BRAVO's STAR PORTRAITS Debuts Fall 2009, Louise Pitre Hosts

MAMMA MIA! star Louise Pitre will host the Canadian series Star Portraits for Bravo!

Star Portraits is series of half-hour shows introducing the Bravo audience to working artists and reintroducing them to some well-known Canadian personalities. 

Based on the hit BBC series that regularly engaged over five million prime-time UK viewers weekly, STAR PORTRAITS is an innovative program that combines the art of portraiture with celebrity biography. The stories are intimate and personal as viewers get to know accomplished artists and learn more about some of their favorite celebrities. For more information visit the official website at, www.starportraits.ca.

Louise Pitre is an award-winning singer, actress and one of Canada's most popular and enduring musical performers.

The Ontario native had planned on a sensible career as a high school music teacher - until she landed a role in a musical revue during her final year at the University of Western Ontario and was bitten by the acting bug. Pitre moved to Toronto and by 1990, she was a favorite in Toronto's theatre community, playing the role of Fantine in Les Misérables to critical acclaim in Montreal (bilingual production), Toronto, and Paris, and appearing on the Paris cast recording of the long-running musical.

Pitre was catapulted to national fame in 1992 when she portrayed legendary French singer Edith Piaf in three different productions of Piaf. She also earned accolades for her work in Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living In Paris; I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change; The World Goes 'Round; Blood Brothers; Tartuffe; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; The Roar of the Greasepaint, The Smell of the Crowd; Applause; and Rock 'n' Roll.

In 2001, after wowing audiences in Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, Pitre made her Broadway debut when the ABBA inspired musical Mamma Mia! opened at New York's Winter Garden Theatre. Holding the lead role for 2 years on Broadway enabled thousands of spectators to witness the best that New York has to offer: Louise Pitre as Donna Sheridan.

Pitre's awards include the DORA Mavor Moore AWARD in Toronto, the National Broadway Touring Award in New York, a special award from the San Francisco Theatre Critics Circle, a New York Theatre World Award and a Tony nomination for her role as Donna Sheridan. She has also been awarded 2 other Dora Awards for "Piaf" and "Blood Brothers". In the last 3 years, Louise has been given honourary degrees from the Royal Conservatory of Music, Humber College and an Honourary Doctorate of Music by her alma mater, University of Western Ontario.

In the last few years, Louise has divided her time between the musical theatre stage - appearing in Annie Get Your Gun with Billy Ray Cyrus at Massey Hall and Song & Dance at the Danforth Music Hall - and the concert stage, appearing across Canada and the U.S. Recent television and film credits includes the role of Therese Dion in the CBC mini-series Celine; Taff Baron in CBC's MVP as well as numerous film roles in A Christmas Wedding with Eric Mabius and Sarah Paulson and Recipe for a Perfect Christmas with Christine Baranski.

As host, Louise Pitre will not only bring her considerable acting talents and own star quality to Star Portraits but also her down-to-earth, no-nonsense approach to both the celebrities and the artists.

Toronto-based production company PTV Productions Inc. will be production heads on the project.

The series will air on Bravo! in Fall 2009.

Photo by Walter McBride/Retna ltd.

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