Julian Black Antelope
- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
Representing the Buckskin-Blackhorse family of the Weasel People Julian Black Antelope aka "JBA" is a self-taught award-winning actor, writer, director, and producer of Indigenous/Central American & Irish descent who brings 20 years of industry experience working globally.
His performing career began in the Canadian music scene before transitioning to film and television in the early 2000's where he built his career with an amalgamation of day player roles, stunts and working various crew positions on a steady stream of projects in southern Alberta including DreamWorks/TNT's epic six-part mini-series Into the West (2005)
JBA"s breakout role in a television series would come on the gritty and critically acclaimed Blackstone (2009). Four seasons of Black Antelope's portrayal of Darrien Tailfeathers earned him several accolades including a Canadian Screen Award nomination.
In 2014 JBA was cast as "Mr. Kidd" in John Logan's Penny Dreadful (2014) which took him overseas to Ireland and has since worked consistently nationally and internationally on Film and TV projects such as Dominion Creek (2015), Condor (2018), Dark Justice (2018), Hold the Dark (2018), Debris (2021), The Flash (2014), Prey (2022), Grendel.
An actor with a strong sense of physicality, Black Antelope often plays characters that combine stunt action with a larger-than-life or menacing presence, however his natural comedic sensibility has also been recognized in recent years with television roles in Jann (2019) including his own TV series that he created, wrote, directed and produced The Secret History of: The Wild West (2021) With his Secret History series Julian Black Antelope realized a 10 year dream of producing and creating entertaining, historical programming through the lens of Canadian First Nations. This very personal series in addition to his several producing credits on independent feature film projects like Empyrean (2016) and True Fiction (2019) has cemented JBA to continue writing, directing and producing his own work as his Acting career continues to grow.
Never one to pull the ladder up behind him, JBA has also dedicated his time and energy to training and mentoring the next generation of First Nations creatives, most recently as the visionary, founder, CEO and President of western Canada's first subsidized Indigenous film training initiative, under the "one-off/proof of concept" single purpose entity Counting Coup Indigenous Film Academy wherein June 2022 he assembled and engaged a management team to execute a successful trial program in partnership with Old Sun Community College and the Siksika Nation.
This "one-off" trial program was based on his own Production company's internal Pathfinders Training program (Est.2016) which was expanded out and incorporated in late fall of 2023 into the BIPOC training entity Pathfinders Film Institute Corp. ("PFI"). PFI offers subsidized comprehensive and certified film production training programs for aspiring BIPOC storytellers to aid in pursuit of a career in the film and television industry.
As an Indigenous led company JBA recognizes inner city training may not be a viable option for aspiring Indigenous creatives in remote communities. This is why PFI puts a strong focus on forging pathways to connect remote Indigenous communities with the industry to provide the same offered training opportunities by traveling in and/or providing online instruction.
Julian Black Antelope's commitment to his craft, cultural heritage, and fostering the next generation of Indigenous/BIPOC talent through his work on his own projects or through PFI make him an inspiring and influential figure in the entertainment world today.
He credits his sanity, strength and foundation to his spiritual commitment to his cultural practices and is forever grateful for the unwavering support from his wife Tracy and their three beautiful daughters, Sparrow, Emiko and Romin.
His performing career began in the Canadian music scene before transitioning to film and television in the early 2000's where he built his career with an amalgamation of day player roles, stunts and working various crew positions on a steady stream of projects in southern Alberta including DreamWorks/TNT's epic six-part mini-series Into the West (2005)
JBA"s breakout role in a television series would come on the gritty and critically acclaimed Blackstone (2009). Four seasons of Black Antelope's portrayal of Darrien Tailfeathers earned him several accolades including a Canadian Screen Award nomination.
In 2014 JBA was cast as "Mr. Kidd" in John Logan's Penny Dreadful (2014) which took him overseas to Ireland and has since worked consistently nationally and internationally on Film and TV projects such as Dominion Creek (2015), Condor (2018), Dark Justice (2018), Hold the Dark (2018), Debris (2021), The Flash (2014), Prey (2022), Grendel.
An actor with a strong sense of physicality, Black Antelope often plays characters that combine stunt action with a larger-than-life or menacing presence, however his natural comedic sensibility has also been recognized in recent years with television roles in Jann (2019) including his own TV series that he created, wrote, directed and produced The Secret History of: The Wild West (2021) With his Secret History series Julian Black Antelope realized a 10 year dream of producing and creating entertaining, historical programming through the lens of Canadian First Nations. This very personal series in addition to his several producing credits on independent feature film projects like Empyrean (2016) and True Fiction (2019) has cemented JBA to continue writing, directing and producing his own work as his Acting career continues to grow.
Never one to pull the ladder up behind him, JBA has also dedicated his time and energy to training and mentoring the next generation of First Nations creatives, most recently as the visionary, founder, CEO and President of western Canada's first subsidized Indigenous film training initiative, under the "one-off/proof of concept" single purpose entity Counting Coup Indigenous Film Academy wherein June 2022 he assembled and engaged a management team to execute a successful trial program in partnership with Old Sun Community College and the Siksika Nation.
This "one-off" trial program was based on his own Production company's internal Pathfinders Training program (Est.2016) which was expanded out and incorporated in late fall of 2023 into the BIPOC training entity Pathfinders Film Institute Corp. ("PFI"). PFI offers subsidized comprehensive and certified film production training programs for aspiring BIPOC storytellers to aid in pursuit of a career in the film and television industry.
As an Indigenous led company JBA recognizes inner city training may not be a viable option for aspiring Indigenous creatives in remote communities. This is why PFI puts a strong focus on forging pathways to connect remote Indigenous communities with the industry to provide the same offered training opportunities by traveling in and/or providing online instruction.
Julian Black Antelope's commitment to his craft, cultural heritage, and fostering the next generation of Indigenous/BIPOC talent through his work on his own projects or through PFI make him an inspiring and influential figure in the entertainment world today.
He credits his sanity, strength and foundation to his spiritual commitment to his cultural practices and is forever grateful for the unwavering support from his wife Tracy and their three beautiful daughters, Sparrow, Emiko and Romin.