There's a touch of North Bay in CTV’s new original drama TRANSPLANT.
It's Jim Watson, an actor, and filmmaker whose career is on the rise.
His career started in North Bay quite by accident.
"I wasn't the greatest student," Watson admits to BayToday from his Hamilton home. "I skipped a lot of classes and my English and drama teacher gave me an ultimatum, 'I'm going to fail you in two of my classes or you do this after-school musical,' so I did "
The musical turned out to be "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown" and he played Linus.
"I caught the bug and it was full bore in that direction and I was lucky to have a bunch of people around me to support that and point me in the right direction."
About a year ago, Watson himself shot s film in North Bay with a group of friends and "like-minded creatives" from the area.
"We shot a short film up at my parent's property in Bonfield called "A Northern Song" and we shopped it around the festival circuit and it's sitting on the back burner right now but out there you just have such amazing landscapes at your disposal and there's an amazing tax break opportunity right now for filmmakers. The whole Hollywood North situation has just blown up. It's a wonderful and inviting place to film.
"The great thing is I was able to just call old friends and relations...'hey, could we use your coffee shop or hey, could we do this? Everyone's just bending over backward to help make a product and it's a great time to be up north and I'm happy I still have ties up there."
Its something Watson says he'll definitely pursue in the future, but for now, his focus is on the new shot -in-Canada CTV medical drama series called Transplant.
TRANSPLANT is about Dr. Bashir “Bash” Hamed, a Syrian doctor with battle-tested skills in emergency medicine who makes the difficult decision to flee his country with his younger sister Amira. Together they struggle to build a new life in Canada, as Bash strives to rebuild his career in medicine.
Watson plays Dr. Theo Hunter, a married man with two young children. He’s a devoted family man who commutes from Toronto to his home town of Sudbury where his wife and daughters still live as much as possible says the show's website.
That suits the North Bay native and screenwriter just fine.
"Northern Ontario just seems to make the most sense for the stories that I write. It has a very distinct voice that I like to capture in everything I do and it's the perfect thing when really it's tied into Transplant and I was excited to play this part because the character himself, Theo Hunter, is from Sudbury and I'm from North Bay and though there's a rivalry between the two spots but they are pretty similar so it was exciting to tell the story through that voice because it's a voice I know well."
Watson is proud of Transplant and isn't shy about praising it.
"It's a great show. It's action-packed. It hits you like a Mack truck!"
The Canadian actor also admits that there is a lot of Jim Watson in his character.
"So much so it's weird. While I was doing this show there are so many parts I felt were taken directly out of my life story. He's from up north. He's a laid back funny guy."
While Watson grew up in North Bay he currently resides in Hamilton and studied classical theatre at George Brown Theatre School in Toronto.
He made appearances in several different series, including COPPER (BBC America), BETWEEN (Netflix), SLASHER (Netflix), and THE STRAIN (FX).
Transplant is shot in Montréal and set in Toronto, and you can watch it Wednesdays at 9 p.m.
