Details
Union:
Union
Area of media:
TV Series
Network:
Paid?:
Yes
Rates:
ACTRA
Deadline:
Aug 14, 2026
Auditions:
week of Aug 17-21 - exact dates TBC
Shooting starts:
Late Spring of 2027
Shooting locations:
Winnipeg and Area
Cities for response:
Winnipeg
Comments
We are wanting to get ahead of potential theatre bookings for next spring that might make people unavailable for this fantastic project. We would like to cast as many MB actors as we can and it is an extraordinary project that you will want to be a part of.
In this moment, we are only looking in Manitoba ONLY for lead/supporting characters who file taxes in MB.
In this moment, we are only looking in Manitoba ONLY for lead/supporting characters who file taxes in MB.
Storyline
Complicated Kindness is a 6-part limited series that balances dark comedy with a slow-burn mystery.
Abandoned by half their family, sixteen-year-old Nomi Nickel and her gentle, devout father Ray cling to each other in a fundamentalist Mennonite town - until Nomi's search for the truth about what happened to her mother puts her on a collision course with the community, and forces Ray to choose between his faith, his standing, and the only person he has left.
Abandoned by half their family, sixteen-year-old Nomi Nickel and her gentle, devout father Ray cling to each other in a fundamentalist Mennonite town - until Nomi's search for the truth about what happened to her mother puts her on a collision course with the community, and forces Ray to choose between his faith, his standing, and the only person he has left.
Roles
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Lead | NOMI | Female 16 - 18 Years old |
Description NOMI NICKEL (16) is a curious and sardonic young woman with a wicked sense of humour that is trapped inside her, just as she is trapped in a small Mennonite town. Once devout like her doleful father Ray, Nomi is beginning to question the world around her now that her mother Trudie hasn’t come home. Nomi’s adolescence is shaped by the breakup of her family; fiercely loyal to her father, she believes she must stay in East Village for his sake. She yearns to find herself and where she belongs, express herself, and live loudly. Inquisitive by nature, her compulsive questioning brings her into conflict with the town’s authorities. She has rebellious and iconoclastic tendencies, she is empathetic and quick to help others who are vulnerable and overlooked. CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Lead | RAY NICKEL | Male 38 - 50 Years old |
Description RAY NICKEL (40s) Nomi’s quiet, reserved father and patriarch of the Nickel family: a bit stooped, formally dressed; gentle, soft-spoken, indecisive. He is a committed teacher at the local elementary school, and a man of faith who has not missed Sunday church in over ten years - the only life he’s ever known. He survives the unforgiving conformism of East Village by toeing the line and trying to be a perfect citizen. Inevitably, he is caught between the “laws” of the town and his love for his family. Ray deals with his manic depression in private, and while he is a man of few words, he deeply loves his daughter and wants what is best for her – though he doesn’t always know what that is. A side effect of Ray’s inner conflict is that he is often funny to others, even when he isn’t trying to be. CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Supporting Lead | LIDS | Female 16 - 18 Years old |
Description LYDIA “LIDS” VOTH (16) is Nomi’s best friend. She comes from an ultra-conservative but loving family. She has an ethereal, haunted beauty, as do all nine of her brothers and sisters. Nomi loves Lids because she doesn’t judge anyone. As a young girl, Lids was a free spirit like Nomi. They were each other’s escape, until one day when it all took a turn. Now 16, Lids’ cousin has been sent to stay with the Voth family in the hopes that he might make her a wife -- all the duties and confinements of female adulthood approachesCAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Supporting Lead | TRAVIS | Male 18 - 20 Years old |
Description TRAVIS KLIPPENSTEIN (18) is Nomi’s erstwhile boyfriend. He left high school to works for his father laying carpets and he also does the odd shift at the Mennonite Village Museum, pretending to be old fashioned for the American tourists. He postures as a broad-minded Bohemian who wants to escape to Montreal, but in the end proves to be just another pawn of the Church and familial duty. CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Supporting Lead | PASTOR HANS | Male 38 - 45 Years old |
Description PASTOR HANS ROSENFELDT (40s) is Trudie’s brother, Nomi’s uncle — referred to as “The Mouth” by Tash and Nomi — and the weak but domineering pastor of the Church. A long time ago he tried to escape the community by going to Winnipeg, the nearest city, to be a Bohemian provocateur, but was only mocked. He returned to East Village to rule with an iron fist. Many people in the town are afraid of him, as he revels in casting shame. CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Supporting Lead | WILDA FUNK | Female 24 - 28 Years old |
Description WILDA FUNK (26) is a young mother of two who moved to East Village after thesudden death of her husband at the hands of a thresher. Ray is assigned to be the lovely widow’s gutman, a handyman for the community’s unmarried women. Nomi can’t help but feel that Ray is replacing her with pious Wilda’s family. In reality, Wilda is quietly drawn to Ray’s shared faith and loneliness. A newcomer with her own grief, Wilda has a deep empathy for Ray and the Nickel family. CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Supporting Lead | TRUDIE NICKEL | Female 38 - 45 Years old |
Description TRUDIE NICKEL (40s), Nomi’s mother, is spirited, beautiful, and fun when she’s not acting strangely. She is known in the town as a crazy rebel. She loves Ray and her daughters but is frustrated with Ray’s abiding loyalty to the “rules” of the town. She feels overwhelmed by the pressure to be a model wife and citizen, especially since she is the church pastor’s sister: she does all the things a Mennonite wife should do. She attempts to preserve her sense of individual freedom without openly confronting the “system”, but this quiet protest is not enough, and she acts out in more radical and illicit ways until, finally, she’s excommunicated. CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Supporting | MR. QUIRING | Male 38 - 45 Years old |
Description MR. ALMON QUIRING (40s) is married and has a young son. He considers himself a rather “groovy” part of the Mennonite community, but with self-conscious distance from it. He is known to play folk tunes on his guitar in class and wear sandals, but when push comes to shove Mr. Quiring reveals himself to be a bully, and a coward, and more intimately bound up with the Nickel family than he initially appears. CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Supporting | MRS. KLIPPENSTEIN | Female 75 - 85 Years old |
Description MRS. KLIPPENSTEIN - Also named Agatha (80s) Mrs. Klippenstein has been a pillar in the community for decades. Before leaving, Trudie used to tend to Mrs. Klippenstein but is now confined to a convalescent home. When Nomi begins investigating her mother’s disappearance, Mr. Klippenstein mistakenly thinks Nomi is Trudie and reveals more that she possibly should. CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Supporting | ESTHER | Female 35 - 42 Years old |
Description ESTHER REMPEL (Late 30s) Trudie’s best Friend, wife of a deacon, she is kind and sincere. She claims she doesn’t know what happened to Trudie when Nomi comes asking, but the conversation is cut short when Deacon Franz demands Esther come back to the house and fix dinner. CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Supporting | PHYLLIS | Female 30 - 35 Years old |
Description PHYLLIS QUIRING (30s) Almon’s wife - Phyllis is the dutiful wife of the High School Teacher Almon. She seems quite clueless about any goings on in the community, until Nomi comes asking questions. CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Supporting | MARY | Female 38 - 45 Years old |
Description MARY KLIPPENSTEIN (44) Travis Mother, Mary is probably oblivious to the sins of her son Travis, but she will protect him when she has to. CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Supporting | MR. VOTH | Male 38 - 45 Years old |
Description MR. VOTH (40s) Lydia’s father, Mr. Voth is the leader of his family. A staunch Mennonite, Mr. Voth does not tolerate anything that is not part of their culture, including the belief that men are more important than women, including his own daughter. CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Supporting | TASH/NATASHA | Female 17 - 20 Years old |
Description NATASHA “TASH” NICKEL (19) is Nomi’s older sister, a walking accusation to the rest of the family: she chooses to do the exact opposite of her father by rejecting the East Village community and its values. From a young age, she sees her mother as a cautionary tale: she will not sacrifice her soul to the norms of East Village. She is free, rebellious and cool. She doesn’t mind being openly contemptuous and isn’t bothered by anybody’s disapproval, and this in itself shames her mother Trudie, who can’t help but admire the courage of her eldest daughter. Tash is a role model of sorts, to Nomi, although she knows that because of her fatherly duties, she has to follow a different path. Tash’s absence is keenly felt by Nomi. CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Supporting | JACOB | Male 17 - 20 Years old |
Description COUSIN JACOB (19) Kind square, Jacob is Lydia’s second cousin and a Mennonite thru and thru. He has been invited to the Voth house to meet Lydia as a possible suitor. Although Jacob is a good and kind person, Lydia is not even remotely interested in him as a husband. CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Principal | SHERIDAN | Male 13 - 15 Years old |
Description SHERIDAN (15) Sheridan is David Klippenstein’s son, Old Mrs. Klippenstein’s grandson and Travis’ cousin. Sheridan’s family was never the same after his mother committed suicide. His father turned to alcohol, and Sheridan dropped out of school, began working at a resort and probably parties a little too hard on weekends. CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Principal | ANCKE | Female 5 - 7 Years old |
Description ANCKE (6) Messy and delightful Ankie is a Neighbor girl who is able to tell the comings and goings of the neighborhood in great detail. CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Principal | SALOMA | Female 25 - 40 Years old |
Description SALOMA (30s)One of 6 quilting Ladies who are up on all of the latest town gossip, but Saloma may have important info about the disappearance of Trudie. CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Principal | SCHLITZKING | Male 50 - 70 Years old |
Description MR. SCHLITZKING (50’s) A big life change requires a new suit, and no one knows suits like Mr. SCHLITZKING, East Village’s tailor. But more than suits, he knows that the right pair of socks do make the man. After all everyone is paying attention to the socks! CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Principal | MRS. PETERS | Female 45 - 60 Years old |
Description MRS. PETERS (40s-50s) Mrs. Peters is the guidance counsellor at the community school. She genuinely cares for her students wellbeing, with a special focus on Nomi. But in the end, she still is loyal to the community, especially Pastor Hans. CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Principal | AUNT ENID ROSENFELT | Female 38 - 45 Years old |
Description ENID (35) Enid "Aunt Gonad" is the dutiful wife of Pastor Hans, and town busybody, Enid seems to know the comings and goings on the community. Helping to play matchmaker between Ray and Wilda, Enid, she seems to know more that she lets on. Especially regarding the disappearance or Trudie. CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Principal | THE GOLDEN COMB | Male 23 - 28 Years old |
Description THE GOLDEN COMB (25), a drug dealer in East Village, The Golden Comb has speaks in cryptic codes when dealing his wares, but he is more interested in Nomi’s missing older sister Tash, than the deal itself. CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Principal | DR. HUNTER | Male 35 - 45 Years old |
Description Dr Hunter (35) When Nomi finds her Dad’s anti-depressant prescription, she goes into Dr Hunter’s office to ask him about the pills. Having had many conversations with pregnant teens, Dr Hunter is more than ready to prescribe “The Pill” to Nomi, which is the last thing on her mind! CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Principal | KURT/LITTLE METAL BOY | Male 16 - 20 Years old |
Description KURT or Little Metal Boy (19) Kurt is Travis' friend and party lover. While hanging out at the Pits, Kurt participated in a lively debate about the state of East Village but ultimately declares a night of “night of unbridled hedonism and pagan worship” CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Principal | RACHEL | Female 16 - 18 Years old |
Description RACHEL (16) One of the Feather Haired Girls - aka arch nemesis of Nomi and Lids. The Feathered Haired Girls travel in a group and hang out with the cool kids….parties, drugs and boys. CAUCASIAN | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Principal | ADELINE | Female 16 - 18 Years old |
Description ADELINE RATZLAFF (16) A young Mennonite girl in East Village who outwardly obeys the rules, Adeline makes her moves when no one is looking, and just might betray Nomi’s trust. CAUCASIAN | ||