Mason Cardwell
Mason Paul Joseph Cardwell was born August 18, 1990 in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. Son of Michelle (Masterson), an Early Childhood Educator and Bob Cardwell, a Pool Installer. He grew up in the small town of Keene, Ontario, just outside of Peterborough and attended North Shore Public School. In grade 3 he found his passion for acting and in his first experience; a lead role in the school play. From the ages of 10 to 13 he went to a drama summer camp at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre in Peterborough, finding his natural talents of improvisation. He first picked up a digital camera at the age of 11 and continued through out his adolescent years, projects consisted of music videos, short skits and a parody Jackass video. At 14 he began an interest in writing and directing and made his first short movie, a slasher, titled Red Nights. Most often these projects were supported by his brother, friends and mother.
He continued to pursue with acting by taking it for all four years at Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School where he also met his now wife Samantha. At 18 he studied Directing & Film Production at the Toronto Media & Film College, directing five short student films, one of which he dressed up in full costume as an overweight security guard to pitch to his professors and classmates. He graduated with an overall 90% average. After graduating his roommates were both working on their own short films Wingnut (2010) and Slipped Away (2011) and asked Mason to play the lead character in both films, after watching his performances in other classmates projects throughout film school.
His journey after film school led him to start background performing in independent films and television series. Struggling to book a talent agent to represent him, he did not waste time and spent some time behind the camera as a production assistant on a few corporate video sets. Pursuing his new found passion he attended training through the Directors Guild of Canada. As most of North America took a hit from the recession, employment was hard to come by. Thus, struggling to find more on set work. Alongside with Samantha the two made the difficult decision to move back home. Settling back to his roots he found work through his family's swimming pool company.
At 22 he wrote, produced and directed his first comedy short film Guys Night (2013), premiering at Showplace Performance Centre in his hometown of Peterborough, with an audience over 100 people. At the age of 24 Mason signed with a talent agent in Toronto and began to audition for various roles in commercials, television series and feature films. With little to no luck booking acting or writing jobs, at 28 he decided to have someone else direct his second short film Oh Christmas (2020), he starred alongside his oldest son Bronson, wrote and produced the project with his company Wild Canadian Productions.
He lives with his wife Samantha and their three sons in the Peterborough area and continues to work in the Film & Television industry as an Actor/Writer & Producer.
