Creators Who Inspire: Meet Frédéric Pierre

Frédéric Pierre has been a familiar face on Quebec screens for over 30 years—three decades as an actor, a screenwriter, and now a producer through which he has seen the evolution of representation in TV from up close. Even at the age of 12, as an actor in the children’s series Zap, he could sense a readiness for including characters from different communities in Quebec-based stories. Unfortunately, in his opinion, the television industry then went into a years-long hibernation. 

With the launch of Lakay Nou, created with the support of the Canada Media Fund, Pierre feels that a glass ceiling is finally being shattered. He had been toying with the idea for a comedy set in Montreal's Haitian community for over 20 years. Finally, while working on Bye Bye 2020, a year when the plague of racism came roaring back, he stopped toying around and started knocking on doors. 

“Bringing a Black family to the screen in Quebec was a huge step,” 46-year-old Pierre said. “My greatest hope was that Lakay Nou would put an end once and for all to the age-old debate about the concept being too niche to appeal to audiences outside of big cities. I was pretty sure it would work because I clearly remembered how Québécois people were happily watching dubbed versions of The Cosby Show and Arnold and Willy on Télé-Métropole in the 1980s. Both shows featured Black families. Mind you, they were American shows.” 

Some forty years later, Quebec finally got a Black-led series of its own. And Pierre couldn’t be prouder. In addition to co-writing Lakay Nou and starring in it, he’s also making his début as a producer. On the advice of the team at KOTV, who’ve often called on Pierre's talent over the years, he set up Productions Jumelage to produce the series with the mission of promoting diversity at every level—not just for the cast of characters. 

“The industry that's behind the camera needs to change as well,” Pierre said. “This must also be reflected in key roles, and to get there, we need to accelerate the training process. That’s the idea behind Jumelage (a French word for mentoring, or shadowing someone as they work). We need more mentoring and more sharing of practical experience, and we need it now. That way anyone working on set can add their latest on-the-job experience to their résumé to move up on the next production without missing a beat.” 

The Productions Jumelage venture is already bearing fruit. In addition to filming season 2 of Lakay Nou, Pierre is also producing Double jeu, a new cop comedy starring Rachid Badouri and Mehdi Bousaidan. 

“Lakay Nou was my first project and it was overwhelming, let me tell you! But it’s important for me to prove that Productions Jumelage is more than just a one-trick pony. I see producing as a long game. I’m very grateful for the crucial support we received from the CMF, Radio-Canada, and all the other organizations that believed in what we were doing. I’m especially grateful for the confidence the industry has shown. I’ve been getting feedback from them every day for the past six months. Every day. It’s unbelievable!” 

CMF-FMC

The Canada Media Fund (CMF) fosters, develops, finances and promotes the production of Canadian content and applications for all audiovisual media platforms. The CMF guides Canadian content towards a competitive global environment by fostering industry innovation, rewarding success, enabling a diversity of voice and promoting access to content through public and private sector partnerships. The CMF receives financial contributions from the Government of Canada and Canada’s cable, satellite and IPTV distributors.

Read Bio