Age: 37
Job title: Actor, Producer, Host and Co-Founder, Far West Productions.
Why he’s a 2019 Top 40 Under 40: He’s contributed to, and advocated for, a vibrant Francophone community.
As a born-and-raised Edmontonian with French as his first language, Corey Loranger’s pride for his culture has motivated his entire career — starting in junior high school when he got involved in community and school events. “These experiences helped me discover my identity, my culture and my language, and it was so incredibly important to me to discover who I was,” Loranger says.
Since then, Loranger has dedicated his work and volunteer experience to maintaining and promoting the Francophone community in Edmonton, and creating opportunities for Francophone language and culture to thrive. Along with a career as an actor and host in French-language radio, film and television, Loranger co-founded Far West Productions a bilingual film and television production company that has produced internationally broadcast shows. Its award-winning show, Sel et disel, about food-truck culture in Canada, now airs internationally in 194 countries in 14 languages. Despite often being in competition with high-budget Quebecois productions, Loranger’s projects have been successful locally, nationally and internationally, garnering engaged audiences and award nominations.
Along with his production team, Loranger facilitates opportunities for training and mentorship for other Francophone artists, and hires dozens of local artists for his productions in an effort to contribute to a viable film and television industry in Alberta. “I felt like I need to stay [in Edmonton] because I felt like I had an important role in the French community and I wanted to pursue that,” Loranger says. “Edmonton has a really vibrant, healthy, dynamic French community and that’s the most important thing I can represent in life, not just in my career.”
This article appears in the November 2019 issue of Avenue Edmonton
