Vanasse was born in Drummondville, Quebec, the daughter of Conrad Vanasse, a council worker, and Renée (née Gamache), who was her manager at the beginning of her career. At the age of nine, Vanasse expressed her desire to sing or to act and she fulfilled that wish when she appeared in the teen show Club des 100 watts after winning a "lip sync" competition. It was then, with the help of her mother, that Vanasse began to audition for, and take part in, TV commercials and to play minor and supporting roles in various French Canadian TV movies.
In 1998, the production company now known as Motion International asked Vanasse to co-host a Québec-based children's science show, Les Débrouillards. Producer Lorraine Richard and director Léa Pool spotted her there, and offered Vanasse her first big break in the role of Hanna in Set Me Free (Emporte-moi) (1999), a story of a teenager trying to find her identity in a tormented family environment. The film was presented at forty festivals, and shown in twenty countries. Her performance was highly acclaimed both nationally and internationally and earned her the 2000 Best Actress Jutra Award. [citation needed][2]
Vanasse then played Lucie (the teenage love interest of Benoit Langlais's main character, Zac) in the controversial Québec TV series Deux frères (fr) (1999). Her character became very prominent in 2000–2001, and the debate stirred by the violent realism led her to become, together with Langlais, a spokesperson for the government-funded TV program Parler, c'est grandir, a broadcast aimed at youngsters from unstable backgrounds. In 2001, she applied for the ITHAKA program and took a six-month break in Greece to devote herself to travel and academics, after which she played Donalda in Charles Binamé's epic, Séraphin: Heart of Stone (Séraphin: un homme et son péché) (2002). She was cast as an FLQ terrorist in the 2006 miniseriesOctober 1970 on CBC's English network. Vanasse appeared in such Canadian productions as Sans Elle, Ma fille, mon ange, and the Canadian/American/British mini-series Killer Wave.
In 2011, Vanasse was cast as the Frenchstewardess, Colette Valois, in the American-produced television series Pan Am, which was later cancelled after one season.[6]
From January to April 2013, Vanasse was cast on the Quebec television series 30 Vies.[7] In July 2013, Deadline Hollywood announced that Vanasse had joined the cast of ABC's Revenge as French businesswoman Margaux LeMarchal in the third season of the popular drama.[8] During 2012 and 2013, Vanasse filmed the movies All the Wrong Reasons, Buddha's Little Finger and En solitaire.
From 2017 to 2020, Vanasse starred in the television series Cardinal, as detective Lise Delorme. It was the first time she had played a Québécoise character on English-language TV, rather than a character from France.[9] At the 7th Canadian Screen Awards she won the award for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Program or Limited Series.[10]
In 2023, Vanasse became the television host of the Canadian reality series, The Traitors Canada. On June 6, 2023, it was announced that Bell Media has commissioned both English and French versions of the show. The French adaptation is called Les Traitres and will also be hosted by Vanasse.[11]
Host. It is a separate series from The Traitors Canada. The main difference between The Traitors Canada and Les Traîtres is that in Les Traîtres the contestants speak French.
^Gilbert, Paula Ruth; Santoro, Miléna (2006). "Transforming Visions: Pedagogical Approaches to Lea Pool's Emporte-moi (Set Me Free)". Women in French Studies. 2006 (1): 139–155. doi:10.1353/wfs.2006.0040. ISSN2166-5486. S2CID192963865.
Canadian Film Awards 1968–1978, Genie Awards 1980-2011, Canadian Screen Awards 2012–present. Separate awards were presented by gender prior to 2022; a single unified category for best performance regardless of gender has been presented since.
Gemini 1986–2011, Canadian Screen Awards 2012–present. Separate awards were presented by gender prior to 2022; a single unified category for best performance regardless of gender has been presented since.
