Indigenous Artist

Nicole Joy-Fraser (She/Her: Settler, Dene Zaa, Nehiyaw and Métis) has worked as a professional performing artist for the last twenty years across Turtle Island and beyond. After graduating from The Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts with a diploma in Musical Theatre she went straight into rehearsals for the original North American Production of “Mamma Mia!”, touring with the company across the US. Nicole has been grateful to work with such celebrated companies as Factory Theatre, Native Earth, Red Sky, The Blyth Festival, The Charlottetown Festival, The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, The 2010 Vancouver Cultural Olympiad, the Smithsonian Museum in NYC, Banff Centre and most recently was invited to the 2020 Acting Company of Stratford Festival.
Nicole also enjoyed living in London, England for several years where she performed in the multi-award-winning musical "Jerry Springer-The Opera" in the West End and in Disney's “Beauty and the Beast” which toured the UK and had a short run in Athens.
As a 60’s scoop witness she yearned to find out more about her maternal roots and has spent the last decade premiering and collaborating on many roles within Canada's Indigenous theatre and opera companies. Nicole recently won the Celebration of Nations 2020 Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Performing Arts as well as a Dora award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in Soundstreams/Signal Theatre's production of "Two Odysseys: Pimooteewin/ Gállábártnit”.
Nicole lives in Niagara-On-The Lake with her partner and son and has been grateful for her local work in the Niagara Region and across southern Ontario. She always looks forward to promoting and sharing Indigenous ways of knowing and as a proud Bear clan member and Hand drum carrier, supporting each other through healing and the arts continues to be a passion of hers.

INDIGENOUS ANCESTRY

First Nations

SELF-IDENTIFICATION

Nehiyaw, Denezaa, Métis