Stacey Farber

Career

In her role as Ellie Nash on Degrassi: The Next Generation, Farber plays a troubled young girl who has problems with depression and cutting, while dealing with an alcoholic mother. Stacey started off as a recurring character in the show's second season, but was promoted to a regular role in the third season and continued until the end of season seven. For her work on Degrassi, Stacey was nominated for Canada's top acting award, a Gemini Award, in the category 'Best Performance in a Youth Program or Series'.

In addition to playing Ellie in Degrassi, Farber also appeared in the 2001 Canadian short film Bagatelle. She played Young Kathryn in the 2002 crime film, Narc, she guest starred as Lacy Sanders on an episode of the television drama Doc, and guest hosted the 2004-05 season finale of The N's Best Friend's Date. She also plays Mary in the animated science fiction series Dark Oracle. As well, she appeared as herself in Instant Star and in 2006 she had a mini-series on The N's The Click titled Stacey's NYC 101. In addition to her screen work, Farber has appeared in various stage productions, including Love, Loss and What I Wore.

Farber was also one of the last three actresses auditioning for the self-titled role in Juno, which Ellen Page eventually landed. Coincidentally, Daniel Clark, who acted as her onscreen love interest for two seasons of Degrassi, originally auditioned for the role of Bleeker, Juno's love interest. The role eventually went to Michael Cera, while Clark landed a smaller role as jock Steve Rendazo.

From 2010–2011, Farber starred in 18 to Life with Michael Seater. The CBC/CW series featured Seater marrying literal girl-next-door Farber at age 18, against both sets of parents' wishes. The pilot was actually filmed in 2008 in Montreal, with the further eleven episodes filmed in summer 2010. Critic Raju Mudhar wrote in the Toronto Star that the series had an "almost Juno-like quality". While disliking the series, he suggested the leads have "some chemistry and both are compelling, young actors to watch." The two were described as "getting along famously" in real life, having met only for the TV movie Degrassi Goes Hollywood. Farber's mother on the series was played by Angela Asher, who appeared with Farber before that in Made... The Movie. The series was nominated for a Gemini Award for best ensemble performance.

Personal life

Farber was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is from a Jewish family. She graduated in 2005 from the all-girls private school Branksome Hall. Farber completed her first year of university at York University in Toronto in 2007. She transferred to and, in 2009, graduated from The New School university's Eugene Lang College in New York and was an intern at Teen Vogue. She finished her internship in Teen Vogue's Web Department in May 2008; her last Intern Blog entry was made on May 8, 2008.