When Clare McConnell isn’t onstage doing sketch and improv with the Second City Touring Company, you can catch her in action as Klingon Leader Dennas on CBS’s Emmy® nominated Star Trek: Discovery, Erin Martin on Coroner, or Effie Newsome on CBC’s Murdoch Mysteries. This Calgary-born performer has taken the Canadian film and television industry by storm, all while holding down a gig as a Canadian Comedy Award® nominated member of the iconic theatre where legends like Bill Murray and Gilda Radner got their start.
Although her trajectory has been fast, it’s no coincidence that Clare can be found doing comedy with the world-renowned Second City ensemble. The beginnings of her performance career were in the converted garage space that Calgary’s Improv Guild called home. She did her first professional comedy show at the age of eighteen in the Calgary International Improv festival alongside Whose Line is it Anyway star Colin Mochrie, and soon after made the move to Toronto to attend a theatre program and begin to audition for film and television. It wasn’t long before she had dropped out of school to join the Second City, and had starred in her first feature film, Slamdance Grand Jury Prize® winning Dim the Fluorescents.
pyjamas so that when you get out of bed it still feels like you are wearing bed.
turns in to a bouquet of rotini.
the Murdoch Mystery of how Yannick hasn’t aged since Season 1.
it was something pretty subversive for 1905.
in love where you eat, but sometimes I wonder if we should just go for it.
What ‘hood are you in?
I live in the Junction Triangle! I get all the perks of being able to walk to the Junction Proper for an afternoon of six-dollar coffees and flirting with mid- century furniture, but I live far enough South that I don’t have to take a bus to get to the subway like some sort of sociopath. Every day in the Triangle is exciting. A neighbour recently told me that the unassuming building just down the street from us at 1025 Lansdowne is a uranium processing plant. We high-fived our glow in the dark hands and all our hair fell out. I love mi neighourdoob.
What do you do?
Sometimes I improvise lines in front of a group of people. Sometimes I memorize lines that a talented person wrote and I say them while an expensive camera watches.
What are you currently working on?
I’m currently performing in the Second City Revue The Cure for the Common Comedy. It’s on every Monday down at 51 Mercer Street on the Mainstage. You can also catch me in Murdoch Mysteries and Coroner on CBC Gem. I’m in an upcoming film called Stealing School, and I’ve got some fun Sci-Fi/fantasy things coming up in the summer that I’m very excited about. I’ll be posting about those on Twitter and Instagram as soon as I can!
Where can we follow you?
Follow me @frecklegalaxy, and come hang out at Second City! Tickets are at www.secondcity.com.
