Two women of Guyanese heritage stay connected with their culture

Melinda Shankar and Simone Small are two television actresses known for their talents in the film industry who never cease identifying the source of their colourful personality – their rich cultural Guyanese background.

Melinda Shankar
Melinda Shankar is a talented young actress best known for her role in the Canadian teen drama television series: “Degrassi – The Next Generation”. She was born and raised in Ottawa, Canada to Guyanese migrant parents.

The actress, born Feb. 18, 1992, started her acting career at age 10 appearing in TV commercials, print ads and some theatre work.  She made her starring mark in 2008 in the 8th season of Degrassi as Alli Bhandari, a confident young woman in high school. She credits her relentlessly supportive family and her “superdad” for having whisked her back and forth from her hometown, Ottawa, to Toronto for her Degrassi audition.
She also co-starred in “Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars”’, a Disney Channel original movie, alongside Jennifer Stone as Janie Gibbs, Harriet’s best friend.  That same year she travelled to Ecuador with the organization ‘Free the Children’. A documentary of the trip was made for MTV in Canada.
In 2009, Melinda made her lead role debut as Indie Mehta in the YTV series “How to Be Indie” and was nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Performance in a Children or Youth Program. In Feb 2010, Melinda accepted an award for Most Promising Actor at the Anokhi Magazine gala and received the 2011 Award for Actress of the Year.
Acting, Melinda, revealed in an interview, runs in her family. In a 2011 interview with Open Chest Magazine, she shared that her mother was an actor, her father was a director and great-grandfather was also in theatre. In 2011, Melinda played the lead role, Reshma in the indie-film, entitled “Festival of Lights” by Guyanese director Shundell Prasad. The movie was filmed in New York City and Guyana and was released in 2012.
During 2012, Melinda and her other ‘Degrassi’ cast members left their set, scripts and TV cameras behind to trek to Ghana.  The group visited the coastal fishing village of Asemkaw in the West African country as ‘Me to We’ volunteers, to help build a school that is a project of the children’s charity ‘Free the Children’.
Melinda has been studying martial arts for years and has a black belt in karate.  She currently resides in Toronto, Canada.

Simone Small aka “Small & Mighty”
Canadian actress and international fashion model, Simone Small aka “Small & Mighty” was born to a Guyanese mother and Barbadian father. She attended Humber College and Etobicoke School of the Arts in Toronto, Ontario. The only child for her parents, Simone recalled having a great childhood.

She spent her school years in Toronto but every summer went to Barbados or Guyana, sometimes both, to spend time with her cousins, aunts and uncles. Simone’s mother is from Georgetown, but she has relatives in Mahaica, Berbice and Linden.
Growing up, Simone loved to stay up late watching “Fashion Television” with her mom. She developed a love for modelling at a very early age, and began her modelling career in Canada but later moved to South Africa where she spent 5 years working with the prestigious Elite Model Management in Cape Town. In addition to her native English, Simone speaks Creolese and Pidgins (English-based) at a native/bilingual level and also speaks limited French and Zulu.
Travelling extensively around the world, Simone has appeared in fashion editorials in Barbados, Canada, Poland and the United States.  She has graced the runways for numerous fashion designers including walking for the World MasterCard Toronto Fashion Week, Sanlam South Africa Fashion Week, Montreal Fashion Week and Absolut Caribbean Fashion Weekend.  Simone has also worked on many advertising campaigns for popular clients such L’Oreal ‘Open’ Hair Colour, Harley Davidson Greece, Trump Towers Toronto and Harley Davidson Greece.
Simone is no stranger to the movie and television industries.  She is a talented actress with roles in movies such as ‘Kevinz Bluez’, ‘Pigs’, and ‘Death’s Fable’. She has also appeared in TV commercials for Bite TV, Smirnoff, FNB Bank, Frito Lay and Anti-Smoking PSA.
The actress has begun the developmental stages of two retail projects and one mentorship programme for young women.  Her advice for those who are interested in modelling: “Modelling is hard work, physically and mentally. You will be put down, pumped up and many times not have your way. But if you are true to who you are, do a good job, stay grounded and most importantly persist, great things can be achieved.”