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William was raised on a reservation in Alkali Lake, located in central British Columbia. Later, his parents, Marilyn and Dave—both Residential School Survivors—relocated to Edmonton, where William lived until his preteens.
After moving back, William began acting in local community and high school plays. His first experience with film acting came when he auditioned for a speaking role in the mini-series DreamKeeper (2003).
With the help of a partial scholarship, William graduated with honours from the acting program at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Art. After completing his studies, he returned to Vancouver, BC, and landed his first role in the Twilight saga: Eclipse.
One of his proudest moments was working alongside Anthony Hopkins in Blackway. "I remember one scene in Vernon, BC, a small town in my home province. Tony looked me straight in the eye and said, 'good work'."
Since then, William has gained confidence working with notable actors such as Ron Livingston, another idol of his, Lorne Cardinal from Corner Gas, and more recently, Sandra Bullock on an untitled project.
William has also contributed to his community by teaching First Nations youth acting for film and television. "The teacher at Sxoxomic School is my cousin. During a brief visit home to Alkali Lake, she invited me to her classroom to meet her students. I wasn’t prepared for that, but we adapted a short script from a Shuswap book. A week later, we had a short film completed—well, on an iPad. It wasn’t much, but the kids had a blast learning about writing, making acting choices, overcoming fear, blocking, rehearsing, principal photography, and editing. We made a second film, which a childhood friend helped write called ‘Making of a Warrior.’ Adapting to the COVID era, he’s now developing a third project with the youth via Zoom. We started with four actors, and now we have around fourteen." William smiles, "In 2021, I’m celebrating 15 years sober from alcohol.
