Evan is a full-scholarship alumnus of St. Michaels University School
and of Lester B. Pearson
College of the Pacific,both of
Victoria. He stars in the Emmy-winning
TV-movie "Lost in the
Barrens" and its nominated sequel "Curse of the Viking Grave". Besides
numerous episodics like
"The Beachcombers" and "Black Stallion", he also appears in the feature
film "Toby McTeague"
and the Fox-TV movie "Lakota Moon". On the stage, some of his
highlights include the role of
Edmund in Women in View�s �Lear�, Creature Nataways in the Arts Club
Theatre's production of
Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, and Jamie in Headlines Theatre's "Mamu."
In 1988, Evan's original play "Dreams of Sheep" was selected as one of
Canada's entries to the
International Festival of Young Playwrights in Sydney, Australia. He
also wrote the award-winning
audio tour of the First Peoples Gallery at the Royal British Columbia
Museum in Victoria. Two of
his plays, "Snapshots" and "Dirty Dog River" (co-written with Marie
Humber), have been presented
in more than 300 communities in Canada, the United States, New Zealand
-- and even into Africa �
since April, 1989. Snapshots was also published by V�hicule Press in
the anthology A Leap in the
Dark: AIDS, Art and Contemporary Cultures.
"Janice's Christmas",
originally written for the New
Play Centre's 1992 production of "Voices of Christmas", appears in
Theytus Books' anthology
Gatherings IV.
Evan was the first President of the Healing Our Spirit BC First Nations AIDS Society, which provides prevention education for Aboriginal people in both urban and rural First Nations communities throughout BC. In 1986, Evan was selected as a "Role Model" by the National Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program (NNADAP). In addition to a nationally-circulated poster highlighting his accomplishments, he worked with Native youth in health promotions and life-skills workshops across the country.
Evan has kept close ties with his Coast Salish roots. His competitive and traditional styles of Native dance have taken him touring across Canada and Europe, and into collaboration with the Karen Jamieson Dance Company of Vancouver. He does Raven�s Tail weaving, some of his work in this ancient style appearing in Cheryl Samuel's book Raven's Tail. In July 1990, Evan received the name "Tlesla II" by his family and band elders, the first time in fifty years that such an honour has been given. At the same time, he received the name "Kit ta ladzi", "Big Fire" from the Kwakwaka'wakw people of Alert Bay.
Evan has scripted a half-hour for the C.B.C. anthology series FOUR DIRECTIONS called "My Father's Son" and has recently completed two other screenplays: STONEFACES for Wild Bunch Productions of Vancouver, and SEAGULL, co-written with Anne Cameron. His new, one-man show, "Son of Raven", has received staged readings at the Museum of Anthropology, UBC and at the XV Commonwealth Games in Victoria.
Most recently, Evan stars as Thomas Builds-The-Fire in ShadowCatcher Entertainment�s SMOKE SIGNALS, written by Sherman Alexie and directed by Chris Eyre. SMOKE SIGNALS won the coveted Audience Award for best film, and the Filmmakers Trophy when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, 1998.
Aside from his career in the arts, Evan has completed three years of pre-med studies at the University of British Columbia. In May 2002, he received his Medical Degree from the University of Calgary.