HOST While still a student in Ryerson University's Radio & Television Arts program, Joe auditioned against 350 people to land his first television job as the host of What on TVOntario. The live, late-night phone-in show discussed youth and pop culture issues and was nominated for a 1995 Gemini Award for Best Youth Program. Joe was then asked to host The tvokids Crawlspace, TVO's afterschool block of children's shows. During his time co-hosting tvokids with Patty Sullivan, the
Crawlspace became the #1 block of programs in its time slot. It achieved its best ratings ever or since, regularly beating YTV, CBC and Fox. Joe retired from the show in 1999.
When TVO decided to resurrect the seminal high school quiz show Reach For The Top they called Joe, who hosted the first two seasons of the SchoolReach Ontario finals, starting in 2002. At the same time, Joe became host of POV Sports on CBC, a youth-oriented show that featured stories about professional and amateur athletes and the sports they played. Over sixty-five episodes Joe travelled across North America as host of POV and as a reporter for CBC Sports, covering events like the X Games in L.A., the original Heritage Classic from Commonwealth Stadium, the Canada Games from Bathurst/Campbellton, and two Grey Cups.
Joe racked up more air miles when he became host of the Encore/TVO co-production Get Outta Town, a travel show about how young people live in different parts of the world. He split hosting duties with Barbara Mamabolo and visited cities in Australia, Asia and Europe. His travel experiences also included trips to Resolute Bay, Nunavut to shoot the award-winning documentary Sports From The Edge, and to London, England to host the Life Lab pilot for CBC's documentary unit.
Ice Cold Cash is a Food Network game show with Joe undercover as an ice cream man giving away thousands of dollars for correct answers about food - it airs periodically on GameTV in Canada and DABL in the U.S. He served as in-stadium Athletics host at the 2015 Pan Am Games and Parapan Am Games in Toronto, ON.
Joe also fronted CSP Live, a Facebook-exclusive broadcast from CBC's Canada's Smartest Person, giving viewers the chance to attempt the show's multiple intelligence challenges in real time via the social media platform.
For a complete list of Joe's hosting and acting credits, as well as his live work appearances, please go to the Resumé page.
ACTING Primarily a host, Joe got a call from Dave Thomas who as a student, provided some animated segments for What. Having moved to Cuppa Coffee in Toronto, he brought Joe in to audition for a stop-motion character named Professor Rocket on
Crashbox, a show they were working on for HBO. Joe's mouth was filmed as he performed the lines, then inserted into the character's face whose head was an upside-down calculator. He played Professor Rocket on that show, which currently runs on
HBO Max.
In 2000, Joe voiced rookie mountain climber Rocky Canyon for the Rescue Heroes television show, movie, and talking action figures. His next role was one of his favourites: the brash, rebellious Metabee on the hit anime series Medabots for Fox. After three seasons of robattles, he appeared in several Disney MOWs, and series like Zoe Busiek: Wildcard, and Wingin' It; in feature films Phantom Punch starring Ving Rhames, and Blindness, directed by Oscar nominee Fernando Meirelles; and he got to play himself as a quiz show host on Degrassi: The Next Generation.
Additional voice roles included several anime series. He also played Madman in the YTV comedy Urban Vermin, Dr. D in the reality show spoof Life's A Zoo.tv which won the 2009 Gemini Award for Best Animated Series in Canada, and the swashbuckling artisan Leo in CBC's Pirates: Adventures In Art.
Joe played Trevor Jones in the VisionTV comedy She's The Mayor, co-starring Janet-Laine Green, Tonya Lee Williams and Colin Mochrie. It was the network's 2nd-most watched program during its run. He also made guest appearances on TBS' People Of Earth and the season 10 premiere of Murdoch Mysteries.
Joe went to Fan Expo in Toronto in support of his character Ryan on the Amazing race spoof Total Drama Presents The Ridonculous Race from Fresh TV. He also played the role of recurring villain Mr. Lightning in the PBS/TVO hit show Odd Squad, and Pedro on the Disney/Teletoon show Hotel Transylvania: The Series.
Currently, Joe is playing Mayor Joe on the Emmy Award-nominated Treehouse series Miss Persona, which won the 2022 Shaw Kids Choice Award at the Canadian Screen Awards. He's also playing Mr. E on PBS' Work It Out Wombats.
