Dame Emma Albani.  (Marie-Louise-Cecile-Emma Lajeunesse). Born Chambly, Canada East (Quebec) November 1, 1847. Died April 3, 1930.  World famous soprano opera singer. She became the first Canadian born artist to distinguish herself in the international world of opera and concert singing.

Florence Lawrence   Born January 1  1890. Died 1938. This petite Canadian born actress is universally acknowledged as the world’s first movie star. At age 4 she was performing as “Baby Flo, the Wonder Whistler” on vaudeville. In the pioneer days of filmmaking, credits with the names of actors were not important. She became known simply as the "Biograph Girl". In 1915 she tried to help someone in a studio fire and was badly burned.  She never achieved her former active career.  At the time of her death she had appeared in 250 films! For more information check out: http://www.biographcompany.com. or read Florence Lawrence, the Biograph Girl : America's First Movie Star by Kelly R Brown (McFarland, 1999).

May Irwin. (Real name Georgina May Campbell) Born Whitby, Ontario June 27, 1862. Died October 22, 1938. As early as 1872 she and her sister Flora were singing on stage. Once the sister act split up, May would go on and become a well known Broadway performer. Her movie career was short but historically significant. Thomas Edison, the famous inventor, placed May in the staring role in his pioneering one minute moving picture called The Kiss. It was the first kiss of the movies!!! It was considered scandalous by early movie audiences and the clergy! It is considered to be the first moving picture to ever be shown in Canada! May would make only one other movie Mrs. Black is Back before she retired to live with her husband and two children. She is also credited with having named the famous Thousand Island Salad Dressing. She and her family owned a vacation home in the 1000 islands.

Portia May White. Born Truro, Nova Scotia June 24, 1911. Died February 13, 1968.  As a child she sang in her Baptist church choir. Her professional career began its assent i1941 with an appearance at the Eaton Auditorium in Toronto. In 1944 she became the first black Canadian woman to appear in the New York Town Hall, where she was touted as the “Canadian Marion Anderson”. She toured in Canada, the U.S.A. and Latin America before returning for further studies in Toronto. She would teach at the all girls school of Branksome Hall and eventually open her own studio. She was very proud to perform before Queen Elizabeth II in a Command Performance in 1964. Even though she was an extraordinary contralto, her career was hampered by racial prejudice shown against black artists at the time. In 1999, some 30 years after her death, her family released a private CD “First You Dream”. Canada Post released a special stamp in her honour as part of it millennium celebration series.

Joan Miller Born Nelson, British Columbia. February1910. Died August 31, 1988. She was the first paid professional television performer in the world according to a history of Canadian television written by Sandy Stewart. Miller was also the first performer to appear on a trans-Atlantic television broadcast between London [England] and New York. She would go on to become one of Great Britain’s most outstanding stage actresses after WW II. She co-created Razzle Dazzle children’s program and co-producer of the Canadian education TV game show for students Reach for the Top.

Monique Leyrac. (real name Monique Tremblay)  Born Montreal, Quebec February 26, 1928. She was the first great international star from French Canada. Using her natural gifts of music and drama she started her acting career on radio in 1943. In 1965 she won the grand prizes at the international festival of Song in Sopot, Poland and at the Festival de la Chanson at Ostende, Belgium. In the 1980's she began to write and stage one-woman shows where she sang and acted. She was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1967 and received the 1979 Prix de musique Calixa-Lavallée. 

Evelyn Hart.   Born Toronto, Ontario April 4, 1956. An award-winning ballerina, Evelyn Hart is an international renowned dancer and one of Canada’s most treasured artists. She was in 1980, the first Canadian to be awarded a Gold Medal at the international Ballet Competition in Varna, Bulgaria as well as the rarely awarded Certificate of Exceptional Artistic Achievement.

Céline Dion.  Born March 30, 1968.  She is an internationally known recording artist and superstar.   She began performing with her family when she was only five years old!  Her first song composed when she was 12 caught the eye of manager René Angelil who financed the recording. Her career advanced with the Gold Medal at the Yamaha World Song Festival in 1982.  There was no looking back. She became the first Canadian singer to receive a Gold Record in France. She recorded the sound track for Disney's Beauty and the Beast which would win and Academy Award and a Grammy. Other movie hit songs have been in Sleepless in Seattle and Titanic. She married her manager and has chosen to slow her career to have private time devoted to her family. . She is a member of the Order of Canada.