User:Joanna Swan

Joanna Swan was born in Toronto, ON, Canada on August 17, 1979. She lived in Toronto until the age of nine, and then was moved to Zionsville, Indiana. Two years later, her family then made the leap across the pond to her mother’s homeland, The United Kingdom. Joanna found much creative inspiration exploring the Sussex countryside on horseback, and tearing around the fields on the farm dirt bikes. She could often be found practicing her vocals and soliloquies to a shed full of cattle and sheep, or accompanied by her guitar sitting at the highest point of the coastal cliffs howling at the moon! Joanna was saturated in music and the arts through educational institutions. She toured the UK singing first soprano and soloist in a competitive choir, and explored Shakespeare’s origins in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Her first starring role as a young Peter Pan was fairytale enough to plant the seed that would direct her life’s path as a performer.

In 2001, Joanna returned to Toronto where she went on to graduate from ‘The Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts’ with a diploma in musical theatre and priceless training in film and television.

With a couple Fringe Festival shows and a handful of student films under her belt, Joanna landed her first major role in a feature film (‘The Storm’ (tNt Films/Todd Cantelon). Here is where she gained the professional set experience needed for the numerous TV, Film and commercial roles she went on to play. Some credits include: (TV) ‘Breakout Kings’ (A&E/Phil Abraham/Matt Olmstead), ‘Flashpoint’ (CTV/CBS/Tim Southam), ‘Forensic Factor’ (Discovery/ff5/Laurie Lynd), a vocalist on ‘Mob Stories II’ (Alliance Atlantis/Remo Girlato); (Film) ‘Kit Kittredge: An American Girl’ (HBO/Patricia Rozema), ‘We’rewolves: The Dark Survivors’ (Animal Planet/Ed Bazalgette) and Juno Award winner George Canyon’s music video ‘I Want You To Live’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPMelnMdfHU (nominated for best country music video of the year).

Joanna plays a little guitar, saxophone, and piano, but singing is really where she shines. In 2011 she was a cast member of Wish Opera’s 2011 production of ‘Rose Marie’, and now she is submerged mainly in the blues/rock world.

Joanna has performed in various recording and live projects with such musicians as Dale Harrison (Headstones/Alannah Myles), Stan Miczek (Sass Jordan/Honeymoon Suite/Kim Mitchell), Peter Nunn (Honeymoon Suite/Gowan), Dave Langguth (Nelly Furtado/Rick Emmet), and Cuban virtuoso Elmer Ferrer http://www.elmerferrer.com/. She currently is the lead vocalist for The Elmer Ferrer Band, and most recently ‘Big Crush’, a female fronted Blues/Rock band. http://www.reverbnation.com/bigcrush

http://joannaswan.workbooklive.com/