Biography
Jonas Chernick is an actor/screenwriter based in Toronto. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Jonas started studying acting at the age of 7, later graduating from the University of Manitoba with a major in Film Studies and Theatre. During those years, he co-founded the theatre company The Conspiracy Network, and cut his teeth working on local theatre, film and TV productions.
In 2000, he relocated to Toronto. Since then, Jonas has appeared in dozens of high profile film and TV projects, a variety of theatre productions, and has developed a career as an active screenwriter, a professional story editor, and has produced three of his feature films. His films have been screened at festivals around the world, from Sundance to Shanghai, and have won awards at several prestigious festivals, including the Toronto International Film Festival, the Vancouver International Film Festival, the Calgary International Film Festival and the Whistler Film Festival.
Jonas can now be seen opposite Kiefer Sutherland in the Paramount Plus series Rabbit Hole, and was also featured in the fourth season of the Netflix / CBC original comedy series Workin' Moms. He played the lead role in the critically acclaimed, six-part CBC mini series The Best Laid Plans, for which he won a 2015 Canadian Screen Award. He starred for three seasons on the Gemini Award-winning hit drama series, The Border, which aired on the CBC in Canada and ION in the U.S. Jonas picked up a Gemini win for his work on the series. He was also recently featured in guest starring roles on Global's Private Eyes, SyFy's Dark Matter, FX's Fargo, CTV's Saving Hope and Played, and as Mr. Betenkamp on the Emmy-nominated hit series Degrassi, airing on Much Music in Canada and Teen Nick in the U.S., Marty on HBO Canada's comedy Living in Your Car and as Isaac Reiss in the third season of the USA Network's Covert Affairs.
Jonas had two feature films released in 2013, the sex comedy My Awkward Sexual Adventure, which was named by TIFF as one of their Top Ten Films of the year and was nominated for six Canadian Comedy Awards (winning two) and the Directors Guild of Canada Award for Best Feature Film, and the psychological thriller Blood Pressure, both of which screened in competition for the Borsos Award at the 2012 Whistler Film Festival. His 2015 film Borealis had its world premiere at the Montreal World Film Festival, was the Opening Night Film of the Brooklyn Film Festival, and won awards at the Canadian Film Fest and the Vancouver International Film Festival. He co-starred in the Slamdance hit comedy How To Plan an Orgy In A Small Town, the indie feature A Swingers Weekend which won Best Ensemble Cast at the Canadian Film Festival, and stars in two films that opened in 2019 - the comedy feature James Vs His Future Self, directed by Jeremy LaLonde, and the Czech-shot The Prague Orgy, based on the book by Philip Roth, in which Jonas plays Nathan Zuckerman - Roth's oft-used alter ego. His 2022 film Ashgrove won multiple awards at the 2022 Canadian Film Festival, and was nominated for two Canadian Screen Awards. In 2023, he starred in and wrote The End of Sex, which premiered at TIFF and opened on 200 screens across North America, and will soon be seen in Sean Garrity's The Burning Season, which he also co-wrote and produced.
