Amanda Brugel

Pointe Claire resides in a sleepy part of Montreal Island known as West Island. The West Island, to those who have never heard of it, is a vast part that stretches from Lachine all the way west. It is often cited as the birthplace of Amanda Brugel but while that may be true, her time there was short. Brugel grew on Courtice just outside Oshawa located in Ontario. At the beginning of her life she hoped to become professional performer, however an unexpected increase in her height made it difficult. In an interview with the Toronto Star, she confessed that "In heels I'm 6 feet, 1 inch." After I became too big for my male friends, I quit. Numerous former dancers choose to become actors. In Brugel's case it was because of the advice by her drama instructor in high school who pushed her to take the step she wanted. She was a teacher at the time who advised her to take on a part in the school's annual production. The student tried it out, and ended up playing the lead in Anne of Green Gables. It led to an Fine Arts Talent Scholarship at York University where she attended the Theatre Program which she graduated with an Associate in Fine Arts degree in 2000. Over the last 20 years, Brugel's work has been featured on both the large and small screen. The most notable was her fame when she was offered the part as Rita in the acclaimed television series The Handmaid's Tale. Brugel was the character Rita in The Handmaid's Tale the series produced over the course of ten years.