Rebecca Kwan Is Ready to Take on More Risk

Story | Amber Dowling    Photography | Simon Boucher-Harris
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Having landed her first regular-series gig as nurse Emma Lin on CBC’s new medical drama SkyMed, Rebecca Kwan now has a much clearer vision of the future—one that includes more focus on Asian stories with meaningful representation.

Growing up in Toronto, Kwan always knew she wanted to tell stories onscreen. As a kid, she would force her dad to shoot endless videos while she dressed up as different characters. When she was 13, she asked her mom for an agent for Christmas. She recalls both of her parents being supportive, but definitely worried about their daughter’s early career choice.

“Back then, there wasn’t a lot of Asian representation on the screen,” she says. “They had heard horror stories about kids getting into the industry and, for a while, I was only allowed to do commercials.”

Kwan recalls doing small stints for companies like Walmart and “a famous footwear line,” but she eventually became frustrated at her inability to advance her career and decided to call it quits.

“I fell into the habit of thinking I couldn’t do this, because not a lot of Asians, never mind women, were really prominent in the media,” she says. Instead, Kwan started her own eyelash extension company in Toronto and built up steady work with loyal clientele. The entire time she would share her acting dreams with her customers and take acting classes on the side.

“I was honestly just too afraid,” she says, looking back. “At the time, we’d only had like Lucy Liu. Sandra Oh was just starting to break out with Grey’s Anatomy and we saw her on The Princess Diaries. But nobody my age was prominent in the media. I figured this was not something that happens for us until we’re way older. Then we could play those super-mature roles, like the lawyer or the school principal.”

However, after a few years, Kwan hit a breaking point and decided to bat her eyelash business goodbye. She concluded it was now or never, in terms of an acting career, so she gave herself three years.

“I was going through so many life changes and I knew I needed to figure it out for myself. So I just packed up everything and left for Vancouver,” she says. “I didn’t look back.”

Kwan was busy right away. She landed small parts on shows like Taken and in director Patricia Rozema’s 2018 TIFF selection Mouthpiece. She also did a pilot that fell through for Nickelodeon and moved to Los Angeles for
a year to explore her options. Then, in 2021, she landed what she thought might be her first real break: a role on the CBS Studios nun dramedy pilot Our Ladies of Brooklyn, from Jane the Virgin creator Jennie Snyder Urman.

Kwan played Kat, a woman from an abusive relationship with nowhere else to turn. Behind the scenes, Kwan felt completely supported and marvelled at how many “amazingly strong women” were running the show. Women who, Kwan reveals, ensured her character didn’t perpetuate stereotypic Asian tropes.

“I loved it because it wasn’t [about] me just being Asian,” Kwan says. “It was [about] me being a human and experiencing a hard time instead. It was transformative in my career.”

Unfortunately, The CW didn’t pick up Our Ladies of Brooklyn. Kwan was disappointed, but she had also seen the potential and change that was taking place in the industry. When she learned CBC was auditioning for SkyMed, a new drama from Julie Puckrin (Transplant) that would feature a diverse cast and look into the intense personal lives of the young nurses and pilots flying air ambulances in northern Manitoba, she knew she wanted to be a part of it.

“I had a weird feeling from the jump, where I really wanted the role of Emma,” she says. “But you have to adjust your expectations and be realistic. The phone call where I learned I got it though? Honestly, I ripped my favourite jean shorts that day because I jumped and kicked so high in the air. It was a big moment in my life and to think I almost didn’t even do all of this because I was too afraid.”

Not anymore. Looking ahead, Kwan has already started plotting out what her career could look like over the next several years and that involves taking risks. She says she loves playing Nurse Emma, a character who works hard and plays even harder. But she also envisions running her own production company and has already begun development on a new film under her banner, SeeYun Entertainment.

That dream is extremely personal for the actor. The company name derives from the Chinese names of two women who have greatly influenced her life and career: her mother Cissy (See) and her older cousin Corrina (Yun).

Growing up, Kwan and her older cousin lived at each other’s houses and spent hours daydreaming and manifesting the changes needed for better representation in the industry that they loved so much. Then her cousin passed away from a rare kidney cancer at the age of 18 and Kwan was left to carry on that legacy through her own career.

“We would always talk about how one day we were going to revolutionize the industry,” she recalls. “It was the legacy we both wanted to leave with each other. Since she’s passed, I’ve always been committed that it was something I would continue to live on for her and for myself.”

When SkyMed kicked off production shortly after the anniversary of her cousin’s death, Kwan knew she was on the right path. Here was a show revolutionizing the way standard medical dramas are presented, both in terms of diversity and scope, but also something that aligned with all of those past conversations.

“I’m a spiritual person and a part of me believes this is her way of watching over me and guiding me in the direction of where we’ve always wanted to be together,” she says. “It meant a lot to me and it felt like a fullcircle way to heal, while also continuing our legacy together.”

The strong reception for SkyMed (the series also premiered in the U.S. on Paramount+) holds a lot of meaning for Kwan, but it’s also taught her about the importance of following the fun. Through this experience, she’s learned how easy it can be to get caught up in that fear, or to take it all too seriously. But in the end, she reminds herself that none of the success means anything if she’s not having fun, enjoying the happiness and passion, or listening to her heart.

“Honestly, I feel like I’m just getting started,” she says. “This is the start of a whole amazing adventure for me and for everyone else on the show. It’s so impressive how far this whole thing has come, but I do think it’s just the beginning.”