Everyone knows Justin Bieber and Celine Dion are from Canada – their names have practically become synonymous with our neighbors to the north, especially when we’re poking fun at the stars. But America, and Hollywood in particular, is full of many other Canadians. To honor our neighbors in the Great White North, Stacker has compiled a list of 30 celebrities you might not know were Canadian.
The circumstances that brought these stars to the United States are unique, but they often involve the same theme: chasing a dream of becoming big one day. Actors often head to Hollywood or New York for a big break, leaving their Canadian hometowns in search of fame. Athletes may come to the United States to attend college to gain more exposure and increase their chances of being recruited. Scientists and entrepreneurs often follow similar paths, either to a prestigious university or to Silicon Valley to pitch their startups.
Once here in the United States, rising celebrities usually assimilate quite easily. Sure, there’s a love of maple syrup and outright hockey fanaticism (and some of those cultural assumptions are true), but Canadians and Americans have a lot in common culturally. They mostly speak the same language (outside French-speaking Quebec), they eat a lot of the same foods and many cultural references are the same. Socio-politically, Canadians trail Europeans more in terms of things like free education and universal health care; however, the overall structure and country ideas are similar.
For these reasons, it’s no surprise that these Canadian celebrities blend in so well with the American landscape, often working for years or even decades without most Americans knowing where they came from. Ryan Gosling, Mike Myers and Rachel McAdams are all on this list, but keep reading to see which other stars you already knew and which ones you might have guessed.
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“Pop culture fanatic. Introvert. Devoted food trailblazer. Bacon geek. Lifelong coffee evangelist.”