- Born
- Height5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
- Ennis' first standout acting role was in 2006, as the temperamental janitor Zoltan in the Gemini Awards-winning Billable Hours - this role set a precedent in Esmer's career, as what was originally a one-off appearance was expanded to a recurring role because of the popularity of his take on it. His next major role came in 2009 in The Listener as Osman 'Oz' Bey, the best friend to telepathic paramedic Toby Logan (played by Craig Olejnik). Esmer was nominated once in 2010 for an ACTRA Award, and twice in 2010 and 2011 for Canadian Comedy Awards for this role. In the opposite seasons to shooting The Listener in Toronto, Esmer was shooting his role as Eddie, the failed actor and apartment manager, in The L.A. Complex.
Starting in 2014, Esmer had regular roles in You Me Her, Private Eyes, Red Oaks, and Blindspot, once again often shooting in opposite or even the same seasons. In Audience Network's polyamory comedy You Me Her, he played Dave Amari, best friend and neighbour of Jack Trekarsky, the 'Him' of the title. In Global Television Network/Ion Television's Private Eyes, he played Kurtis 'Maz' Mazhari, a Detective who helped main characters Matt Shade (played by Jason Priestley) and Angie Everett (played by Cindy Sampson) solve crimes. He would be nominated in 2019 for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy at the 7th Canadian Screen Awards for this latter role.
In Amazon Studios 1980's set comedy-drama Red Oaks, he played the Turkish lothario tennis instructor Nash. He said of the role, 'It's fun to play a character who is a pretty decent representation of my ethnicity...His ethnicity doesn't define the role, and he gets to be a full person aside from that, and in fact, because of that.' In NBC's Blindspot, Esmer again took a role that was an originally a one-off spot in season one, and went first to recurring then series regular in season four. His instinctive improvisational style and delivery made fan-favourite Rich Dotcom what show creator Martin Gero said was the character that defined the series. Esmer also had a memorable 3-episode arc as Emir Kaplan, the travel blogger who broke Stevie Budd's heart, in season five of the Emmy Award-winning comedy series Schitt's Creek.
Esmer currently stars in CTV's comedy Children Ruin Everything, a role for which he won the 2023 Canadian Screen Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy.
In film, Esmer has worked extensively in Canadian indie short and feature-length films. He started his film career in a bit part as Ronnie in the American film How to Deal in 2003. His breakout film role was in 2007's Young People Fucking, co-written by his longtime friend and later Blindspot show runner Martin Gero and other longtime friend Aaron Abrams. This film was notable not just for winning multiple Genie Awards and nearly sweeping the film category of the Canadian Comedy Awards, but also because of the furor around funding caused politically by its name and perceived content.
In 2014, Esmer starred in his first lead film role as Leonard Crane, a small-town newspaper reporter, in Big News from Grand Rock, a comedy-drama about the demise of small-town newspapers - on which he also served as an executive-producer. The same year, he played a supporting role as Sean in the romantic comedy Dirty Singles, for which he was nominated for an ACTRA Award, and won best male performance at the Canadian Comedy Awards. In 2015, he played a supporting role in sex comedy How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town, directed by Jeremy Lalonde, again serving as executive-producer. In 2016, he played a supporting role in Miss Sloane with Jessica Chastain. That same year, he played Moe, a flight crash investigator, in the television film Brace for Impact, for which he was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Performance by Supporting Actor in a Drama at the 6th Canadian Screen Awards in 2018. Also in 2018, he played the astrophysicist Charlie in Clara, a science-fiction film which won the Jury Prize at the Austin Film Festival. He can next be seen in Ally Pankiw's dramedy I Used To Be Funny, Mackenzie Munro's coming of age comedy Boot Camp, and Incendo's updated remake of The Amityville Curse.
Esmer has also undertaken several hosting duties in Canada - hosting, among others, the Gemini Awards (twice), the Canadian Screen Awards, and the ACTRA Awards, even virtually hosting the feature films section of the Directors Guild of Canada Awards in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. He was also the co-host of Wipeout Canada alongside the legendary Jonathan Torrens, and currently hosts Roast Battle Canada on CTV Comedy. Esmer first came to prominence as a host on Toronto 1's variety series The Toronto Show in 2003.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Wikipedia
- Like Sam Rockwell and his improvised dancing sequences in many of his films, Esmer has repeatedly managed to insert a fist bump explosion into multiple parts as part of his character's idiosyncrasies.
- Improvising, adlibbing and riffing non-scripted bits and dialogue - even speaking to background actors who have no lines, and characters not present, which results in a more three-dimensional world.
- Often gets creatively involved in behind-the-scenes bits and docs of things he appears in - interviewing, doing comedy bits, as well as through his own personal social media.
- After failing to earn a callback audition for host of The Toronto Show (2003), Ennis was coincidentally booked to host a stand-up comedy show that featured a network showcase for potential series hosts. He was informed halfway through the evening that he was winning over the network heads, and he went on to land the gig, hosting 120 episodes of the late-night comedy and music series.
- The part of Rich Dotcom from Blindspot (2015) was written especially for him.
- Ennis's musical comedy group, Calcu-Lator and the Oral Presentation, were nominated for the prestigious Tim Sims Award in 2003.
- Contributing writer for the humour web-zine www.somethingspace.com
- Credits Owen Wilson in Bottle Rocket (1996) and Vince Vaughn in Swingers (1996)for inspiring him into his career with their improvisational style in those films.
- On often working multiple projects at the same time: I'm an absolutely manageably amount of busy. All these things are (for the most part) a blast to work on, and I try to never lose sight of the fact that busy is the thing I want to be more than anything. Busy is victory. I try to look at busy as a challenge and never as a struggle, because there's nothing else I'd rather be busy doing.
- On Nash from Red Oaks (2014-2017) being a positive MENA (Middle Eastern and North African) character: It's fun to play a character who is a pretty decent representation of my ethnicity. (Nash's) ethnicity doesn't define the role, and he gets to be a full person aside from that, and in fact, because of that. It's fun to play someone that's just a solid representation of your people.
- On influences or careers he admires: If you asked me 15-20 years ago, I'd say I wanted to be like Tom Hanks . He was the biggest star, and I've seen all his movies since I was a kid. But now, if you told me I could have the career of someone like Luis Guzmán I'd be ecstatic. There are so many incredible actors who have careers, working in supporting roles, working on sharp projects, occasionally creating their own work, that fame or any of the things that might have dazzled me as a kid don't matter at all. I just want to work on things that are fun to work on.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content