Noel Ransome

Culture Reporter

Canada

Noel Ransome is a Toronto-based culture writer and critic. In addition to interviewing cultural icons like LeVar Burton, Barry Jenkins, and Danai Gurira, he served as the national entertainment reporter for the Canadian Press, Canada’s equivalent of the Associated Press, regularly covering major events such as the Toronto Film Festival, the Grammys, and the Emmys.

His words can also be found in VICE, VICE UK, VICE Australia, Documentary Magazine, Motherboard, Waypoint, The Toronto Star, Shondaland, Complex, Vanity Fair, The Globe and Mail, CBC, Slashfilm, and University of Toronto Magazine, among others.

Portfolio
West End Phoenix
03/05/2026
The cost of devotion - West End Phoenix

Akim Aliu is a power forward with a reputation for intensity; a celebrated advocate for diversity in hockey; and a 36-year-old who, after seven knee surgeries, still believes he'll make it back to the NHL.

Playbackonline
12/08/2025
Changemaker of the Year: Naomi Johnson

The executive director reflects on the transformational decision to move the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival from October to June.

Playback Magazine
09/16/2025
10 to Watch 2025: Tim Riedel

The Red River Métis filmmaker reflects on how one fateful award changed the trajectory of his career.

International Documentary Association
01/29/2025
Appreciate in Value: A Short, Critical History of Documentary Film Awards

This piece was first published in Documentary's Winter 2024/2025 issue, with the following subheading: From film festivals to the Oscars, one writer traces changes in how topicality, commercial success, and critical acclaim lead to documentary awards.The war-torn streets of a besieged Ukrainian city. An exiled Russian opposition leader.

International Documentary Association
09/24/2024
"How Social Change Happens From Below": Lucas Guilkey and JoeBill Muñoz Discuss 'The Strike'

The story of solitary confinement is impossibly cruel-a collection of enduring deprivations that add up to a horror that can never be fully captured by mere stats. To describe it is to consider a place ensnared by windowless brick, with scarred and rutted walls depicting agitation, unease, and in some cases, the mania of a previous occupant.

Thestar
09/15/2023
Hollywood strikes don't address unique challenges faced by Canadian BIPOC creators

Ongoing strikes by Hollywood actors and writers have kept discussions about fair compensation and job protection at the forefront of this year's Toronto International Film Festival, but Canadian film industry players who are Black, Indigenous and people of colour say that still doesn't address the larger barriers they face.

CityNews Toronto
02/17/2023
This Canadian VFX studio is using AI to cosmetically alter your favourite actors

TORONTO - Wondering how some stars seemingly never age? A Toronto VFX company says the answer is in a growing post-production trend in which cosmetic touch-ups are routinely made on actors' skin and hairlines using technology. Matt Panousis, partner and chief operating officer of the visual effects and tech studio Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies (MARZ), [...]

CityNews Toronto
02/24/2023
Eugene Levy confronts his fears in 'The Reluctant Traveler'

TORONTO - Award-winning actor, writer, and producer Eugene Levy has appeared in scores of film and TV projects to date,but what scares him the most is being himself in front of the camera. "It's frightening - I've done character work my entire life and the further the characters are from me, the more comfortable I [...]

CityNews Toronto
11/22/2022
'The Swimmers' director on portraying the real-life story of Syrian refugee sisters

Midway through Sally El Hosaini's new film "The Swimmers" a decrepit motorboat on the Aegean Sea carrying sisters Yusra and Sara Mardini begins to stall. Their passage had up to that point been harrowing but optimistic - fleeing from a war-torn Syria to the Turkish coast, where they would cram into a packed [...]

CityNews Toronto
09/12/2022
Review: With 'The Fabelmans,' Spielberg confronts the story of himself

Heart and vulnerability weave through Steven Spielberg's late-career offering "The Fabelmans," loosely based on the filmmaker's childhood. But more than just being about the beginnings of one of Hollywood's most successful visionaries, this is a story about family, relationships and heartbreak. The opening scenes are dedicated toa young, inquisitive Sammy Fabelman, played by [...]

Complex
Avan Jogia Wants to Tell You Who He Is

Ahead of the release of 'Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City,' Canadian actor Avan Jogia opens up about the industry and its odd relationship with race.

Vice
09/23/2019
Jharrel Jerome Was Ready for His Emmy

Jerome, who played one of the Central Park Five in Netflix's 'When They See Us,' talked to VICE earlier this summer about his Emmy-winning role.

Vice
03/19/2019
Let People of Colour Be Angry

Following the Christchurch mosque shooting, I was filled with anger over what had happened-the latest attack by white supremacism. But society doesn't want people like me to express that rage.

Vice
01/25/2019
The Best TV Dramas on Crave

From 'Killing Eve' to 'Billions' to 'Game of Thrones', there's lots to binge on to get you through winter.

Vice Video
Simon Pegg Casts Himself in Every Film Franchise

Simon Pegg is back in action as Benji Dunn in the new Mission: Impossible - Fallout. We met the actor to talk about his secret agent role and to find out who he'd want to play in other big film franchises, including three hobbits that were never in Lord o

Urbanology Magazine
07/31/2014
King Reign says he's a mix of Slick Rick & Rakim

Stylistically aware with a vocal tablet that flows with unapologetic truths, King Reign is on a trajectory of growth. His presence within the hip-hop scene came in bits and pieces, through praised ...

Urbanology Magazine
08/14/2015
E.B. Wright: 'My Father and N.W.A. Opened Many Doors'

"I was just driving to get to a stop to get on the phone with you and was actually pulled over in the car and the cop was actually racist," says singer/songwriter E.B. Wright, daughter of the cultu...

Urbanology Magazine
03/28/2016
We Are Chicago: Their Stories, Our Experience

"We hear gunshots quite often in our neighbourhood," says Tony Thornton, almost casually. "If we freaked out every time we heard them, we'd never get anything done." The 61-year-old, long-time Engl...

Vice
06/12/2017
'Black Panther' Is Going to Be an Important Movie

The film that features an almost all-black cast, a black director, and is set in a world that portrays people of color in a superior light is something black people have never seen before.

Vice
06/13/2018
Horror Is the New Drama

Films like 'Hereditary,' 'Get Out,' and 'A Quiet Place' are using terror as a Trojan horse for indie drama.

Vice Video
Why I Think Superman Shouldn't Be White

Amid rumours that Michael B. Jordan may take on the role next, VICE's Noel Ransome argues that it's about time Superman reflected his immigrant origin story.

Vice
11/07/2018
How to Kill a TV Character

TV and film have lost a sense of how to kill properly in 2018 and it has as much to do with viewers as it does with franchises.

Urbanology Magazine
05/28/2014
Author and Poet Maya Angelou Dies at Age 86

Maya Angelou, whose words over the years have casted a much needed light on the injustices and paralleled beauty of the world, has died at the age of 86. A statement issued by Wake Forest Universit...

Urbanology Magazine
11/22/2015
Tech N9ne: Tales from an Underground Legend

"I got shit from fans for working with [Lil] Wayne and everything," says Aaron Dontez Yates, more commonly referred to as Tech N9ne. His posture is composed, hunched forward free of the eccentric g...

Urbanology Magazine
08/15/2015
Straight Outta Compton: Authentic, Intimate

There's a scene in Straight Outta Compton when an officer brashly utters the words; 'rap is not an art,' to the face of Jerry Heller, former manager of N.W.A. Meanwhile, a young Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, ...

Urbanology Magazine
08/05/2014
Kern Carter sheds light on being a first-time book author

Whether members of the profession like it or not, authors and novelists carry along with them a certain stereotype depending on one's perspective: that introverted figure that spends countless hour...

Urbanology Magazine
03/25/2015
Augmented: Beyond 20/20

A lanky kid with the goofy grin on his face, the Levi's branding matched with skintight jean shorts - a clear victim of '90s nerd fashion - my former self. A lot of poor decisions were made during ...

Urbanology Magazine
12/04/2013
Xbox One arrives just in time for the holidays

The lead up to a system's launch has always attracted the hysterics. It's a tradition that embodies a gaming industry that rests comfortably on dollar signs that reach in the billions.

Urbanology Magazine
06/26/2015
Joey Bada$$, Jazz Cartier: Stage Masters

It's still easy to hear the chants for Joey Bada$$ between the head-banger filler music that separate the sets. As is common with any crowd that comes for its main course, the hunger for the main a...

Urbanology Magazine
03/14/2016
The Pale Face of Journalism

"Do you identify yourself as a visible minority?" It's a given that you've probably come across this question if applying for a job this century. You'll be scrolling through some routine, run-of-th...

Urbanology Magazine
08/22/2014
Ferguson: Why these protests have to happen

"Where are you heading sir?" I remember the words masked in an innocent tone that still stung like an insult. "I live on this street, just over there," I said, pointing. I stood wondering just how ...

Urbanology Magazine
08/19/2014
Apple, where you at?

Whether you love him for his ideas or hate him for his character flaws, the former Apple CEO Steve Jobs was undoubtedly a visionary. He was known as that stubborn idealist who would push employees ...

Urbanology Magazine
08/14/2015
Straight Outta Compton: Bringing It To Life

Straight Outta Compton has a magnifying glass in its view. After all it features the portrayal of one of the most iconic hip-hop groups of all time, N.W.A. (Niggaz With Attitude) - no pressure. You...

Urbanology Magazine
04/08/2015
Perfecting smart-TV watching for the mainstream

Sitting in a sleek office at the Tangerine café in Toronto, Lloyd Klarke, director of product management for Roku, casually browses through a clean, and simple looking TV interface, remote in hand....

Urbanology Magazine
02/04/2015
Technology and Hope: The Blind See

For a long time now I've been struggling with the tedium of writing about technology. It was never for a lack of available news, but for its ironic sense of sameness. This industry has always been ...

Urbanology Magazine
01/21/2015
Selma: A snub too much

"Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see." - Martin Luther King It's 2015, the Oscar nominations have been thrown out to the wild, and in retort to an irritated social m...

Urbanology Magazine
04/18/2015
TIDAL: A Saviour For The Few

Despite it being 25 years since the birth of the MP3, the conversation over music distribution remains just as convoluted as when it started. "We think it's good for artists and labels to be on Spo...

Urbanology Magazine
10/15/2015
Jidenna: More than a Suit

His dress, speech, and manner of decency always seem to spawn the same questions, ones that probe into his personal style. It's inescapable for Jidenna Theodore Mobisson, the self-proclaimed 'class...

Urbanology Magazine
05/30/2015
Sony Wows With Latest Line of Tech Gadgets

As bold as the statement 'experience the impossible' is, Sony has earned the right to brandish the phrase. It's been a company synonymous with the word 'progress' within the industry; the Walkman a...

Urbanology Magazine
10/21/2014
Gamers are hypocrites

"Videogames can never be art." I remember those words back in 2010 stinging with their suggestion that gaming lacked any possibility. Here I was, this optimist who had these grand ideas about how g...

Urbanology Magazine
09/23/2014
Chris Rock's latest film nothing but laughs

"Great to be here in Toronto," says the comedian with a brief eye scan of the crowd; he has a puzzled 'I'm thinking' brand of expression on his face that anyone with a familiarity to his trademarke...

Urbanology Magazine
07/09/2015
Converse Reaches Next Generation with Cons Project

The highly successful Converse shoe brand is taking the same hip-hop essence that started with everything from signatures and tags coating the monumental bricks of New York to the assorted blending...

Urbanology Magazine
06/24/2014
A look at the latest curve ball in television technology

The creators behind the industry's most cash driven consumer electronics seem to always be in a constant state of change. The common television, robust in its transformative history is definitely n...

Urbanology Magazine
09/14/2015
Playing DJ Yella

"I've been really, really busy, my phone has never rung so much," says actor Neil Brown Jr. post Straight Outta Compton. Between the exchanges of exhales and laughs, the quip about the state of his...

Urbanology Magazine
02/16/2015
B.o.B is as lively on stage as he is in his music

B.o.B's presence has long since been absent from the label of 'that new shit'. But his songs instill a nostalgia that excites a crowd. He proves this as he douses Vaughan, Ontario's Luxy Club with ...

Urbanology Magazine
04/04/2016
Alano Miller: Challenging Roles

For "Underground" actor Alano Miller, the words "slave drama" nearly put him off from the project completely. "You know, when it was first pitched to me, I kinda was like uh, I don't think I want t...

Urbanology Magazine
08/03/2015
Tinashe: 'I'm Not Just Some Cute Girl'

Tinashe Kachingwe appears relaxed and casual as she settles on her high stool, phone rested. "I never met her still," she goes on to say with a grin, when the topic of Nicki Minaj arises. The answe...

Urbanology Magazine
04/20/2015
A Fresh Look at Toronto's 'Jungle'

"I remember sitting in the staff meeting where the principal told Michael what was going to happen and I started to cry," says Robin Phillips, a teacher of eight years at Toronto's Lawrence Heights...

Urbanology Magazine
10/29/2013
Deadmau5 helps launch Surface 2 tablet into the market

Despite being a launch event about what some would consider a pretty standard product in the Surface 2, you couldn't ignore the sheer cluster of lights that wanted to convince guests otherwise. It ...

Urbanology Magazine
01/19/2015
New Year's resolutions for the gaming industry

You've heard the recycled sayings every year. "I'm going to join a gym." "This is the time I lose weight." "I'm getting out of debt." These are the promised proverbs that make up the New Year's res...

Urbanology Magazine
12/03/2013
New documentary brings Jimi Hendrix Experience to life

He only lived to the age of 27, first placed his fingers on a guitar at the age of 15 and has remained a musical legend to this day. The reasons for his success were as varied as his transformation...

Urbanology Magazine
12/23/2014
Dumb in a world of smart

I remember uttering the words, "I want to be a Hacker when I grow up." While I can feel eyebrows collectively rise, rest assured, there was nothing too abnormal about me saying this as a '90s kid. ...

Urbanology Magazine
11/04/2015
Ariana Pierce: Boss Lady

"Failure, I'm not going to lie, it hurts," says 25-year-old entrepreneur Ariana Pierce. Her words are tangible and frank. "I'm not going to be that person that says I love it or that it's nothing."...

Urbanology Magazine
09/16/2015
Karl Campbell: Renaissance Man

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) always brings with it the promise of a grand spectacle. The red carpets, flashing lights and readied grins from those imprinted upon the pop culture l...

Urbanology Magazine
09/21/2015
Sons 2 the Grave: Making a Statement

The parables that often come from an inordinate young talent getting mixed up in street life have often been told in some form or another. The death of Ben Wilson to this day serves as a mantel for...

Urbanology Magazine
10/15/2013
Creating personalities one avatar at a time

Much of technologies, unlike the folks who benefit from them, are boring and sterile by nature; they're built to do a job and do that job well. It's a sameness that comes from the designing of a pi...

Urbanology Magazine
07/22/2014
Artists Jaydahmann & Krystle Chance on living green

When the Toronto native speaks, it's hard to overlook the mint gold watch that projects shine on his left wrist, the silver chain that adds to that jewelry sheen, the flat rimmed, Montreal branded ...

Urbanology Magazine
11/11/2015
KELLY MCCREARY: PLAYING A NERD

At the 2015 Emmy Awards, actress Viola Davis verbalized a message that was pointedly honest and equal parts poetic. It was a veracity that invoked claps and praise from every African American actress that could do nothing but react to needed words directed at a predominantly white audience.

Urbanology Magazine
05/20/2015
CMW Highlight Reel: Inside the Mind of Spike Lee

"This whole stuff is not new," says American director Spike Lee, whose body of work has often been a potent exploration around issues of race. "People have cameras, we saw with Rodney King, everybo...

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