In case no one has noticed the tweets and interviews over the past three years surrounding the original Freeform show Siren, permit me to introduce you to one of the most intriguing characters in the series–Jerry as played by David Kaye. Before this series appeared on the scene a couple of years ago, I was unaware of the work of this talented Vancouver artist, but I’m so grateful to Siren for introducing me to one whose passion is undeniable and whose talent is diverse. Recently, David and I had the opportunity to chat, and it is my honor and privilege to share this interview with all my readers today.
Photo by Taseda Knight
RH: David, it’s really nice to get to chat with you today.
DK: Thanks, Ruth, I appreciate you reaching out. How are you holding up during this time?
We’re doing okay, I guess. Just staying home and trying to keep as busy as possible and not drive the other family members in the household crazy. We live with my parents and my daughter who is almost seventeen. She’s been doing online school, so that’s been a transition. How are things with you?
Photo by Taseda Knight
Pretty good. I’m also hunkering down, but managing to find some things to do. I’m writing a little bit and playing a little bit of music. I’m definitely utilizing all the technologies to keep those who are far away near to my heart. Definitely missing going to a restaurant or going to a cafe and sitting down for a little bit.
I hear you on that. My parents and I don’t go out a lot, but something changes when you’re told you have to stay home and you can’t go out. Suddenly, you want to go out.
Yeah, things look a whole lot more attractive when they’re forbidden.
We just have to keep waiting and grasping onto every piece of hope as things seem to be improving. Well, we hope they are. I’m just glad I get to talk with you, David. I’ve certainly been enjoying Siren over the past two seasons and now even more into the third season.
Oh, I’m so glad.
Make Way For Noddy
Actually, I just made the connection this morning that…when my daughter was younger, we used to watch Make Way For Noddy. I had no idea you were the voice of Noddy!
That was my first major foray into voiceover. It’s something I love to do, and I was really fortunate to break into that scene at a young age. As a result, I met two mentors who have changed the way I look at things. I loved working on that show. It was so much fun.
Honestly, it was a great show. As a single mother raising my daughter in the early 2000s, we watched a lot of children’s programming that I didn’t care for that much–Barney and others. But this was one I didn’t mind sitting and watching with her.
That’s great to hear!
There’s no negative feeling about watching that show like I sometimes have with other shows. There are some that just make me cringe when I remember them. But not Make Way For Noddy. So you actually started out in the acting/voiceover world as a child, right?
Legends of the Fall
Yeah, I was about four when I booked my first film. But really, until I was sixteen, I thought I was gonna be a chef. So it’s been nice during this time of isolation to have a lot of time to cook. I’ve been spending a lot of time in the kitchen. Once I was sixteen, I was working in a restaurant, which gave me a taste of the lifestyle that being a chef would entail. And I realized that I didn’t actually want that. It’s very different to spend time in the kitchen at your own leisure than it is to do it professionally.
From Tour De Feast
After I finished high school, I decided I was going to study abroad for a year. Then when I got home, I decided I was just going to keep acting. I went to the University of British Columbia, and I enrolled in an acting program. I got a Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting, and I kept going. I realized this was the right path for me, and I really did love it. And now, if I could do anything else, I would, but it’s kind of like a drug and I can’t stop. I have no desire to do anything else with my life.
Well, I think that’s how it should be for actors. I think acting should be their passion. I know in any job, there are downsides. You have the positives and the negatives, but if it’s something you’re really passionate about, you won’t want to do anything else. Now, you’re from Saskatchewan, according to what I read.
I was born there, yeah, but I don’t actually remember it all. My family moved to Vancouver shortly after I was born. My parents came to Canada from South Africa. My father’s a doctor. so as a new immigrant with a medical background, he was given the option to go somewhere that needed help developing their medical infrastructure. He had to go to a small town for a minimum of two years, I think, before he could move to a city. So I grew up in Vancouver. I’ve been here pretty much ever since, and I think that’s lent itself to finding acting and finding the film industry. I don’t know if we had moved somewhere else if I would have fallen into this.
Yeah, I get that. Vancouver is where a lot of voice work happens. The voice community in Vancouver is just incredible. So many shows have come out of there. I have lots of friends in the voice community. Giles Panton, Nicole Oliver…
Nice!
I love Andrew!
with Kurt Russell 3000 Miles To Graceland
Definitely. And there are others. Many of these actors I didn’t discover through voiceover, however. It’s usually been due to another show or movie they were in. Then I learned about their voice work later. Now, since you started out at such a young age, did that make it easier to transition from being a kid and doing voice work into being an adult doing voice work?
Um, I think so. For voice work it did. I think I learned a lot of things on the fly as a kid in the sound booth and just being around industry vets who had been doing it forever. Like people who voice characters on my favorite animated shows as I was growing up and just watching them work, I definitely learned a lot from being in the sound booth with them.
Dark Angel with Jessica Alba
But as far as film and TV…I found that there is this weird period where you’re not old enough to play a teenager because all the teenagers are being played by people in their twenties. But you’re also not young enough to play a kid. So there is this weird transitional phase, and then you kind of have to start over because you’re in this entirely new demographic. So that was a different transition for me.
But also when we were in the acting program at UBC, we weren’t allowed to audition for things because it was a theater program. It was very intensive. You’re doing like twelve hours a day, six days a week, so if you did book something, you would let the rest of your ensemble down because halfway through the rehearsal or run of a play, you can’t be like, “Okay, guys, I’ll see you in three months. I’m gonna go shoot something.” But that program definitely left me with a love for theater. Since then, I have done a few live performances. Actually, before all this coronavirus thing happened, I was slated to go to Montreal to work on a workshop production. It was gonna be the world premiere of a new hip-hop musical, and that’s all on hold now. So we’re waiting to see what happens with that.
But yeah, it’s definitely interesting going in the opposite direction of what a lot of people do who grow up with theater and then transition into film, since I kind of went the other way.
Now, this might be a hard question to answer, but as I look over your work…I know we’ve talked about Make Way For Noddy, but you’ve done other voice work as well. Are there any others that really stand out to you?
Noddy was definitely foundational for me, and I’m really grateful for the opportunity that I had to work on that and meet all those people and learn everything I did. But I think one of my other favorite credits now is Polly Pocket. That’s one of my more recent credits. And the reason I say that one is because I finally had the opportunity to do things that I’ve seen other people do in the booth.
Pierce Pocket
When I was younger, one of the things that I was so enamored with and that I’d always wanted to do ever since I saw Michael Dangerfield do it when I was younger is have a scene with myself where I’m playing both characters. I got the opportunity to do that recently, and it was sort of a personal milestone for me. I was really happy with that.
And the other show I will say is White Ninja. It was a passion project of mine. I produced it with a couple of friends, and we took this defunct webcomic and we got the rights to it. We turned it into the first serialized animation for Vine back when Vine was still a thing. I got to play I think like maybe nineteen characters on it because it was a small indie production. And I got to work with some really talented individuals on that, and that was my first foray into producing animation. That was a steep learning curve and a big eye-opener. I’m very happy with how that one turned out.
White Ninja
I was noticing that in your credits. I was gonna ask you about it, but you mentioned it, so that’s great. Now, is it still available out there to watch?
It’s kind of tough to find because Vine went under. You can find some episodes on YouTube, but they’re generally supercut just because of how short Vine videos were. Some of it is available on Facebook. There’s a White Ninja Facebook page. Unfortunately, we put White Ninja to bed after two seasons because it was getting a little bit too hard to find new ways to release it. We developed it for the six-second platform, so we were trying to shove a square peg into a round hole on that one later in the game. It was a great experience and a fantastic opportunity.
But we’re taking what we learned with that, and we’re actually developing a new animated series. This one’s going to be an educational series for three- to five-year-olds. It’s kind of like Peppa the Pig meets Magic School Bus. It’s called Aiden the Alien. It’s about an alien who comes to earth and wants to learn how to be a human child. So he makes some friends, and every episode has a lesson. We have a bunch of childhood specialists attached to consult for this show. We’ve got a pediatric psychiatrist, behavior specialists, a pediatrician, a teacher, etc. But at its core, what Aiden the Alien is about is that sometimes everybody can feel a little bit like an alien. What unites us and the things that should be celebrated are, in fact, our differences. So that’s something that’s definitely in the works. I’m excited to take what we learned on White Ninja and apply it to this new project. I’m in the process of developing it with Tyler Funk, though it’s still in its infancy.
That sounds quite timely, David. I really hope it all comes together for you because it sounds like something that could meet a need in our society.
Thank you, Ruth. We hope so too.
behind-the-scenes Siren
Of course, Siren is the current thing that is airing that you are a part of. We are in the third season, and it is just wonderful. And I’m very glad to see your character, Jerry, come back for this season. I was worried that you might not be back. Wasn’t Jerry gone for a while last season?
Yes, that’s right. You never know when he’s gonna pop up.
{laughs} That’s true! I remember I was so glad when he showed up again because I really thought he might have been gone forever.
It’s so funny. I always felt like he’s the closest person…from the beginning, he’s just on the fringe of knowing the entire time. And he’s absolutely clueless! He’s just living in his own little world. He’s got his own things going on. He has no idea that any of this is going on. I mean, in season one, everything is right under his nose. But he just exists in his own little world. He’s got so many things going on. In episode one this season, he’s in a book club. He’s got all these little things going on that nobody knows about. {laughs} He’s a really fun character to play.
with Fola Evans-Akingbola Siren
I notice that he comes back to season three kind of towards the end of the season. What can you tease about your character and what’s coming up in season three?
You know, I couldn’t tell you what happens because I just don’t know! {laughs}
Yes, I don’t want you to spoil anything anyway. The thing about Jerry is he is a very difficult character to know what’s really going on in his head because I don’t think he always knows what’s going on in his head.
I think you nailed it on that one. I don’t think he knows what’s going on in his head a lot of times. He is very present in the moment, and I think that’s one of the fun things about him. Jerry is just working on whatever is going on at any given moment. I always feel like I’m having a really good day when I’m playing him. I don’t know if it’s because I’m in that mindset of being present and grateful. But it’s a very grounding character.
with Mermen
You know, when I first started playing him, I kind of modeled him after a dog. He’s always happy. Like, “Are we going for a walk?” “Is there a snack?” “Oh, you’re my friend.” “Hi, guys, nice to see you.” “I’m gonna go over here now.” “I’m gonna do this thing.” When you end up watching Jerry again over the seasons, you’ll probably notice his very doglike behavior.
I could kind of see that if I think about it, but I may need to go back and rewatch season one especially. Now, it’s been surprising to see how the fans have responded to the show. Were you expecting the big fan response to the show that you’ve gotten?
I’d say it’s surprising but inevitable. The response for the show has been wonderful to watch. You know, the show touches on so many things that don’t really get talked about on TV. The major underlying issue that it’s dealing with is obviously our environmental impact. The whole reason the “merms” come to land in the first place and get caught is because they’re trying to adapt to their environment. They haven’t been able to get enough food. Their population is dwindling because their environment has been damaged to the point where we see last season where their population isn’t even growing.
with mermaids
Then to other things, it’s like shining a mirror on our societal structures historically speaking and seeing that the mermaid culture is a matriarchal culture. To even having a non-traditional relationship. We’ve got a polyamorous relationship in the show, and it has been shown as a loving, communicative relationship. The show touches on these things as reality and not necessarily as issues.
It’s been really cool to be a part of this show. I think one reason we have a lot of fans that we do is because people are seeing themselves or their beliefs or issues that they feel strongly about being represented on the show.
some of the Siren 3 Cast
Then, of course, mermaids. Mermaids are so cool. And I didn’t realize this till the show came out that there’s a big mermaid culture out there. I had no idea the amount of time and money and energy people devote to their mermaid life. I had no idea that you could spend ten thousand dollars on a mermaid tail. {laughs} I didn’t know that was a thing! But now from the show, I’ve seen all this amazing mermaid artwork and photography. And some of these people are amazingly talented free divers. They go with these elaborate tails and do beautiful photo shoots that appear to be extremely deep underwater. Now I’m privy to all of that, and it was so eye-opening, and I’m really grateful for all the people who have free-shot all the merfolk and who have reached out.
Wow, I wasn’t aware of all that either. When I first hear mermaids, I think automatically of Disney’s Little Mermaid. But this is not The Little Mermaid! And the special effects are better than almost anything I’ve seen on any other show. I’m just blown away by the transformation scenes, especially the first time I saw it. Now we’re spoiled, and that’s what we expect every time. And I love Ryn and Helen. Definitely my favorite characters.
With Eline Powell (Ryn)
They are amazing as is everything about the show. One thing that goes without saying for the show is the writing. The writing is so good. Yeah, like you said, the first time you talk with someone about the show and you mention mermaids, they go, “Little Mermaid.” But then you can explain it to them like this. Imagine that mermaids were real and they were apex predators. They can come on land and don’t even realize it. The concept of the show is amazing. The writing staff is so good, and we wouldn’t be anywhere without them. And you’re right on the money. Ryn’s character is what hooks them. Eline Powell is such a powerhouse, and it is so amazing to work with her or just watch her work. If you track her character over the show, you’ll notice that her physicality becomes more human as the show goes on. Her speech pattern gets more fluid as the show moves on. Just watching her track that and implement that is such a testament to her talent. All the mermaid communication and their body language that everybody else has adopted has all been developed by Eline. She’s done so much for the show. It’s been such a blessing watching her work.
with Rena Owen
I can totally believe that. Other’s I’ve interviewed have raved about Eline too. Watching her be the leader and still be feminine is really a treat. And sometimes she still has the childlike innocence about her, and I love that. Not all shows have so many strong women in them like Siren.
You’re right there.
So without giving away any spoilers, what can you tease about the rest of season three?
Well, I will say that we have some fantastic surprises in store for you. I’m very excited about what Tiffany Lonsdale, the woman who plays Tia, has in store for everybody. The whole storyline is just dynamite. I’m also really excited to see what the Siren fandom is bringing to season three. War is coming.
More of the Siren 3 cast
We definitely know that. And I must say I agree with you about the writers and the acting. You all have raised the bar again this season, and I am hopeful for a season four.
I’m hoping for that too, Ruth.
I notice you were also a part of the recently-canceled show, Project Blue Book. I’ve almost made it to your episode!
Yes, I got to be in episode ten of what is now the final season, unless something changes.
This show is one I didn’t expect to like, but I’ve loved it from the beginning.
Project Blue Book
It’s a great show, and it’s based on a true story. The cast is so good. I remember when I found out I was going to get to work on Project Blue Book, I was so excited just to be on the same set as Aidan Gillen. I remember the first time I saw him. I don’t get starstruck very often, but when I walked out on set, I was like, “Oh my gosh, there he is!” {laughs} Just watching him work, you can tell he’s so very good at what he does. You can see it in everything he’s worked on. I’m a huge Game of Thrones fan. Just watching him work with the director and work the camera…it was so technically brilliant.
Well, when I get to your episode, I’ll definitely keep an eye out for you.
All I’ll say is that it’s a very different role for me. It’s a bit of a departure from what I’ve done in the past.
So in addition to Siren and this new animated series you’re working on, is there anything else upcoming that you can mention?
behind-the-scenes Siren
I’m writing a feature-length screenplay right now, so that’s one project that’s near and dear to my heart. I actually started writing it back in 2013, but because I’m not a very proficient typist, I handwrite everything before I type it out. I actually lost the notebook a couple of years ago, and recently when I was cleaning out my apartment, I found it again. Last year, I found the notebook, and I finished my first draft. I will say it was interesting watching what early-to-mid-twenty-something David’s take on the story was. I got a few friends together just so I could hear it out loud for a table read, and the first half read like a raunchy rom-com, and the second half read like a gritty drama. So I’m going back now and retooling it. I’ve definitely matured a lot as both a human and a writer, so it will be interesting to see what comes out of it. It’s been tough to almost start from square one with it because I couldn’t go back and retool the scenes that I had already written. I had to start from scratch with it. But it’s been a very interesting exercise and a very cool learning curve.
That’s one of the things I love about acting. It’s just telling stories, and that’s kind of all I want to do. I don’t care if it’s reading a bedtime story to my cousin or coming up with crazy voices to tell stories that are animated or being a part of an amazing series like Siren. I just love telling stories, and that’s what I’m going to continue to do.
David, that’s just amazing, and I’m happy for you that you are continuing to pursue your passions. Here’s hoping things return to a semblance of normalcy so far, but until then, it sounds like you’re keeping busy. And thankfully, we’ve got a few more episodes of Siren to watch to finish out the season.
Thank you, Ruth, I really appreciate your support, and I hope the fans enjoy the rest of season three. We wouldn’t be here without the Siren fans.
2018 Leo Awards
As David and I chatted, I was immeasurably impressed with his work ethic, his intuitive nature, and his unadulterated authenticity. When I first interview an actor–especially a young person like David–I never know exactly the direction we may end up taking. I am always ready to jump in and steer the conversation towards a logical route, but with David, he didn’t require much prompting from me. Possibly, that is because he has been a part of the acting world since he was four years old, and even when he wasn’t certain this would be his ultimate career choice, his passion flowed through his veins in a fashion that thrills me to no end. While Jerry is a relatively small character in one sense, he is a character that is remarkable and entertaining, and I have no doubt that David is a tremendous part of the reason that the fans remember him and connect with him. Yes, the show has solid writing, notable stars, and a hard-working crew, but unless each person brings his/her A-game, the show will suffer. And in the case of David playing Jerry, he was able to elevate this character to such an amazing height that he is firmly established within the community of Bristol Cove (even when he’s physically absent).
If you have not had the opportunity to watch and enjoy Siren, I would invite you to check it out on Freeform or Hulu for past episodes (or ABC Spark in Canada) and join us Thursday nights for the remaining few episodes of season three. Additionally, if you are so inclined, please visit all of David’s links below and consider following him on your preferred social media platform. (He often shares more on Instagram, but he does do some live-tweeting now and then.) Even though David is a seasoned veteran in the business, he has had to recreate who he is as he has matured, and it is fully evident that his process and commitment are firmly establishing himself within the film and TV universe. I do hope that a season four will be granted to Siren and that his character Jerry will make an appearance, but even so, I have no doubt that David will continue to actively pursue his dreams within this business and make those visions a reality because of his determination, persistence, giftedness, humility, and appreciation. Indeed, he is a quiet, but steadfast force with which to be reckoned, and I am pleased to support him in all current and future endeavors!
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SIREN – “Interview with a Mermaid” – Dale and the local policeÕs investigation starts pointing directly to Ryn, meanwhile Xander and CalvinÕs search for Chris heats up when they locate the nurse who works at the military bunker. This episode of “SIren” airs Thursday, April 5 (8:00 – 9:01 p.m. EDT) on Freeform. (Freeform/David Bukach) DAVID KAYE
with Tammy Gillis
