Keshia Chanté is Thrilled to Join JANN as a Character Who is Naive, Excited, and Comedically Annoying!

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede Keshia Chanté immediately understood the comedic tone required for her role in Season 2 of JANN. “She’s someone who is a fan of Jann’s, and is just so excited to be here, but it could come across as annoying,” said the well-known Canadian singer, songwriter, and TV host. “The character is not dumb, but she’s just young, naive, and excited. So yeah, I wanted to take it on.” Chanté’s character, Nia Taylor, is introduced in Monday’s all-new episode of JANN, airing at 8 p.m. ET on CTV. The Nia character also returns later on in the season. Nia seems to have been perfectly designed to get under the skin of the fictionalized Jann, played by the real-life Jann Arden. Nia is bubbly, pretty, selfless, has a great voice, and is a new client of Jann’s former manager Todd, played by Jason Blicker. “In my mind, the theme for my character was someone who might say, ‘Oh my God, Jann, I love you, my grandmother has your vinyl on the wall,’ you know?” Chanté said with a laugh. “She’s that type of girl where others would be like, ‘ah, that’s not appropriate.’ But she doesn’t know. That’s exactly what I was aiming for.” Chanté is a JUNO Award winner who focused on singing and acting in the early days of her career, and later became well-known as a TV host. More recently, Chanté – who lives in Los Angeles – started taking an acting class, for reasons that were both personal and professional. “I was just kind of getting into the craft, not necessarily to do it for real, but I love to act, I love the people in that world, and I wanted to make friends,” Chanté said. “I wanted to put in my 10,000 hours, because I knew this was something that I could be doing for years. Obviously, I make music, and I host TV, I already have a lot on my plate. But then the owner of the school basically said to me, ‘You should be auditioning. You’re ready.’ So I thought, okay, maybe I should call my team and see what kind of projects are out there.” Then Chanté saw the casting call for JANN, liked the character, and decided to go for it. “I had already seen the first season, and Jann is hilarious – not only on the show, but just over the years, I think we even presented a JUNO Award one year,” Chanté said. “She’s such a joy to be around. I find her to be inspiring. And I love the way she is even as a character, because she’s authentically herself in an alter-ego way. She has perfected it. What can’t she do, honestly? She’s just a great mentor to have when you’re getting back into acting like this.” Other well-known musicians, such as Sarah McLachlan, have played fictionalized versions of themselves in episodes of JANN, but because of Chanté’s path to this role, and her determination to hone her acting skills, she’s keen to become Nia Taylor. “Yeah, I want to play a role – I’ve played myself before, and something similar to myself before, but I wanted to do something like this,” Chanté said. “This show is so great. To come back into acting in this way, with somebody as iconic as Jann, and to play this character, it was all just super fun. I know my whole family is so excited. They love the show, so they’re thrilled that I get to be part of Season 2.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv