Canadian Screen Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series

The Canadian Screen Award for Best Actress in Comedy Series is an annual Canadian television award, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best leading performance by an actress in a Canadian television comedy series.

The award was first presented in 1986 as part of the Gemini Awards. However, as Canadian television comedy was dominated by sketch comedy rather than narrative sitcoms in the late 1980s, the awards for Best Actress and Best Actor in a Comedy Series were discontinued after 1987,Mike Boone, "Gemini Awards highlight enduring problems of Canadian TV". Montreal Gazette, November 30, 1998. with only a single gender-neutral award presented for Best Performance in a Comedy thereafter; separate awards for Individual Performance in a Comedy and Ensemble Performance in a Comedy were introduced for the 16th Gemini Awards in 2001, but were still not separated for gender."CTV's Nuremberg leads Gemini nominations". The Telegram, September 18, 2001.

With the revival of scripted narrative comedy series in the 2000s, separate awards for actors and actresses were reinstated in 2011, and have been presented since then as part of the Canadian Screen Awards.

In August 2022, the Academy announced that beginning with the 11th Canadian Screen Awards in 2023, a gender-neutral award for Best Leading Performance in a Comedy Series will be presented.Joseph Pugh, [https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/csa-gender-neutral-performance-1.6561219 "Canadian Screen Awards switching to gender-neutral performance categories"]. CBC News, August 25, 2022.

1980s

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! style="width:19%;"| Actor

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! style="width:2%;"| Ref

rowspan="4" align="center"| 1986
1st Gemini Awards
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| Martha Gibson

| Seeing Things

| "Green Gables big Gemini awards winner". Windsor Star, December 5, 1986.

Lally Cadeau

| Hangin' In

| rowspan=2| Sid Adilman, "Anne leads field in Geminis race". Toronto Star, October 16, 1986.

Janet-Laine Green

| Seeing Things

rowspan="5" align="center"| 1987
2nd Gemini Awards
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| Dinah Christie

| Check it Out!

| Bill Anderson, "Seeing Things shines in Gemini spotlight". Ottawa Citizen, December 10, 1987.

Lally Cadeau

| Hangin' In

| rowspan=3| John Haslett Cuff, "Seeing Things, Night Heat top Gemini nomination list". The Globe and Mail, October 22, 1987.

Martha Gibson

| Seeing Things

Janet-Laine Green

| Seeing Things

2010s

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! style="width:8%;"| Year

! style="width:19%;"| Actor

! style="width:19%;"| Series

! style="width:2%;"| Ref

rowspan="5" align="center"| 2011
26th Gemini Awards
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| Tracy Dawson

| Call Me Fitz

| Raju Mudhar, "Fitz nabs most Geminis: Top drama and comedy prizes go to The Borgias and Rick Mercer Report". Toronto Star, September 8, 2011.

Angela Asher

| 18 to Life

| rowspan=3| Mishki Vaccaro, [https://torontolife.com/culture/26th-annual-gemini-nominations-announced/ "Gemini nominations announced: Flashpoint leads, once again, and controversial Kennedys miniseries gets some nods"]. Toronto Life, August 4, 2011.

Grace Lynn Kung

| InSecurity

Brooke Nevin

| Call Me Fitz

rowspan="6" align="center"| 2012
1st Canadian Screen Awards
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| Wendel Meldrum

| Less Than Kind

| Linda Barnard, "A first night to remember: 'Amazing ride' for Rebelle at inaugural Canadian Screen Awards". Toronto Star, March 4, 2013.

Jennifer Irwin

| Mr. D

| rowspan=4| Diane Wild, [https://www.tv-eh.com/2013/01/15/canadian-screen-award-nominations-announced/ "Canadian Screen Award nominations announced". TV, eh?, January 15, 2013.

Cathy Jones

| This Hour Has 22 Minutes

Natalie Lisinska

| InSecurity

Tommie-Amber Pirie

| Michael: Tuesdays and Thursdays

rowspan="5" align="center"| 2013
2nd Canadian Screen Awards
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| Tracy Dawson

| Call Me Fitz

| Linda Barnard, [https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2014/03/09/enemy_biggest_movie_winner_at_canadian_screen_awards.html "Enemy biggest movie winner at Canadian Screen Awards"]. Toronto Star, March 9, 2014.

Wendel Meldrum

| Less Than Kind

| rowspan=3| Chris Jancelewicz, [https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/01/13/canadian-screen-awards-2014-nominees-list_n_4589628.html "Canadian Screen Awards 2014: Nominees Announced For TV And Movie Honours"]. The Huffington Post, January 13, 2014.

Carrie-Lynn Neales

| Seed

Nancy Sorel

| Less Than Kind

rowspan="6" align="center"| 2014
3rd Canadian Screen Awards
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| Joanna Cassidy

| Call Me Fitz

| Norman Wilner, [https://nowtoronto.com/canadian-screen-awards-2015-the-rundown "Canadian Screen Awards 2015: The Rundown"]. Now, March 2, 2015.

Andrea Martin

| Working the Engels

| rowspan=4| [https://playbackonline.ca/2015/01/13/canadian-screen-awards-15-performance-categories/ "Canadian Screen Awards ’15: Performance categories"]. Playback, January 13, 2015.

Carrie-Lynn Neales

| Seed

Kacey Rohl

| Working the Engels

Julia Voth

| Package Deal

rowspan="5" align="center"| 2015
4th Canadian Screen Awards
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| Catherine O'Hara

| Schitt's Creek

| [https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/canadian-screen-awards-1.3487365 "Canadian Screen Awards 2016: Schitt's Creek, Orphan Black and Room win big"]. CBC News, March 11, 2016.

Brittany LeBorgne

| Mohawk Girls

| rowspan=4| Brent Furdyk, [https://web.archive.org/web/20160615210251/http://etcanada.com/news/37268/2016-canadian-screen-awards-nominees-announced/ "2016 Canadian Screen Awards Nominees Announced"]. ET Canada, January 19, 2016.

Annie Murphy

| Schitt's Creek

Belinda Cornish

| Tiny Plastic Men

rowspan="6" align="center"| 2016
5th Canadian Screen Awards
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| Catherine O'Hara

| Schitt's Creek

| Sarah Murphy, [https://exclaim.ca/film/article/heres_the_complete_list_of_2017_canadian_screen_awards_winners "Here's the Complete List of 2017 Canadian Screen Awards Winners"]. Exclaim!, March 13, 2017.

Andrea Bang

| Kim's Convenience

| rowspan=4| [https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/canadian-screen-awards-nominations-1.3938015 "Orphan Black, Schitt's Creek, Kim's Convenience up for Canadian Screen Awards"]. CBC News, January 17, 2017.

Kim Cattrall

| Sensitive Skin

Jennifer Dale

| What Would Sal Do?

Jean Yoon

| Kim's Convenience

rowspan="6" align="center"| 2017
6th Canadian Screen Awards
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| Catherine O'Hara

| Schitt's Creek

| [https://www.hellomagazine.com/celebrities/20180312127718/canadian-screen-awards-2018-winners/ "Canadian Screen Awards 2018: All the winners"]. Hello! Canada, March 12, 2018.

Andrea Bang

| Kim's Convenience

| rowspan=4| Bridget Liszewski, [https://thetvjunkies.com/snap-judgment-canadian-screen-award-nominations-2018/ "Snap Judgment: Canadian Screen Award Nominations 2018"]. The TV Junkies, January 16, 2018.

Annie Murphy

| Schitt's Creek

Catherine Reitman

| Workin' Moms

Jean Yoon

| Kim's Convenience

rowspan="6" align="center"| 2018
7th Canadian Screen Awards
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| Catherine O'Hara

| Schitt's Creek

| Brent Furdyk, [https://globalnews.ca/news/5117039/2019-canadian-screen-awards-winners/ "2019 Canadian Screen Awards: Complete list of winners from TV gala"]. Global News, April 1, 2019.

Dani Kind

| Workin' Moms

| rowspan=4|

Annie Murphy

| Schitt's Creek

Catherine Reitman

| Workin' Moms

Cindy Sampson

| Private Eyes

rowspan="6" align="center"| 2019
8th Canadian Screen Awards
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| Catherine O'Hara

| Schitt's Creek

| Brent Furdyk, [https://web.archive.org/web/20200606215950/https://etcanada.com/news/649789/canadian-screen-awards-winners-announced-for-scripted-drama-comedy-categories/ "Canadian Screen Awards: Winners Announced For Scripted Drama, Comedy Categories"]. ET Canada, May 27, 2020.

Jann Arden

| Jann

| rowspan=4| Heather Cichowski, [https://www.hellomagazine.com/celebrities/20200218127606/2020-canadian-screen-awards-schitts-creek-26-nominations/ "2020 Canadian Screen Awards: 'Schitt's Creek' dominates with 26 nominations"]. Hello! Canada, February 18, 2020.

Annie Murphy

| Schitt's Creek

Michelle Mylett

| Letterkenny

Jean Yoon

| Kim's Convenience

2020s

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! style="width:2%;"| Ref

rowspan="6" align="center"| 2020
9th Canadian Screen Awards
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| Catherine O'Hara

| Schitt's Creek

| Naman Ramachandran, [https://variety.com/2021/tv/global/schitts-creek-blood-quantum-canadian-screen-awards-1234978520/ "‘Schitt’s Creek,’ ‘Blood Quantum’ Triumph at Canadian Screen Awards"]. Variety, May 21, 2021.

Dani Kind

| Workin' Moms

| rowspan=4| Brent Furdyk, [https://web.archive.org/web/20210330100408/https://etcanada.com/news/762146/television-nominees-announced-for-2021-canadian-screen-awards-schitts-creek-leads-the-pack-with-21-nominations/ "Television Nominees Announced For 2021 Canadian Screen Awards, ‘Schitt’s Creek’ Leads The Pack With 21 Nominations"]. ET Canada, March 30, 2021.

Annie Murphy

| Schitt's Creek

Catherine Reitman

| Workin' Moms

Jean Yoon

| Kim's Convenience

rowspan="6" align="center"| 2021
10th Canadian Screen Awards
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| Jean Yoon

| Kim's Convenience

| Adina Bresge, [https://www.cp24.com/entertainment-news/scarborough-top-film-winner-at-canadian-screen-awards-1.5856024 "'Scarborough' top film winner at Canadian Screen Awards"]. CP24, April 10, 2022.

Jann Arden

| Jann

| rowspan=4| Brent Furdyk, [https://web.archive.org/web/20220215130202/https://etcanada.com/news/867531/2022-canadian-screen-awards-nominees-announced/ "2022 Canadian Screen Award Nominees Announced, ‘Sort Of’ & ‘Scarborough’ Lead The Pack"]. ET Canada, February 15, 2022.

Andrea Bang

| Kim's Convenience

Dani Kind

| Workin' Moms

Meredith MacNeill

| Pretty Hard Cases

References