Acting Instructor John Tench Celebrates Quintet of New and Upcoming Roles
Toronto Film School’s John Tench has enjoyed a very busy year on set, with a quintet of roles that will have him appearing – and sometimes dying – on both the big and small screens in the coming year.
Not only did the Acting for Film, TV & the Theatre instructor recently appear in an episode one of the CBC’s latest comedy gems, but he’s also got a recurring role on an hotly anticipated new Amazon Freevee series, and a trio of movie roles the he filmed this past fall.
“Spoiler alert: I celebrated my 74th and 75th on-camera death scenes on a couple of these projects,” he laughed. “Guess which ones?”
Tench played “The Hawk” on one episode of the CBC’s new half-hour workplace comedy series, One More Time, which follows DJ (J. Demers), the hard-of-hearing manager of a second-hand sporting goods store, and the team of misfit employees he leads.
Tench appears in the third episode, entitled ‘Chris Gets Fired,’ in which his character, an escaped prisoner, unexpectedly reunites with his former flame (and OMT’s assistant manager), Cynthia, as he shops at the store.
You can watch the episode here on CBC Gem.
Tench will also appear in T. Thorne’s upcoming apocalyptic thriller, 40 Acres, which follows Hailey Freeman (Danielle Deadwyler) and her family – the last descendants of African American farmers who settled in rural Canada after the first Civil War – as they struggle to survive in a famine-decimated future and make their last stand against a band of cannibals intent on taking their home.
“I play the bad-ass leader of a group of hunters, with a distinct taste for cannibalism in a post-apocalyptic near future,” he said.
Tench plays ‘Billy Ribbons’ in the upcoming, Nashville-based musical rom-com, A Bluegrass Christmas, starring Canadian singer-songwriter Amanda Jordan. More details about that project will be announced soon.
In the recently released Tubi Original horror flick, The Camp Host, Tench plays the role of ‘Frank’, a wise storytelling widower whose wife recently passed from cancer and who is on a solo camping trip to rekindle some memories.
The thriller follows a young couple who find their road trip derailed when they spend the night in a campground overseen by a maniacal woman who brutally punishes campers who don’t follow her rules.
Tench appears in the film’s trailer here:
Finally, Tench will also appear in four episodes of Amazon Freevee’s upcoming comedy series The Pradeeps of Pittsburg. Inspired by the personal experiences of Emmy-nominated Vijal Patel (Black-ish, The Middle), the eight-episode series follows the Pradeep family and the humorous events of their first few months after moving to America from India.
“Greg Altoona is the local neigbourhood garbageman who befriends the Pradeeps on his rounds,” Tench said of his character on the show. “His heart of gold is hidden under a rough exterior.”
