Ella Ballentine

Ella Hope Ballentine (born July 18, 2001) is a Canadian actress of Sicilian and Hungarian descent. She began her acting career as a child actress on the Toronto stage, before appearing on television and in films. Ballentine's portrayal of Anne Shirley in the television film adaptation of the classic Canadian novel, Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery was a critical success, receiving a Joey Award in 2016 and a Canadian Screen Award in 2018. Career Ballentine was born in Toronto, Canada to parents Eva and Blake Ballentine. She is a graduate of the Etobicoke School of the Arts in Toronto. She began her acting career as a child actor on the Toronto stage production of The Railway Children, directed by Damian Cruden (2011) for Mirvish Productions. She went on to appear in other stage performances, including the lead role in Numbers, at the Toronto Fringe Festival (2013), and as Little Cosette / Young Eponine in the 25th Anniversary production of Les Misérables (2013), directed by Laurence Connor and James Powell for Mirvish Productions. Also in 2013, she was invited to the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction Gala as one of the performers to read from one of the five prize-nominated titles. Her first TV role came in a Hallmark Channel movie, Baby's First Christmas (2012), in which she played Karen, a primary character with Casper Van Dien in a lead role. She took on her first film role in Atom Egoyan's feature, The Captive (2013), an official selection for the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. She went on to share the screen with Susan Sarandon, Gil Bellows and Christopher Heyerdahl, in The Calling. In her next larger TV movie role for Lifetime's Clara's Deadly Secret (2013), she played Kate alongside co-stars Emmanuelle Vaugier and Richard Ruccolo. In the 2015 feature film Standoff, Ballentine portrays one of the lead characters, Bird, a young girl who finds protection with an ex-soldier (played by Thomas Jane) from a hit-man (played by Laurence Fishburne). Although the movie received mixed reviews, Rene S. Garcia, Jr. of Workingauthor.com wrote "And let’s not forget Ella Ballentine. I typically have no faith in child actors, but Ella strikes the perfect tone with her burgeoning independence, but emotional and physical dependency." Eoin Friel from ActionElite felt that "Ella Ballentine almost steals the movie as Bird, the girl being pursued by Sade.