Brenda Matthews was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. After a number of moves her family settled in Vancouver, BC. Attending Vancouver City College Brenda studied theatre at Langara’s Studio 58. After some success on stage Brenda left the theatre to raise a family. Brenda returned to her love of acting when her youngest daughter graduated from high school. At first, she performed with various community theatre groups throughout the Vancouver lower mainland. Her performance as ‘Ouisa in ‘Six Degrees of Separation’ became a turning point and soon after she won the CTC (Community Theatre Coalition) award as best actress for her role as Liz in ‘The Book of Liz’. While enjoying her time on stage Brenda soon started training for film and TV and found herself an agent, Jason Ainslie of Principals Talent - who still represents her. It wasn’t long before Brenda starting booking roles in the film industry.
Brenda recently filmed the supporting role of Aunt Maggie in director Lucie Guest’s newest Movie of the Week – Love at First Flight. In 2016 Brenda was cast as Una in the highly acclaimed short ‘Beat Around the Bush’. This film toured the festival circuit with its world premier at the Vancouver International Women’s Film Festival. Brenda was Leo nominated for best actress in the role of Una. In everything she does, Brenda seems to be listening to her own counsel, not following any typical playbook. “You’ve got to keep growing and learning, taking on new adventures in life otherwise you become stagnant.” she once explained.
Brenda loves to travel and in the past few years has visited amazing places all over the world, her favorite places include Joran and Iceland. Brenda tours the west coast on her Vulcan 800 motorcycle as often as she can get away. In the past she has jumped out of perfectly good airplanes, shot down level 4 rapids, ridden camels through the desert and elephants through the Golden Triangle.
