Studio 58 alum Markian Tarasiuk shares how Langara College helped shape his career in acting, filmmaking, and directing. His story shows how hands-on training prepares students for creative work across theatre, film, and television.
At snəw̓eyəɬ leləm Langara College, Studio 58 does more than teach performance. It shows how a creative career gets built over time. For Ukrainian Canadian actor and filmmaker Markian Tarasiuk, that training kept paying off long after graduation, including through his move from theater to film and television. As he remembers, he came to Langara because “Studio 58 has a reputation in the theatre community across Canada as being one of the top theatre schools to go to,” and because he wanted to train under former artistic director, Kathryn Shaw.
“At Studio 58, students are challenged to grow as actors while building the discipline and versatility needed to succeed in film, television, and theatre. And we love to see people like Markian exemplifying this versatility and achieving great success across the whole acting spectrum,” says Paul Moniz de Sá, current artistic director of Studio 58.
For Markian, the choice was personal. “I wanted to be trained by Kathryn because when I was coming up as a teenager, I asked my peers where to go and who to audition for,” he explains. He describes Studio 58’s audition process as “a whole day of exercises, scene work, and monologues. After some one-on-one work with Kathryn, I knew Langara was where I wanted to be.”
One part of Studio 58’s training stayed with him in a big way. “You have to understand how productions come together,” Markian says. Even as an acting student, he still had to work with “costumes, lights, props, set-building, publicity, and social media.”
At the time, he didn’t always see the value. Later, that perspective became one of the most useful parts of his training. “Guess what has been the most valuable? That extra stuff.” Now, when working on set, he brings that understanding into his work as an actor. For Markian, that broader theatre school experience mattered just as much as the acting classes. It gave him a real feel for how productions come together, and that has stayed with him across the last 11 years.
Markian’s career did not move in a straight line. One of the hardest shifts came when he turned from theatre to screen work. Studio 58 had helped him build strong ties in Vancouver’s theatre community, which he describes as welcoming and supportive. Film, he says, is different. “It’s cutthroat. It is dog eat dog.” He adds that it took “a couple years to make my inroads there and figure out what film acting is.”
Yet, he says he kept building “brick by brick.” Over time, that steady work led to bigger roles, including Hallmark movies, the Citytv series Blue Skies, and later, a move into directing.
During the pandemic, Markian found himself pulled back to the kind of group creation he had loved in school. “I wanted to get back to what I did at Studio 58. We created. Every day, we were making stuff as a group and collaborating,” he says.
That urge led to his directorial debut, Hunting Matthew Nichols. Set in and filmed on Vancouver Island, the supernatural thriller follows a woman searching for her brother and his best friend, who both disappeared 20 years earlier. Markian also stars in the film and co-wrote it with fellow Studio 58 alum Sean Harris Oliver. Other Studio 58 alum credits on the film are:
For Markian, directing is about building something with other people: “I want to put the painting together. It is extremely satisfying.” Hunting Matthew Nichols was theatrically released on April 10, 2026 and currently holds a rating of 94% "fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes.
Markian’s advice to prospective students is direct: Training matters, but so does personal responsibility. “It's your destiny and it's your creative process. Treat it like that, no one else is in charge of you.” He adds, “If you want an all-rounded education, Langara’s the school for you.”
That is what Studio 58 gave him: strong acting training, hands-on experience, and a foundation he can keep building on as his career evolves.
Inspired by Markian’s journey? Learn more about Studio 58’s nationally recognized program and take the first step toward your own creative career by exploring admissions and audition requirements. Applications to begin studying at Studio 58 in fall 2027 and spring 2028 will open on October 1, 2026.
Images of Markian Tarasiuk from Studio 58 productions Kosmic Mambo (2014) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (2014) by David Cooper.
Studio image of Markian Tarasiuk by Richie Lubaton
