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by Anokhi Admin

Centre Stage

May 16, 2013

Actress Rahnuma Panthaky shines in War Horse

Rahnuma Panthaky has come a long way from the bushy eye teenager Shrinka on Degrassi. With an impressive resume she’s managed to appear on almost every hit television show including, CBC’s Being Erica and the Golden Globe/Emmy nominated BBC series, The State Within. Most recently she wrapped up shooting Being Human on SyFy and King on Showcase.

“My agent called and was like; you know I have this audition coming up for theatre, which was so not on my radar.” Panthaky said. She was set and ready to move to Los Angeles with her husband when she received the call. The Canadian actress had spent the last three years flying from Canada to Los Angeles and decided it was time to make a move permanently.

“I was going to turn the audition down for various reasons”, she replied. “One, we were going to move to LA”. “Two, what’s a brown girl doing in 1914 in Devon, England?” She said jokingly. “Three, the character I was auditioning for, Paulette, the script is in French and whoever auditions for Paulette understudies Rose and Rose had to speak in a Devon accent”, says Panthaky.

Though some might have seen this as a challenge Panthaky hired a coach learned the Devon accent and landed the role as Paulette a French farmer and foal Joey in the award winning National Theatre of Great Britain production of War Horse. The production features a full Canadian cast including Panthaky and is based on a book by Michael Morpurgo, War Horse, which tells the story of a beloved horse [Joey] sold to a cavalry to serve the front lines during World War I, and a boy [Alex] who embarks on a journey to find his horse and bring him home.

Born and raised until the age of eight in Montreal, Quebec, Rahnuma and her family moved to Mississauga, Ontario where she attended Cawthra Park Secondary School. “I actually went in for a dance audition and failed the dance audition miserably”, she laughed, “and then decided to go into acting”. Panthaky continued her education at the University of Toronto Erindale campus where during her second year started doing plays, after graduating she made the decision to pursue a career in acting. “And as the cliché goes”, she says “I got bitten by the bug and didn’t look back”.

Rahnuma’s achievements to date show there is no signs of slowing down, she is looking forward to adding producer on a feature film to her resume, with the screenplay Pinweight, which recently earned second place in the TIFF’s 2011 Telefilm Canada PITCH THIS! She hopes to start shooting in India this year.

“I feel very grateful and blessed to do what I do, and to be able to say I am making a living because actors struggle so much, to earn an income doing what they love…I feel so blessed.

For more information on the Canadian production of War Horse please visit www.Mirvish.com.

BY TESSA JOHNSON / PUBLISHED IN THE BEAUTY ISSUE, SPRING 2012