BY J.M. LEE
Angela Moore has been a professional actress for over 30 years in film, TV, and theatre. Notable performances include guest-starring in Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, principal roles in Amazon’s The Stand and Netflix’s Maid, supporting lead in Lifetime’s The Christmas Aunt, and recurring roles on ABC’s The Good Doctor and A Million Little Things, as well as playing Darlene Fowler in the CW’s Nancy Drew. In 2016, she was nominated for a Leo in the Best Supporting Actress category for the web series CODED. She is a series regular as Bakta on the MGM+ series FROM, which premiered its third season last fall.
Angela is a proud mother and devout Buddhist who creates value in her and others’ lives. As past Chair of the BIPOC Committee and past co-chair of the Women’s Committee, she recently completed two terms as an Executive Board Director at UBCP/ACTRA, earned a certificate in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at UBC, and received the UBCP/ACTRA Honorary Life Member Award and the International Women’s Day Award in March 2025.
“Growing up in a working-class family, my hard-working Bajan parents in Toronto instilled education in their three daughters,” Angela says. “My sisters earned university degrees and became educators, but Cicely Tyson’s electric performance in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman planted the seed of acting in my heart, where it flourished. After two years at York University, I pursued further studies at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.”
Angela started her career in Toronto, but moved west and got married. Elected to the Executive Board of their performers’ union, she sought to implement lasting changes that benefited women and performers of color. A couple of female board directors and their president taught her how to run meetings. She chaired the BIPOC committee while co-chairing the Women’s Committee. She became one of the national councillors and represented their branch at biennial national meetings in Toronto.
“Throughout the Me Too Movement fallout, our women’s committee held town halls so women-identifying members could gather in privacy to share their traumatic stories and receive support from professional counsellors. That inspired women’s committee chair Enid-Raye Adams and me to advocate for trauma-informed reporting policies in sexual harassment cases.”
The Black Lives Matter movement emerged during the pandemic, and everyone realized systemic oppression was real. The film and television industry was not immune to systemic racism. Their committee gathered racialized performers to share their journeys with the membership through roundtable discussions.
It surprised Angela how challenging it was to hear women’s voices.
“Often, we have to repeat what we say. What’s critical is to be brave and not silent. Black women, in particular, have learned that speaking up makes us extremely vulnerable, and our voices are mischaracterized as aggressive and problematic. Audre Lorde once said, ‘Your silence will not protect you.’ I indeed found this to be true.”
Quoting a statement from respected advocate for 2SLGBTQ+ Stan Mitchell, ‘If you claim to be someone’s ally, but you aren’t getting hit by the stones thrown at them, you aren’t standing close enough.’
“We must not let complacency chip away at all the progress we have made for women and racialized folk.” We can only do that by working together. Through those who had privilege, I learned how to use it to draw people’s attention to others’ plights.
She’s proud to be one of the first people in her union to address hair and makeup inequities for racialized performers—a topic that’s only now being discussed globally. “Our courageous performers of color shared their voices and stories during negotiations with American and Canadian producers. This was so that ACTRA, our national organization, and UBCP/ACTRA could make groundbreaking gains in their collective agreements around equity in hair and makeup.” This type of advocacy comes at a significant emotional cost.
“Performers are storytellers, and we can shape how we portray humanity’s pulse. I believe an intense and burning flame exists in the artist’s heart to speak truth to power. I hope that I can inspire other women to support one another in the face of misogyny and racism.”
Angela’s mother never got to live her dream of being a singer until later in life, but she always supported her daughter. “My mother struggled her whole life to give her daughters the life she never had,” Angela says with wistful longing. “In my life now, I sing my mother’s song in my heart, determined to live with courage and authenticity.”
