Camryn Chew

Camryn Chew (she/her) is an actor and educator living and working on the unceded lands of the Sc̓əwaθən Məsteyəxʷ (Tsawwassen), xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She is a 2020 graduate of Capilano University’s Acting for Stage and Screen program, where she played Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. She most recently appeared as an actor/collaborator in Delta Stageworks’ newly devised show Heirlooms & Baggage (My Mother’s Story) which has toured to South Delta, North Delta, & Salt Spring Island. Her new original one-act play Can’t Cope recently debuted as a reading at the Arts Club’s LEAP Festival. Camryn works as a teaching artist at Carousel Theatre & Bard on the Beach, as well as at various schools and theatre companies across the Lower Mainland.

I think that it’s important to support the creative development of Asian Canadian artists and productions because there are a lot of stories that go untold. As a co-creator of Delta Stageworks’ original devised play Heirlooms & Baggage (My Mother’s Story) I researched and dived into parts of my family’s history that I didn’t previously know about, such as how my great-grandfather was forced to pay the Chinese Head Tax to come over to Canada and work to send money back to his family in China who were devastated by poverty and war. Due to the Chinese Exclusion Act, he didn’t get to meet my grandfather until he was 12 years old. This has prompted me to seek out talking to others with similar stories – when we share our stories in community it helps us to feel connected and less alone.