Departures of note

Georgina Lightning was a Canadian First Nations actress, film director, and screenwriter from the Samson Cree Nation, born in Edmonton, Alberta. After studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles, she built a career spanning more than three decades in film and television, appearing in series such as Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Walker, Texas Ranger, The West Wing, Blackstone, Trickster, and Three Pines.

In 2008 she wrote, directed, and starred in Older than America, a supernatural thriller inspired by her father's experience in the Canadian Indian residential school system. It made her the first North American Indigenous woman to direct a major feature film and earned more than twenty festival awards. She was named one of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2007 and received the White House Project's Epic Award for Emerging Artist in 2010.

Lightning was also a prominent advocate for Indigenous representation in media, co-founding Tribal Alliance Productions and Native Media Network to create opportunities for Indigenous filmmakers. Her performance in the CBC series Trickster earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the 2021 Canadian Screen Awards. She died at age 63 following an equestrian accident at a rodeo event on the Enoch Cree reservation.