Demetrius Joyette thought he’d found his ticket out of the classroom. The North York actor began acting professionally in elementary school, and soon saw it as a way out of the daily classroom grind. Ironically, that’s exactly where his career ended up taking him.
“When I was young, [acting] meant I didn’t have to go to school,” says the 20-year-old from his home in the city’s north.
Today, the baritone-voiced actor with a commanding first name can be found roaming around the halls of his new school, playing alpha male Mike Dallas on the hit show Degrassi.
“To be on a show that is so proud to be Canadian is such an honouring experience,” Joyette says. “Everyone in my generation grew up with it.”
Early on in his career, the fledgling actor would often play hooky, enabling him to appear in a growing number of commercials for the likes of Jell-O and McDonald’s.
However, it wasn’t until a turn on the medical drama Doc that Joyette’s acting chops garnered attention among his peers.
Though set in New York City, the show, starring country music’s Billy Ray Cyrus, was filmed here in Hogtown. An eight-year-old Joyette played the best friend to Cyrus’s son — a role that resulted in a Young Artist Award nomination.
At that time, it was Mr. Cyrus, not his daughter, who was far more recognizable, though Joyette notes that the musician-slash-actor was a down-to-earth guy, devoid of celebrity airs.
And yes, Joyette met Miley — before her attention-grabbing ways took hold.
“She was so young,” he says. “I think it's awesome that she’s blown up to be as big as she’s gotten.”
It was around this time that the fledgling actor first watched the Emmy-nominated Degrassi, currently enjoying its 13th season.
The show’s refusal to shy away from realities like teenage pregnancy impressed Joyette, whose current onscreen persona has dealt with a number of issues, including a friend’s suicide.
“I thought it was so interesting that they brought these teen issues to the forefront [of the show],” he notes.
Joyette’s own schooling experience followed a less traditional path. After a year in Vaughan Road Academy’s Interact program, he opted to complete his high school education online, freeing up more time to work on his budding acting career.
However being on a show centred around high school allowed him to return to that experience, growing up and acting alongside best friends and former castmates Munro Chambers and Justin Kelly whom he’d met while working on the Family Channel show The Latest Buzz.
“I definitely feel like the social environment on Degrassi is very similar to [high school],” he says. “You go on set, you do your work — but at the same time you’re still joking around.”
Before moving to North York approximately four years back, Joyette spent the majority of his formative years in downtown T.O. Eventually he decided he needed to escape the congestion, settling into his current home in the Yonge and Finch area.
No matter which part of the city he lives in, Joyette is a Torontonian through and through — much like Drake, Degrassi’s biggest grad.
In his off-time, the athletically inclined Joyette can often be found shooting hoops with friends at Edithvale Park, playing pool at various halls along Yonge Street, and cruising around the neighborhood on his bike. Hockey, however, isn’t quite his thing. Unlike his Degrassi character, who is captain of the hockey team, Joyette’s on-ice talents pale in comparison.
Much like high school, Joyette realizes that his time on the cultish show must come to an end. In the meantime, he’s been working on expanding his oeuvre and most recently can be seen in director Kimberly Peirce’s adaptation of Stephen King’s horror classic Carrie, which premiered in October.
Acting in the supernatural flick was a slight deviation from Joyette’s typical roles on teen dramas and Family Channel sitcoms. In the film he plays the best friend of Tommy Ross, the kid who takes social outcast Carrie to the prom.
Initially, Joyette was intimidate by the prospect of sharing screen time with the film’s star, Chloë Grace Moretz. Now, however, he relishes the chance of working with her again.
“Chloë [is] an absolutely phenomenal person — very nice, very down-to-earth and very focused,” he notes.
Working on the Carrie set afforded Joyette a completely different filming experience: the mood was far more sombre than what he was accustomed to and, the actors tended to stay in “the zone.” Of course, the chilling subject matter contributed to the general atmosphere.
“In TV you have a tight ship,” Joyette says. Movies provide the means for fleshing a scene out more as opposed to working with a strict TV timeline. And the end result?
“It’s exhilarating to see yourself in a movie theatre on a huge gigantic screen,” he says.
Carrie, however, isn’t his first movie: Joyette stepped onto the big screen in Blizzard, back in 2003. The Christmas film was directed by LeVar Burton of Reading Rainbow and Star Trek fame.
“[Burton] explained everything [to me] because I was so young,” Joyette says, noting that he was involved in some highly emotional scenes.
Ving Rhames, who Joyette worked with on the TV series Kojak, is an actor that really helped him develop his skills.
"A lot of times with big actors, it’s intimidating because they’re in their own world. [Rhames has] worked on so much and been around for so long [yet] helped me develop.”
Ever-aspirational, Joyette hopes to build on his career in Los Angeles over the next few years, following in the footsteps of fellow Degrassi grads Shenae Grimes and Nina Dobrev, who have since made over-the-border waves with their respective roles on 90210 and The Vampire Diaries. Joyette, however, still intends to spend the majority of his time in his home and native land.
“I don’t know if I would be stationed there,” he says of L.A., adding that he still prefers Canadian winters to the sunny beaches of California.
“This is my home, and even through winter, I still love being here.”