Blessed with an eye for truth and an ear for a good story, Juanita Peters is forging her mark along the Canadian cultural landscape. Writer, director, producer, actor, author and mom, Juanita has the whole world in her hands. “It came to me,” she admits modestly. “I started out as a performer, doing a one-woman show with seven characters. I was having fun.”
Juanita grew up in Toronto, spending her summers with extended family in Weymouth Falls, until settling there with her family at the age of 13.
In the early 1980s, Juanita began her media career behind a microphone in rural Nova Scotia as the afternoon Newscaster for Annapolis Valley Radio. As luck would have it, she went on to anchor the CHSJ television news out of Saint John, New Brunswick before joining the CBC Television News Team.
Juanita skipped going back to Ontario. Instead she settled in Halifax in 1996 and open her own production company, writing and developing television programs and documentary film.
Juanita’s first film I MADE A VOW was nominated for two golden sheaf awards. Her film HANNAH’S STORY was awarded Most Inspirational Film at the Reel To Reel Festival in Vancouver and Best Short Film at the Bermuda International Children’s Festival.
Juanita is currently touring with her latest film AFRICVILLE: CAN’T STOP NOW, about the ongoing struggle of Africville descendents to rebuild their beloved church. To date Juanita has previewed the film at a number of film festivals and also toured it to 37 Nova Scotia junior and senior high schools, from Yarmouth to Sydney.
She is a founding board member of Women In Film and Television-Atlantic, a member of Actra Maritimes and has served as Chair of the Diversity Board and is also a member of The Writers Guild of Canada. As an actor, Juanita has appeared in more than 20 films and numerous stage plays.
Humbled by her work and inspired by her love for people, Juanita looks at the world with a mind wide open. “I do it because it’s in me. I have no choice, I’m a storyteller and I love it.”
Juanita Peters can be reach at wepeople@hotmail.com.
