Gary D. Farmer

Gary Farmer is a member of the Cayuga nation within the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy. He has worked as an actor, director, producer and journalist for more than twenty years. He has appeared in more than a dozen feature films in Canada and the United States including Dead Man, Smoke Signals, and Skins. Farmer won the Filmmakers Award at the U.S. Film Festival and a Best Actor award at the American Indian Film Festival.

A veteran of the stage, his 1989 portrayal of Zachary Jeremiah Keechigeesik in Tomson Highway's Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing earned him a nomination as Best Actor for a Dora Mavor Moore award. Also known as a producer and director in radio and television, Gary Farmer iwas the publisher and editor-in-chief of the award-winning AboriginalVOICES, The Magazine of Evolving Native American Arts & Culture. He served as a board member with the Ontario Arts Council.

Gary's performance in Powwow Highway was heralded as the highlight of the film. Roger Ebert in his review said, "One of the reasons we go to movies is to meet people we have not met before. It will be a long time before I forget Farmer, who disappears into the Philbert role so completely we almost think he is this simple, openhearted man - until we learn he's an actor and teacher from near Toronto. It's one of the most wholly convincing performances I've seen."