Raymond Ablack

Ablack was born and raised by Indo-Guyanese parents in Toronto, Ontario.[3] Growing up, he played in a competitive hockey league.[4] Ablack has three siblings: two younger sisters, Cassandra and Rebecca (who is also an actress and she was featured alongside him in Ginny & Georgia), and a younger brother, Jared.[5]

As a child actor, Ablack appeared in television commercials and advertisements.[6] In 2001, he won the role of Young Simba in the theatre production of The Lion King at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto.[7] He performed the role for one year.[8]

Years later, in 2007, Ablack achieved international exposure when he was cast in the recurring role of Sav Bhandari on the long-running Canadian television series Degrassi: The Next Generation.[9][10] He starred on the show for five years and appeared in more than 100 episodes. During this time, Ablack also had a guest spot on the television series Life With Derek.[11]

Since his time on Degrassi, Ablack has worked on several productions, including recurring roles in the BBC/Space television series Orphan Black, the Syfy series Defiance, and the Freeform series Shadowhunters.[12] In addition to working as an actor, Ablack sometimes writes and performs stand-up comedy in Toronto.[13]

Ablack's first role in a feature-length film came in 2013 with the release of the independent feature film Fondi '91 (2013), which received mixed reviews from critics upon release.[14][15]

From 2014 to 2017, Ablack portrayed Gabriel in the web series Teenagers.[16] In 2016, for his performance in the second season of Teenagers, Ablack won an Indie Series Award for Best Supporting Actor – Drama.[1][17] For his performance in the third and final season, Ablack was nominated for an International Academy of Web Television Award, in 2017,[18] and a second Indie Series Award, in 2018.[19]

Ablack played the recurring role of DEA Agent Stoddard in the third season of the critically acclaimed Netflix series Narcos, which premiered on the streaming platform in 2017.[20]

In 2019, he played the recurring role of Sunil Doshi in Burden of Truth.[21] That year, he also appeared alongside Zoey Deutch, Judy Greer, Jermaine Fowler, Noah Reid, and Jai Courtney in the American comedy drama film Buffaloed.[22] The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 27, 2019.[23]

In August 2019, Deadline announced that Ablack would be featured in the forthcoming Netflix series Ginny & Georgia.[24] Ginny & Georgia premiered on February 24, 2021.[25] Ablack starred as Joe, a restaurant owner and one of Georgia's love interests; he appeared in all 10 episodes of the series.[26][27]

That year, Ablack also played a supporting role in the Netflix miniseries Maid, which was released on October 1, 2021. His performance and physique in the series, specifically a scene in which he appears topless while wearing a cowboy hat, attracted considerable attention on social media,[28] with Marie Claire writing that "the Canadian actor has become our favorite Netflix heartthrob."[29] In November 2021, he was cast in a romantic comedy feature film called Love in the Villa, also produced by Netflix.[30]

Ablack has done extensive charity work throughout his career, mostly through Degrassi, including school-building missions with Me to We and Free the Children.[31][32]

In 2007, Ablack traveled to Africa with five other Degrassi cast members to build a school in Kenya and, in 2008, he travelled again with his cast members to do charity work in Ecuador.[33] A documentary of Ablack and his cast mates' trip aired on MTV in Canada.[33] In 2010, he travelled with his fellow Degrassi cast mates to India to help build schools.[34]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Raymond Ablack.

• Raymond Ablack at IMDb