Chantel Riley is spoiling to kick some butt. A lifelong fan of Marvel Comics, the Canadian-Jamaican actor’s ultimate career goal is to join the Marvel Universe – “hopefully as a badass superhero”. This childhood dream feels eminently achievable: even now, the way Riley lives her life and navigates her active career feels admirable . . . even heroic.
Riley got her start playing Nala in Disney’s The Lion King musical in Hamburg, Germany (singing in German, no less), then went on to play the role on Broadway for more than four years. Currently, she plays Trudy Clarke on the hit Shaftesbury Films series Frankie Drake Mysteries on CBC and UKTV. Her other screen roles include Quincella Nickerson in the Jesse Owens biopic Race, a recurring role on the SyFy series Wynonna Earp, Layla Hassan in the Assassin’s Creed: Origins video game, and Angela Cook on Pearson, a spin-off of the long-running series Suits. Oh, and she is also the entrepreneur behind Sweet Riley, a kids’ clothing boutique.
Despite this already prolific career, Riley remains humble and grounded. Chatting by phone from Los Angeles about Frankie Drake Mysteries: Music at Midnight, she engages with warmth, candour and a ready laugh. CBC and Shaftesbury dropped this surprise musical episode of the 20s-set detective series on February 23. In it, the four lead actors (Riley, Lauren Lee Smith, Rebecca Liddiard and Sharron Matthews) listen to and discuss selections from Georges Bizet’s Carmen as they are performed by members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rob Carli (who is also the composer of Murdoch Mysteries and Frankie Drake Mysteries).
The episode was filmed on the Toronto set of Frankie Drake Mysteries as the cast and crew wrapped their highly successful fourth and final season. It features vocal performances by Riley and Matthews, and “it actually came together pretty quickly,” Riley recalls. “ We did everything the day of. There was no rehearsal. When it was time to record, it was like, okay, here’s the day that we’re shooting.” She and Matthews each had one phone conversation with the music director where they went through their respective songs together. “With the entire orchestra, I did it in one take, pretty much, so my rehearsal was my take that they used for that performance. We were really nervous!”
Such nerves do not translate to the screen. Performed as their Twenties-era Frankie Drake Mysteries characters, Riley’s sultry rendition of the American folk song “St James Infirmary Blues” (1925) and Matthews’ rollicking “Bill Bailey” (1902) capture the decadence of the 1920s Jazz era, a time “when music started getting really exciting.” Riley praises the production team for conceiving “this musical episode because Sharron and I are both singers, and we love singing. Although I’ve had a chance to sing on the show prior, this is a great chance for both of us to be singing in the same episode.” The musical collaboration also presented a precious opportunity to work with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. “That was huge for me in my career,” she admits. “I performed with a live orchestra only once before, and to do it with the Toronto Symphony was such a blessing.”
Playing Trudy Clarke for the run of Frankie Drake Mysteries holds great significance for Riley. One appeal is that it is a “period show” set in the 1920s. More important is that the creators specifically sought a Black woman to play Trudy. “You don’t see shows like that on TV,” Riley attests. “You have a black woman in the 1920s playing a detective, running around solving crime, talking to the police the way that she does or entering the spaces as boldly as she does.” Riley considers such cultural representation as hugely important: “Seeing other people that look like them gives [Black people] an opportunity to see that yes, we do belong. Although the show is fictional, and obviously, in real history, that wouldn’t be the case, it is nice for people to see that. That’s the great thing about television. We have the space and the opportunity to play and to have fun with these ideas.”
The third season also brought Riley the unexpected opportunity to work with her longtime friend and mentor Oluniké Adeliy when she guest-starred in the eighth episode. “I was so happy when she told me that she was going to be on the show, and we actually sang the songs together,” Riley recalls. Working with Oluniké was a “standout” experience: “I do love her work, and I love her dearly. She’s helped me so much in my career as an actor, as an artist, and really helped me to navigate through the industry, so to share that story with Oluniké was such a blessing.”
Yet as much as Riley loves TV and film work, her time on Broadway holds a special place in her heart. “Yes, I miss Broadway!” she sighs. “I hope that I will have the opportunity to be there again, even if it’s off Broadway. I really, really enjoyed my time with Lion King, both in Hamburg and in New York.” That musical launched her into uncharted territory: “I learned a lot in those first few years working with the show. I was able to work with a lot of incredible people that took me under their wing and guided me and looked out for me, and taught me a thing or two about working on Broadway because Broadway is a big machine. It can be really tough. But they stood by me and because of that, I really, truly enjoyed my time there, and made some lifelong relationships and friendships.”
Riley’s infectious enthusiasm is coupled with an abiding humility. She still marvels at “what I got to do every night, eight times a week on stage, and knowing I was performing in front of new people every night.” She recalls meeting people at the backstage door who would tell her this was their seventh time seeing the show. “First of all, you got money,” she quips. She then acknowledges how “bringing this joy or sparking some kind of emotion in the audience” is “such an honour”, as is being a Black actor on the Broadway stage, inspiring others as she herself was inspired.
While she is very much “praying for Broadway” to be in her future, the ravage wrought by the pandemic is a sobering and omnipresent reality: “It’s completely dead and quiet. It’s so crazy to see. I pray that everybody gets to hit that space again, and all those lights are turned on again, and for myself in that space, as well.” Life during this pandemic has been “really tough, mentally” – especially at the beginning. As the months wore on, Riley decided that self-care required curbing the steady stream of bad news: “That is when I felt like I was getting my power back because I was focusing on my mental health, and I was choosing what information I wanted to take in that day.” Instead of listening to COVID-19 numbers, she opted to listen to audiobooks, take long walks and meditate daily. “I had flown in [to Toronto] from LA when everything happened, so I was focusing more on, okay, here I am with my family. Let me love on them. So I was getting myself situated where I am mentally, physically and spiritually balanced.”
Back home, after much research and reflection, she focused on eating well, incorporating vitamins and herbal supplements to strengthen immunity, buying candles, writing in her journal, setting a mindset for the day, saying a prayer in the morning and making regular affirmations. “Those are the things that helped me and are keeping me during this time. I feel like I’m finally at a point where I can say I’m good.” On the cusp of the pandemic’s second year, she remains optimistic, strong in her conviction that “we’ll get through this. We are human beings, and we are very, very powerful. I know when we all work together and look out for each other and love each other, then we’ll make it through.”
To this end, she herself seeks out ways to be a “constant joy and constant light” to those around her. And her entrepreneurial outlet is another example of this. During the months of the pandemic, Riley has leveraged her knack for buying unique baby gifts into a new business called Sweet Riley, a kids’ clothing boutique that was inspired by her now 7-month old nephew. “I love shopping for kids,” she enthuses. “I have a lot of kids that call me Auntie, whether they’re by blood or family or friends, and I’ve always loved shopping for them. So I wanted to create something that had my taste, specifically, from gender-neutral to gender-specific clothing.” The line will soon expand to include accessories, a soundtrack and a picture book, both of affirmations. So far, Sweet Riley is online, and Sweet Riley merchandise is available at the Black-Owned Toronto store in the Scarborough Town Centre.
So with a globe-spanning performing career and a budding business, where does Riley’s longtime Marvel superhero aspiration fit in? It turns out that it’s foundational: “For as long as I can remember, I wished that I had some powers and that I was an X-Man. That I could fly or shoot laser beams or be super-strong. It’s a huge dream of mine to be a part of the Marvel Universe.” Watching Marvel films has “always triggered” this abiding ambition: “Oh my God, I just want that so bad! I am still dreaming. I’m still believing. It’s still written in my journal, and it’s my lockscreen on my phone as a reminder. It’s on my vision board!”
Why shouldn’t Riley – the badass Broadway star, CBC star and entrepreneur – become a superhero? If it can happen for her CBC colleague Simu Liu, Marvel’s Shang Chi, then with her talents and tenacity (and the MCU’s rapid expansion into television), there must be a role waiting for her.
And while she awaits her codename and costume, she’s already a powerhouse to be admired and looked up to.
© Arpita Ghosal, SesayArts Magazine, 2021
