Megan Follows

Megan Follows is a Canadian actress, best known for her role as Anne Shirley in films by Kevin Sullivan.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Megan was born on March 14, 1968, in Toronto, Ontario, to Ted Follows and Dawn Greenhalgh as their youngest child. She was raised there along with her older siblings - brother Laurence and sisters Edwina and Samantha. Megan's parents were part of the founding members of Canada's summer theatre culture and Megan began acting as a toddler with her siblings.

Start of career[]

Megan's first acting job came at the age of nine, when she landed a spot in a commercial for Bell Canada. She was directed to make an impudent gesture out of a school bus window - like sticking out her tongue - but ended up making a rather obscene and adult gesture instead.

After her parents' divorce at the age of 11, Megan moved to Los Angeles to attend school and act. She quickly found steady work in Canada, appearing in a few TV series such as Matt and Jenny, The Mating Season, The Baxters and The Littlest Hobo, in which she guest-starred with her entire family in a two-part episode. She also starred in the short film Boys and Girls, which won an Academy Award for Best Short Subject.

Anne of Green Gables[]

Megan's breakthrough occurred when she was cast as Anne Shirley in the 1985 film Anne of Green Gables directed by Kevin Sullivan. The part of Anne was a coveted role that she won over 3,000 other young girls when director chose her despite early worries during the audition process that she might be too old for the part.

"It was not an easy character. She's iconic, so people think they know what she is, but she was multifaceted. She was not the appendage of a male character; she was number one. She had a lot of character defects that were fantastic to play. She had an uncontrollable temper; she was a compulsive talker; she had a rich fantasy life - all of which were products of the fact she was an orphan and raised in undesirable circumstances. And it is her intellect, her wit which turns that around and turns the community around. I think that is why that is why that story has had lasting power."

—Megan about her film character, Anne Shirley.

After Anne[]

Follows starred as Catherine de Medici on Reign, a historical drama TV series based on the early life of Mary, Queen of Scots. She has also become a film director, most notably directing Amybeth McNulty in She Came Back, a thriller scheduled for release in 2024.

fo==Filmography==

Year	Title	Role
1978–1979	A Gift to Last
1979–1980	Matt and Jenny	Jenny Tanner
1980	Clare's Wish
1980	The Mating Season	Laura McLain
1980–1981	The Baxters	Lucy Baxter
1981	The Olden Days Coat	Sal
1981–1982	The Littlest Hobo	Marti Kendall / Rose
1982	Jen's Place	Jennifer
	The Facts of Life	Terry Largo
	Hangin' In	Cassie
1983	Boys and Girls	Margaret
1984	Sons and Daughters	Margaret
	The Domestic Life	Didi Crane
	Hockey Night	Cathy Yarrow
1985	Silver Bullet	Jane Coslaw
1985	Anne of Green Gables	Anne Shirley
1986	Shattered If Your Kid's on Drugs	Kim Wilson
	Sin of Innocence	Jenny Colleran
	Comedy Factory	Tina Jackson
1987	American Playhouse	Anna Mae Morgan
	Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel	Anne Shirley
	ABC Afterschool Specials	Dana Sherman
1988	Inherit the Wind	Rachel Brown
1988	A Time of Destiny	Irene
1989	Exposed
	Champagne Charlie	Louise Heidsick
	The Ray Bradbury Theatre	Aimee
	Termini Station	Micheline Dushane
1990	Deep Sleep	Shelley
	Back to Hannibal: The Return of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn	Becky
	The Nutcracker Prince	Clara
1991	The Chase	Gloria Whipple
1991	Cry in the Wind: The Taking of Peggy Ann	Peggy Ann Bradnick
1993	Romeo & Juliet	Juliet
	The Hidden Room	Deanna Matthews
	When Pigs Fly	Kathleen
1993–1994	Second Changes	Kate Benedict
1995	The Outer Limits	Karen Ross
1995	Murder, She Wrote	Lila Nolan
1996	Under the Piano	Rosetta Basilio
1997	Major Crime	Joanie Wells
1998	Reluctant Angel	Lisa/Cheryl
1999	Big Wolf on Campus	Violet Thorne
2000	Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story	Anne Blythe
	Law & Order	Megan Parnell
	Made in Canada	Adele of Beaver Creek / Mandy Forward
	The Fugitive	Paula Bennett
	Family Law	Nancy Quinn
2001	ER	Christy Larkin
	The X Files	Kath McCready
	The Division	Science Teacher
	Mentors	Annie Oakley
2002	That's Life	Stella
	Someone Was Watching	Kate
	The Stork Derby	Kate Harrington
	Strong Medicine	Dana's Doctor
	Live to Air	Narrator
2003	A Foreign Afair	Lena
2003	Threat Matrix	Denise
2004	CSI: Criminal Scene Investigation	Beth Darian
	Plainsong	Ella Guthrie
	What Katy Did	Cousin Helen
	Open Heart	Sherry Cardinal
	Christmas Child	Meg Davenport
2005	CSI: Miami	Chloe Grand
	Robson Arms	Janice Keneally
	Shania: A Life in Eight Albums	Sharon Twain
	Cold Case	Maura Mulvaney
2006	Crossing Jordan	Beth
	Booky Makes Her Mark	Francie Thomson
	The Great Polar Bear Adventure	Narrator/Cassie
2007	Breakfast with Scot	Barbara Warren
	Royal Canadian Air Farce
	Booky & the Secret Santa	Francie Thomson
2008	The Border	Moira Davis
2009	Booky's Crush	Francie Thomson
	Lie to Me	Lorraine Burch
	Brothers & Sisters	Maggie Stephens
	Raising the Bar	Reanne Chrisman
2009–2012	Heartland	Lily Borden
2010	Pooka	Rosey
2011	I Am Number Four	Supermarket Cashier
2011	House M.D.	Jennifer Williams
2012	Longmire	Alice Stewart
	Where Are the Dolls	Elizabeth
	Hollywood Heights	Beth
	World Without End	Maud
	Flight of the Butterflies	Narrator
2013	Bar None	Tess Lavoir
2013–2017	Reign	Catherine de Medici
2014	Hard Drive	Barbara

Behind the scenes[]

Her name is pronounced Mee-gan.
Megan and her film character Anne Shirley both have birthdays in March.
Her hair is naturally light brown, so a combination of wigs and hair colouring was used to portray Anne's red hair in Anne of Green Gables.
In Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel, four dresses were made for the scene when Anne falls into the mud but, Megan pulled off the stunt in one take.
Megan burned her corset in a bonefire after finish filming The Sequel because she was so tired of wearing one.
The reaction Anne has to seeing Green Gables in shambles in Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story is genuine. Megan had not seen the house since the previous movie, 12 years earlier, and the crew had to remind her that the house would look fine again.
She was offered a stunt double in The Continuing Story for her fall in the sand, but Megan is recorded having said "Oh, no, I can do a prat-fall quite well on my own, thank you".

Gallery[]

Anne of Green Gables Wiki has 30 images of Megan Follows (view category).

Videos[]

The_Continuing_Story_Interview_-_Megan_Follows_Describes_Anne

External links[]

Megan Follows at the Internet Movie Database
Megan Follows on Wikipedia