‘Carmilla’ star Elise Bauman wins fans’ choice award
TORONTO Of all the nominees for the fans’ choice trophy at this year’s Canadian Screen Awards — a list that included prominent TV stars Yannick Bisson and Helene Joy of the CBC’s “Murdoch Mysteries,” and Daniel Levy of “Schitt’s Creek” — it was a web star who took the title for the second year in a row.
Elise Bauman of the Canadian web series “Carmilla” won the Cogeco Fund Audience Choice Award, a year after her co-star Natasha Negovanlis took the title.
With a fervent worldwide fanbase and over 71 million views on YouTube channel KindaTV, “Carmilla” stars Bauman as a university student and avid vlogger whose new dorm roommate turns out to be a lesbian vampire, played by Negovanlis.
The series, inspired by the classic gothic vampire novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, launched in August 2014 and has been extended into a “Carmilla” movie that was released last fall.
Bauman said part of the reason for the show’s success is that the story speaks to marginalized groups — in this case, a vampire who needs to hide in the dark and not fit into society and know her place in it.
“I think a lot of young, queer kids have felt like that in their lifetime,” she said.
In her acceptance speech on Sunday, Bauman credited fans for being “vocal about what positive queer representation meant to you.”
And she encouraged them to continue spreading the word about projects that have “inclusive representation” to their network of friends, “to prove that diverse stories will have a large and dedicated audience.”
“Representation matters, especially a show that I’m in, which caters to such a young audience,” Bauman said backstage Sunday after accepting her trophy.