Jennifer J. Lacelle
Jennifer J. Lacelle
Her path began with Sudbury Secondary School where she obtained her Red Seal Diploma (Specialist High Skills Major) in theatre production.
She can hardly recall a time when she wasn’t scribbling something down, often scrawling in notebooks or single slips of paper, until she’d finally formulated her first four-book series that was over 1,000 pages (typed).
While she hasn’t looked at those pages in over a decade, she has considered glancing back to see how far she’s come since those days, and maybe even edit them properly.
She won multiple awards during this period — in-house and competitively — for writing, directing and acting. Lacelle now takes every opportunity she has in the film industry to learn the ins and outs of the business, from behind the scenes to on-camera.
After high school, she went on to graduate from Cambrian College’s Journalism Program where she studied with William (Bill) Radunsky, who taught the program for over 20 years.
The college decided to stop offering Journalism during her first year, but allowed those already registered to complete their studies.
Her group was the last to graduate from the program in 2013.
About a year after graduation, she began training in martial arts as a way of curbing her serious weight and health issues.
She also pushed pause on continuing any education. “There are a number of things I wish I had seriously pursued earlier,” she says of the delay. “Where I’m headed now is exciting as much as it is scary – as a creator it’s tough to open your work to public scrutiny – but I don’t want to live with fear.
It stops people from doing what they love.” She continued writing after graduation and had almost 40 articles published.
After several years, she attended Georgian College (2018-19) and graduated from the one-year program, Communications & Professional Writing. There’s power in perseverance and she believes the self-confidence, determination, discipline and adaptability she continually learns in martial arts is indispensable to being a writer and artist.
“The creative arts aren’t usually considered essential, so it’s often forgotten,” Lacelle says.
“But the arts go beyond invisible barriers and touch people’s lives profoundly. That’s my goal.”
As an example, she’s releasing her debut novel this year, and obtained her first-degree black belt in Kuksool Won Hapkido in 2020. She plans to continue rising the ranks both in martial arts and professionally.
