Born on the Six Nations Reserve, near Brantford, Ontario,
Gary Farmer is an actor with extensive experience in film, television, theatre and radio. Additionally, he is also a producer, publisher and philanthropist in the development of Aboriginal based-media in Canada including radio, television and the Internet. Most recently Farmer was seen in
Spike Jonze' Adaptation and The Score with Robert DeNiro,
Edward Norton and
Marlon Brando. He will soon be seen in Steve Anderson's comedy The Big Empty, with
Adam Beach and
Kelsey Grammer,
Deepa Mehta's The Republic of Love, Andreas Kidess' thriller, Sawtooth and the dramatic miniseries, Dreamkeeper.
Farmer starred in Jim Jarmusch's, Dead Man, winner of the European Academy Award in 1997 for Best Foreign Film, Berlin. For his role as, Nobody, Farmer received his second Spirit Award nomination for Supporting Actor from the Independent Feature Project in Los Angeles, 1997, and the Best Actor award at both the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco and the First Americans in the Arts in Los Angeles in 1997. He also received the James Buller Award for the Male Performer of the Year in 1997 in Toronto by the Centre for Indigenous Theatre. The role of Nobody was reprised in Jarmush's Ghost Dog.
Farmer has a long list of awards and nominations to his name including: Powwow Highway for which he received Best Actor at the American Indian Film Festival and his first Supporting Actor nod from the 1989 Independent Feature Project; he was nominated for a Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor for Smoke Signals. In Canada, Farmer received a Genie nomination in 1995 for Best Actor in the film Henry and Verlin. Other films of note are Route 66, Heater, Delivering Milo, Angels Don't Sleep Here, Lilies, Tales from the Crypt, Demon Knight, Dark Wind, Ed and His Dead Mother, Blue City Slammers. On television, he most recently co-starred in the pilot Justice, and The Virginian, directed by Bill Pullman, The Pretender, Promised Land, Moonshine Highway, Sparks: The Price of Passion, and a recurring role on The Rez.
