Samantha Kaine

Samantha Kaine
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Portrays:	Off-duty Crew Person
Date of Birth:	January 25, 1973
Date of Death:	Missing required parameter 1=month!
Age:	53
Nationality:	CAN
Related Media
		@ BW Media
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IMDb profile

Samantha Kaine (born Samantha Banton) is a Jamaican-Canadian actor, producer, and activist who portrayed an off-duty crew person in the Re-imagined Series episode "Someone to Watch Over Me". Born on 25 January 1973 in Runaway Bay, St. Ann's Parish, Jamaica, she began her career in theatre before moving into film and television, and has also worked extensively as a creative producer in the Canadian industry.

Career

Kaine began her professional career on stage before transitioning to on-screen work in the early 2000s. Her early screen credits include the television series Undressed (2002) and a role as Black Bachelorette in George Clooney's directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002). She subsequently appeared in the drama series Soul Food (2003) and secured guest roles in two episodes of Smallville (2004) and two episodes of Stargate SG-1 (2005).

Further television appearances followed throughout the mid-to-late 2000s, including The L Word, the television film Man in the Mirror: The Michael Jackson Story (2004), the crime drama Black Widower (2006), Flash Gordon (2008), and the television film The Perfect Assistant (2008). In 2009, she appeared in "Someone to Watch Over Me," the seventeenth episode of the fourth season of Battlestar Galactica.

In the 2010s, Kaine's credits included the short films Cold Blooded (2012) and Baby Half Lie (2013), as well as guest appearances in Degrassi (2014), Saving Hope (2015), Rookie Blue (2015), and the drama series Shoot the Messenger (2016).

In 2020, she appeared in the Netflix miniseries Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker as a temporary desk security guard. She took on the recurring role of Detective Petra Weintrager in The Baker (2021–2023) and appeared as Helen in the action-comedy film The Retirement Plan (2023), directed by Tim Brown and starring Nicolas Cage, Ashley Greene, Ron Perlman, Jackie Earle Haley, and Ernie Hudson.

Producing career

In addition to her acting work, Kaine is also an active producer in the Canadian film and television industry. As owner of Red11 Productions Inc., her producer credits include the award-winning short films Willing to Lie and The Women of Alpine Road. She developed, co-wrote, and produced the six-part TV documentary series Offbeat Roads – The Danakil Diaries (2013), which followed sixteen cyclists through the Danakil region of Ethiopia and was sold to broadcast territories including France, Brazil, Hungary, and Israel.

Kaine is an alumna of the Cineplex Entertainment Producers' Lab Program at the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto.

Industry advocacy

Kaine is the founder and executive director of the Independent Media Producers Association of Creative Talent (IMPACT), a national non-profit organization created to combat systemic anti-Black racism and open pathways for Black, Afro-Indigenous, and other marginalized producers in the Canadian film, television, digital media, and music industries. She launched IMPACT in conjunction with the Toronto International Film Festival in 2020, telling The Hollywood Reporter: "I've been working in this industry for over ten years and the doors have been closed to me. There were opportunities I felt I should have had, when it came to funding and pitching broadcasters on shows, and they weren't open to me." IMPACT also launched a Producers Pledge, a coalition effort that raised more than CA$160,000 to support traditionally under-represented filmmakers.

References