Listowel native Jared Keeso is celebrating some success on the small screen.
The award winning actor collected a new trophy on the weekend, while showing his family and his hometown some love on national television.
The 30 year old Keeso — who stars in the TV cop series “19-2” — was named best actor in a continuing drama series at the Canadian Screen Awards on Sunday in Toronto.
In his acceptance speech, he gave a shout-out to Listowel and also to his parents and siblings, identifying all of his family members by name and telling a national TV audience on CBC why he’s proud of them.
Keeso — who now lives in Vancouver — is a former member of the Listowel Cyclones and Kincardine Bulldogs junior hockey teams.
He’s a graduate of Listowel Central Public School and Listowel District Secondary School, both of which were also mentioned during his speech.
When Keeso met with the media after receiving his award, he said he had wanted to make the most of his opportunity to let his family — father Richard, mother Anne, brother Alan and sister Abigail — know how much they mean to him.
Keeso also credited his parents with encouraging him to follow his acting dream after his competitive hockey career came to an end.
You may remember that Keeso first won national fame and his first major acting awards several years ago when he played legendary hockey coach and broadcaster Don Cherry in two well-regarded TV movies.
“19-2” — which is based and filmed in Montreal — is currently in its second season on the Bravo channel.
The series was nominated for 10 Canadian Screen Awards, although Keeso came away with the only prize.
Keeso’s other projects include the popular web comedy series “Letterkenny Problems” — which he’s turning into a regular series for broadcast television.
In fact, Bell announced on Thursday that “Letterkenny Problems” will air on the new digital TV service, Crave TV.
Keeso started the web series in 2013, and says it came from his upbringing in Listowel.
“Letterkenny Problems” will be the first original Canadian series on CraveTV, which was launched last year.
Production for the show will begin in the summer of 2015.
Owen Sound native and former Bayshore Broadcasting personality Heather Hiscox was also nominated for a Canadian Screen Award on Sunday night.
The CBC News Now host was nominated for best national news anchor but lost to Lisa LaFlamme of CTV.
Last week, another Owen Sound native and former Bayshore Broadcasting personality, Janis Mackey Frayer, won a Canadian Screen Award for best national reporting.
She is CTV’s Asia Bureau Chief.
Both Hiscox and Mackey Frayer are graduates of West Hill Secondary School.
(story written by Jonathon Jackson with Manny Paiva)
