Canadian TV watchers everywhere will recognize Toronto’s Jake Epstein from his seven-season run as Craig Manning on Degrassi: The Next Generation, starring opposite Drake. But the actor’s career extends far beyond the Canadian classic, and includes multiple stage roles on and off-Broadway as well as starring in numerous TV shows including The Umbrella Academy to Suits. Recently, he’s taken on a new acting genre: the holiday movie. Ahead of his lead role in Oy to the World, premiering on Dec. 14, he chatted with us about all things festive films, Degrassi and acting.
What drew you to this movie?
I love that it’s about two competing youth choir directors [one working at a temple, the other at a church], which is really specific and really, really funny. Also, I love the message of combining Jewish tradition and Christian or Christmas tradition into something more meaningful. My wife is not Jewish, and I am, so I related to that. To depict that in such a joyous way was a real pleasure.
What appeals to you about the holiday movie genre?
I love comedy and I grew up watching rom-coms. I’m a huge lover of Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle and Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally. These movies are really funny but are also trying to show us something about love and humanity. I felt like I really fit in that world. And then a casting director called me the Jewish Jimmy Stewart and cast me in a Christmas movie, and since then, every year, while I’ve been doing other projects in the U.S. or around Toronto, I’ve tried to do a few movies like this.
FAST FACTS
Name: Jake Epstein
Degrassi roots: He starred in Degrassi: The Next Generation opposite Drake (and appeared in his 2018 “I’m Upset” music video-turned-cast reunion).
Fave spot in the city: Kensington Market.
Fave Toronto memory: Seeing live music at the Phoenix and Revival.
You’ve had a prolific theatre career, alongside your TV and film acting. How different are these mediums?
Acting for stage is how I started, and it’s a huge love of mine, and it’s so much about connecting with the audience. And it’s thrilling because once you start a play there’s no one that’s going to call cut. It just goes, whatever it is that night. So it’s a bit scary and stressful, but really fun. Someone told me that theatre is an actor’s medium, TV is a writer’s medium and film is a director’s medium. I always think that’s really true. I think about the actors on stage with theatre, whereas with TV, I feel like it’s so much about the writing. Your’e at the whim of where your character is going to go and you don’t know what’s going to happen from week to week. There’s a real freedom in that. And film is similar to that, but I feel like it’s so much about the director’s vision in my experience.
But I love all of them. You learn something from each one. And everything impacts everything. I’m a new dad, and that changes the kinds of roles I’m playing and roles I want to do.
You took part in the Degrassi: Whatever It Takes doc that premiered at TIFF. How did that come about?
Degrassi was a huge part of my life, but it can be a little bit scary when you’re being interviewed to be part of a story, and you don’t know what they’re going to use of what you’re saying. So I asked what the angle was. And I decided I wanted to be a part of it and tell a little bit of my story.
What’s your relationship like with your Degrassi co-stars today?
It sort of feels like my second high school. I have friends who are very much still in my life, and there are some that I just don’t get to see as much as I would like. And definitely when we were asked about this documentary, there was a conversation about it and who wanted to do it and just sort of protecting ourselves.
What’s next for you?
I have a really cool role in that’s coming up in an episode of a new show called Anna Pigeon, coming out in 2026. And there’s an indie film that I haven’t seen yet, but I was really proud to be part of it. It’s called Victorious, and it’s a story of a Canadian blind Paralympic rower named Victoria Nolan. I play her husband, and in real life, her husband was actually my favourite elementary school teacher at Claude Watson School for the Arts. So it was pretty cool to play my teacher! And I’m in two seasons of Mistletoe Murders. And then in Toronto, for theatre fans, I’m going to be in a Coal Mine Theatre production, Eureka Day.
