You might not realisze it, but Toronto is now home to some of the world's best-known stars. As locals, we might bang on incessantly about whether or not we're a "world-class city", but we can certainly take some crumbs of comfort knowing that our city has produced some of the most successful celebrities, musicians, authors and gamers of this generation.
This article is a celebration of our fine city's ability to produce world-renowned names from all walks of life.
Drake - Undeniably one of the biggest names in global music right now, Drake is a bona fide hip-hop/RnB superstar. Brought up in Forest Hill, Drake first gained recognition as an actor in the early 2000s, but his destiny was always to be a rapper. After releasing his debut mixtape, Room for Improvement, he was soon snapped up by Lil Wayne's Young Money Entertainment label and the rest is history. He now has the proud record of the most charted songs as a solo artist in the existence of the Billboard Hot 100.
Daniel Negreanu - One of the world's most successful poker players, Daniel Negreanu is Toronto born and bred. The 42-year-old is now the proud owner of six World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets and two World Poker Tour (WPT) titles. An accomplished tournament and cash game poker ace, Negreanu is now the biggest live tournament poker winner of all time, having amassed an eye-watering $32.6m in prize money. As a competitive team player, Negreanu is sure to be at the next PokerStars Championship in Macau, battling it out for the tens of thousands of dollars on in the City of Dreams complex.
The Weeknd - The Weeknd is a Toronto-born singer, songwriter and record producer who is fast becoming one of the world's leading alternative R&B stars. He came to fame initially on YouTube before releasing a host of mixtapes under his own XO record label. Today, The Weeknd, real name, Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, already has two Grammy Awards and nine Juno Awards to his name. His newest single, "Starboy", charted immediately at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
Kiefer Sutherland - Although Kiefer Sutherland may well be British born, he moved to Toronto at the age of nine and today is recognised as one of the golden sons of Canadian entertainment. He was inducted into the Canadian Walk of Fame. Sutherland shot to stardom in the Fox drama series 24, spending nine years as the unmistakable Jack Bauer, winning Emmy and Golden Globe awards in the process.
Margaret Atwood - One of Canada's literary greats, 77-year-old Margaret Atwood is a poet, novelist, literary critic and essayist, as well as an environmental activist! However, she's most definitely best known for her work as a novelist, for which she has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize on five separate occasions, winning once. Atwood is now a founder of the Writers' Trust of Canada, a not-for-profit community designed to encourage the next generation of Canadian authors.
Jim Carrey - One of comedy's most charismatic personalities, Jim Carrey grew up in and around the GTA, with time spent in Scarborough and North York. Carrey plied his trade around the Toronto comedy circuit in the late 1970s before making the bold move to Los Angeles that gave his acting career the shot in the arm it needed.
Keanu Reeves - Despite being born in Lebanon, Keanu Reeves spent much of his early teens and adult life growing up in Toronto, where he attended four different high schools across the city. Reeves was more of a sportsman at school and harboured ambitions to become a professional ice hockey player for Canada before injury curtailed those dreams. Nevertheless, Reeves eventually made the same move as Jim Carrey to Los Angeles at the age of 20. It wasn't long before he became a household name.
Deadmau5 - DJ, Joel Zimmerman has lived in downtown Toronto for some time now and has gained huge recognition for developing the musical genre of progressive house. He's received six Grammy Award nominations for his work to date and has teamed up with many other world-renowned DJs such as Kaskade and Wolfgang Gartner on more than one occasion. His live presence is fascinating as his identity is masked on-stage, which has always created an air of mystery for fans.
