (2022), Unité 9 (2012) and Mauves: Eh Fille (2018).
CHADI ALHELOU
Fahim
Born in Syria, Chadi Alhelou has worked as an actor and director in Montreal and Toronto since 2006. He also holds theatre workshops for teens. In 2013, he headed off to the Atme camp to install proper toilets and showers. He then realized that the children in the camp desperately needed to play. Besides playing the strict father of Fahim in Patricia Chica's Montréal Girls, he also acted as the Arabic dialect coach for the film.
NATALIE TANNOUS
Alya
Montreal-born bilingual actress Natalie Tannous is known for her work on stage and on screen. Her range has allowed her to portray as many characters in comedy or drama, in French, English, Arabic, or Spanish. 2023 promises to be a solid year for Natalie; Whether portraying a loving mother on her deathbed, a defense lawyer adamant in putting a child murderer behind bars, a nurse tending to a dying patient, an accountant trying to convince a priest to leave his church, a very strict mother unable to accept her daughter’s partner or in eccentric neighbor, Natalie dives into her characters and stories. Montreal Girls, Les chambres rouges, Le dernier repas, Le temps d’un été, Before we Were Told, Le ventre de Bassima are films in which you will see her shortly. She will also portray characters on TV in La Candidate, Sorcières, and Passe-Partout. Natalie is also the very eccentric, sensible, emotional, pill-pusher Mado in the play Mama presented at Just for Laughs 2023 after its huge 2022 success. She was seen in Birthmark, Province, Refuge (in Halifax), State of Denial, and The Baklawa Recipe for which she was nominated at the META’s award as « Best female lead ». Her talent was also noticed in Water by De Ville and the web series Rima et Jacob for which she was nominated for « Best Actor » and « Best Supporting Actor » respectively at the Prisma Rome Independent Film Award and at the Film in Focus International Film Festival.
MARTIN DUBREUIL
Wise Man
Martin Dubreuil (born May 26, 1972) is a Canadian actor and musician from Quebec.[1] He is most noted for his performance in the films 10½, for which he garnered a Genie Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the 31st Genie Awards,[2] and Felix and Meira. In 2019, he won the IRIS Award for Best Actor, the highest distinction in Quebec Cinema. His other film roles have included February 15, 1839 (15 février 1839), 7 Days (Les 7 jours du talion), Before the Streets (Avant les rues), Hunting the Northern Godard (La Chasse au Godard d'Abbittibbi), L'Affaire Dumont, Shambles (Maudite poutine), The Great Darkened Days (La grande noirceur), For Those Who Don't Read Me (À tous ceux qui ne me lisent pas), Flashwood, Maria Chapdelaine and La Contemplation du mystère. As a musician, he was a member of the band Les Breastfeeders, in which he used the stage name "Johnny Maldoror". There is a song by his band The Breastfeeders called "Angle mort" in the Montréal Girls' soundtrack.
BLOODSHOT BILL
Himself
A rockabilly wild musician, singer-songwriter, whose style leans to the grittier first-generation trailblazers of the genre, Bloodshot Bill plays raw, raucous music that rocks the house whether he's playing one-man-band style or with a combo backing him. Bloodshot Bill's music is influenced by rockabilly originators like Charlie Feathers and Billy Lee Riley, but there's also a strong thread of blues and early rock in his music, and he's less interested in the polish or dress-up slickness of many latter-day rockabilly acts, instead tapping into the wild, organic sound of primal backbeat. In 2008, directors Patricia Chica and Mike Wafer followed Bloodshot Bill on tour with a camera in their documentary Rockabilly 514. Montréal Girls is his second collaboration with Patricia Chica, and his first dramatic role, playing the character he knows best; himself! Bloodshot Bill also wrote the title song "Montréal Girls" which appears in the film's soundtract.
LARRY DAY
Professor (Cameo)
Born in Montreal, Québec, veteran Canadian actor Larry Day has been in the entertainment business for over 50 years. For the first twenty years, he has dedicated them to the biggest North American nightclubs such as the Septembers of Montreal, the New York Xenon or the Studio 51 of Fort Lauderdale, as a DJ. He will also host private show business nights, including Jackson's, Phil Collins and Pink Floyd. It had become the reference for nightlife in Montreal by publishing an "entertainment guide", directing itself some hot spots of the city in the 80/90.
He began his career as an actor with appearances in series televised in the 90s, but will move very quickly to the cinema, alternating between the big and the small to In many films (a hundred or so). He attempted to make production on a documentary series in 2004.
He is co-owner of The Firm nightclub in Montreal and has been the presenter and producer of a radio show for 10 years.
Larry Day is also the founder and leader of "Strangers in the Night," a charity gala held annually in Montreal to raise funds for the Starlight Children Foundation, which sick children.