The 2025 Leo Awards were held at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Vancouver on July 12th and 13th. Samantha Beck was nominated for Best Screenwriting for a Documentary Series for Yukon Rescue: Fire and Ice.
Here is our conversation with Samantha Beck.
HNMAG: Where are you originally from?
Samantha Beck: I am from Calgary. I moved to Vancouver in 2001, so I have lived in Vancouver longer.
HNMAG: Did you come to Vancouver with your family?
Samantha Beck: No, I came here to go to UBC when I was nineteen. I transferred after the first two years of my undergraduate studies at the University of Calgary.
HNMAG: Were you in the film program?
Samantha Beck: No, I was in science. I did a PHD in genetics. I spent ten years in academia as a scientist.
HNMAG: What a difference, moving from science to film.
Samantha Beck: When I was a teenager, I wanted to be a film editor. But I really enjoyed biology and I was really passionate about it, so that seemed like a safer career choice. While I was working on my PhD, I decided I wanted to do something more creative. I formulated a plan to make science documentaries. I did an internship in documentaries and fell in love with telling stories about people. I never ended up making a science documentary.
HNMAG: Not yet, never say never. What was the switch from science to film like?
Samantha Beck: What I was doing in the internship and my first jobs involved a lot of research. But there are actually a lot of similarities. Part of being a good scientist is being a good communicator.
HNMAG: How did you get the internship?
Samantha Beck: I took a two-week course called Science Communications in Banff. It was very intense with amazing people. The program connected me with a producer in Vancouver who was doing stuff for the Discovery Channel here, and he set up the internship.
HNMAG: Did the internship lead to paid work?
Samantha Beck: Yes, my first job was on a show about animal hoarders, finding subjects for the show. For the second season of that show, I wrote a couple of episodes. The show runner was Dan Jackson, he was very influential and became a mentor. He was very passionate about stories and how to tell them. He taught me a lot. I kept getting contracts after that.
HNMAG: Writing for a non-scripted show is a lot different from a scripted one because most of it is done in post. Does that mean that you are looking through footage in the editing suite and then figuring out where the story is? Asking, where do we have our arc?
Samantha Beck: Exactly. That’s why the role is often called a story editor. There is always a sense of a plan before they shoot, but it always changes when you get into the raw footage. I also learned a lot from the editors. They are all storytellers as well.
HNMAG: Do you find that while you are building a story in the suite, you will need more to make it hit home, like some extra footage or voiceover?
Samantha Beck: Yes, there are times when we will have to go back to pick up something or write narration to fill in gaps.
HNMAG: How long have you been working as a story editor?
Samantha Beck: I was a story editor for more than ten years, and now I’ve been show-running for a few years.
HNMAG: That is the top job in television. Are you a show runner on Yukon Rescue?
Samantha Beck: Yes, it was the first job I got coming back after having a baby. The crew in the field had an incredibly challenging job on that show, embedding with first responders and following them into very intense situations in weather conditions that were almost unimaginable. I was a show-runner on Rust Valley Restorers before that. Then I went on leave. Now I’m doing a new show that hasn’t been announced yet.
HNMAG: It is also a rough terrain documentary?
Samantha Beck: This one is a bit different; it’s about a veterinarian.
HNMAG: That’s nice! A little softer.
Samantha Beck: There’s a little more science involved in it, and I’m really enjoying it.
HNMAG: Do you want to write scripted material?
Samantha Beck: Not really, it would be cool but it’s not my strength. I love film and watching movies, but I love real stories more. My passion is figuring out what makes people tick. Finding those little moments in the footage where you can really get a sense of a character.
HNMAG: Is your new project set in Canada as well?
Samantha Beck: Yes, in Vancouver.
HNMAG: Canada can be proud of non-scripted television made here.
Samantha Beck: There is terrific non-scripted television emerging from Canada. The people in this industry are incredible. It’s a small group of very talented people who throw their hearts into what they do.
HNMAG: How were the Leo Awards?
Samantha Beck: It was fun, it went really well. It’s good to see the Vancouver factual community. We have all worked together for a long time, and we are all friends.
Samantha Beck made writing and producing non-scripted television her second career. That is impressive in itself, but very surprising as Samantha found success as a scientist with a PHD. Her passion now is bringing real stories to viewers in Canada and around the world. Her next project is in the works, and we are excited to find out more when it gets released.