The 2025 Leo Awards were held at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Vancouver on July 12th and 13th. Josh Zaharia was nominated for Best Supporting Performance in a Television Movie and Best Youth Performance for Tubi’s Lowlifes.
Here is our conversation with Josh Zaharia.
HNMAG: Was this your first time attending the Leo Awards?
Josh Zaharia: It was not my first time. I was at the Leos two years ago and I won.
HNMAG: Congratulations. What was that for?
Josh Zaharia: It was for a TV show called Ghostwriter. It was on Apple TV+.
HNMAG: Did you grow up in Vancouver?
Josh Zaharia: I did. My parents were Peruvian immigrants. They came to Canada around twenty-two years ago.
HNMAG: Do you speak Spanish?
Josh Zaharia: I do, I’m trilingual. French is the third one.
HNMAG: You were also on The Boys that was shot in Toronto. Did they cast you here for that show?
Josh Zaharia: I was in Toronto filming Ghostwriter and I got a self-tape for The Boys and then two weeks later I got cast. That was five months in advance of shooting. I took that time to work with a dialect coach for a Cockney accent.
HNMAG: You did a terrific job as a young Butcher. Did your agent submit you as a Toronto local because you were already there?
Josh Zaharia: They did a wide search. They looked at kids across Canada, the US, the UK, Australia…I was not cast as a local; that was cool.
HNMAG: You also played a young Clark Kent in Superman and Lois.
Josh Zaharia: I love DC, I love Superman. I went on a date with my girlfriend and we just saw the new Superman. It was great. It was a lot of fun.
HNMAG: When did you become interested in acting?
Josh Zaharia: I loved stories, movies, and filmmaking my whole life. As a little kid, I made my own short films. My parents asked me when I was still young if I wanted to try commercials and that’s how it started.
HNMAG: How old were you then?
Josh Zaharia: I was about eleven.
HNMAG: Did you start working on non-union commercials?
Josh Zaharia: No, they were union. I did a Spiderman Kellogg’s commercial, Microsoft, and that sort. It was electrifying on set. I just felt so at home. That’s when I decided to make the pivot into film and TV.
HNMAG: Do you remember your first film and TV role?
Josh Zaharia: It was a student short film called Summer Falls. I was the lead in that. That was in 2019.
HNMAG: Where did you audition for that?
Josh Zaharia: It was a UBCP ultra-low budget. The audition was at the UBCP office. Right after that I booked my very first TV show, Gabby Duran and the Unsittables for Disney. I recurred on that.
HNMAG: You played two different characters. You came back as Crazy Fan Boy.
Josh Zaharia: Exactly, yeah. I booked a part, I was there for a day. It was so much fun. A few months later, they called me back and they wanted me as a different character, and it was amazing. It was really great to build those relationships as I worked with the director on another Disney project.
HNMAG: You started making short films as a kid.
Josh Zaharia: Yeah, it was with my action figures, it was so much fun.
HNMAG: Do you have an interest in pursuing writing and directing?
Josh Zaharia: Absolutely. When lockdown came about I took up scriptwriting. The long-term goal is to pursue directing and writing.
HNMAG: You have a project in post-production now, Grendel.
Josh Zaharia: Yeah, I filmed Grendel a couple of years back. It’s a really cool project for Netflix. It’s based off a comic book about a fencer who loses his wife and becomes an anti-hero driven by vengeance.
HNMAG: Have any of the projects that you worked on been set in Canada?
Josh Zaharia: Not to my recollection, and that’s crazy. Vancouver is always playing a different place.
HNMAG: It’s the service aspect of the industry. Do you think the idea of Vancouver playing itself will gain more traction?
Josh Zaharia: Hopefully, Vancouver is a cool city. I grew up here but it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world.
HNMAG: It’s almost a crime to hide that.
Josh Zaharia: I know. I’d love Vancouver to get the recognition it deserves as a destination.
Josh Zaharia is not only one of Vancouver’s most talented young actors, he’s also one of the best in the entire industry as proven by being cast as Young Butcher from a worldwide search. We are sure he will be a regular presence at the Leos as well as other award shows. Josh has the drive and aspirations to write and direct. Hopefully, he will bring his own local stories to screens around the world.