Canada’s actors union, ACTRA, has seen Olivia Nuamah, its national director of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, unexpectedly exit after just four months in the newly created post.
“I have been offered an exciting opportunity outside of the screen-based industry and have made the difficult decision to pursue this once-in-a-lifetime chance to continue advancing change at a national level,” Nuamah said in a statement on Monday after leaving ACTRA on April 1 and not specifying where she will land. Her hire was announced in late Nov. 2020 as the actors union responded to an industry-wide reckoning with systemic racism by attempting to diversify creative teams and content.
Before coming to ACTRA, Nuamah served as executive director of the Atkinson Foundation, which promotes social and economic justice in Ontario, and as executive director of Pride Toronto. ACTRA said it has started an executive search to identify a replacement for the new post.
“I wish to thank Olivia for her stepping in at a critical time and supporting ACTRA’s objectives to improve the working lives of Canadian professional performers and implementing strategies to ensure more diverse representation on all of our screens,” said ACTRA national executive director Marie Kelly in her own statement.
Nuamah’s hire by ACTRA also came amid evolving audience demographics for film and TV content shot in Canada, often by major Hollywood studios and streamers, much of it destined for global consumption.
