Instant Star is a Canadian television program which aired from September 2004 to June 2008. The series starred Alexz Johnson as adolescent music competition winner Jude Harrison. The show chronicles Harrison’s experience in the recording industry whilst focusing upon character development.

Linda Schuyler and Stephen Stohn of Epitome Pictures produced the show. The program began to air on CTV in Canada prior to being picked up by Viacom-owned teen network channel The N, now TeenNick, in the United States. The show became the second most popular program on The N with Degrassi: The Next Generation, a Canadian show also produced by Schuyler and Stohn, ranking as most popular.

In 2005, after its first season, Instant Star was nominated for three Gemini Awards in the category of Best Children’s or Youth Fiction Program or Series. Nominations included: Best Series; Best Performance; and Best Direction. The show won the award for Best Direction for the episode You Can’t Always Get What You Want.

On August 28, 2007, the show received three more Gemini Award nominations in the category of Best Children’s or Youth Program or series. Alexz Johnson was again nominated for Best Performance, and there were two more nominations for Best Direction – Graeme Campbell, and Pat Williams.

Degrassi, previously Degrassi: The Next Generation, is a Canadian teen drama television series set in the Degrassi universe, which was created by Linda Schuyler and Kit Hood in 1979. Degrassi is the fourth fictional series in the Degrassi franchise, following The Kids of Degrassi Street, Degrassi Junior High, and Degrassi High.

Like its predecessors, Degrassi follows an ensemble cast of students at Degrassi Community School who face various challenges, such as poor self-image, peer pressure, child abuse, sexual identity, gang violence, self-injury, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, death, and a number of other issues. The series was created by Linda Schuyler and Yan Moore, and is produced by Epitome Pictures in association with CTV. The current executive producers are Schuyler, her husband Stephen Stohn and Brendon Yorke. The series is filmed at Epitome’s studios in Toronto, Ontario, rather than on the real De Grassi Street from which the franchise takes its name.

A critical success, Degrassi has often received favourable reviews from Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, and AfterElton.com. In its initial years, it was frequently the most watched domestic drama series in Canada, and one of the highest-rated shows on TeenNick in the United States. In 2004, for example, one episode received just under a million viewers in Canada, and over half a million viewers in the US. The series has won numerous awards, from the Geminis, Writers Guild of Canada and Directors Guild of Canada, and internationally from the Teen Choice Awards, Young Artist Awards, and Prix Jeunesse. Filmmakers/actors Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes are fans of the show, and have guest starred in seven episodes.

Degrassi Junior High is a Canadian CBC Television teen drama series that was produced from 1987-1989 as part of the Degrassi series. The show followed the lives of a group of students attending the titular fictional school. Many episodes tackled difficult topics such as drug use, child abuse, teenage pregnancy, homosexuality, homophobia, racism, and divorce, and the series was acclaimed for its sensitive and realistic portrayal of the challenges of teenage life. The cast comprised mainly non-professional actors, which added to the show’s sense of realism.

The series featured many of the same actors who had starred on The Kids of Degrassi Street a few years earlier, including Stacie Mistysyn, Neil Hope, Anais Granofsky, Sarah Charlesworth and others. However, their character names and family situations had been changed, so Degrassi Junior High cannot, therefore, be considered a direct spinoff.

The legal counsel for all the episodes was Stephen Stohn who later became the executive producer of Degrassi: The Next Generation. The series was filmed at the unused Vincent Massey Public School in Etobicoke, Ontario.

This series follows a group of high school freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors from Degrassi Community School, a fictional school in Toronto, Ontario, and depicts some of the typical issues and challenges common to a teenager’s life.