web.archive.org

Janaya Stephens Best Actress

Canadian actress, Janaya Stephens is best known for here role in the movie version of Left Behind, the The New York Times best selling novel by the same name.

Before becoming an actress, Janaya�s life revolved around athletics. She coached soccer and basketball, but enjoyed playing the sports even more than coaching. She worked with kids in a sports camp for two years. During her university career, she played basketball for the second best team in the country, The Laurentian �Lady Vee�s� in Sudbury Ontario, Canada. During her second year with the team, she auditioned for the school play and landed the role of �Juliet.� Janaya was �bitten by the acting bug� and moved to Toronto to go to Theatre School.

Soon after shooting her first film,

Left Behind, Janaya landed a guest lead in Twice in a Lifetime, playing the younger self of Spanish actress Maria Conchito Alonso.

Next she headed for Los Angeles where she was asked to play the role of Marie Osmond in ABC�s

MOW, based on the lives of the Osmond family. The television movie aired in February of 2001. Janaya received very favourable reviews in the LA Times.

When Janaya returned to Toronto, she landed two episodes of the Showtime series,

Leap Years, one directed by Milan Cheylov and the other by Stacey Curtis.

Janaya Stephens reprised her role as the feisty 20-year old Chloe Steele in In Left Behind II:

Tribulation Force, the sequel to the apocalyptic thriller.

In the Spring of 2003, Janaya was in Halifax shooting another look-alike role, when they cast her to share a character with Mary Tyler Moore for the CBS Movie of the

Week Blessings based on the critically acclaimed novel by Anna Quindlen. Mary Tyler Moore plays 80 year old Lydia Blessings, while Janaya plays Young Lydia Blessings in the flashback sequences to the 1940�s.

�It was a lot of fun and I just loved the hair and wardrobe for that character. I got to meet Mary Tyler Moore which was wonderful. Mary was kind enough to sign an autographed photo for my mom upon which she wrote; �Diane, your daughter/myself is such a dream, all my best, M.T.M.� When I gave the photo to my mother, she took my graduation portrait out of a frame replaced it with with Mary�s headshot!�

Janaya has a very close and loving relationship with her mother Diane and her brother Ryan. Ms. Stephens lives in the Toronto Beaches area where she helps out the Cancer Society. Janaya and her puppy Fitz are also both big supporters of the Toronto Humane Society.