Dmitry Chepovetsky (MAVERICK)

Dmitry has worked in theatres across Canada and has appeared in television episodics, independents, pilots and feature films. Select stage credits include: Remnants (2004 Dora Award - Best Production, Tarragon Theatre), Top Gun! The Musical (Dora Award nominated - Best Performance, Factory Theatre), Zadie's Shoes (Alberta Theatre Projects), The Danish Play (Nightwood Theatre), David in Unidentified Human Remains... (Vancouver Fringe 2001), Jacques Brel is Alive and Well... (Prairie Theatre Exchange), Major Barbara (Neptune Theatre), Picasso in the Canadian premiere of Picasso at the Lapin Agile (Manitoba Theatre Centre / National Arts Centre), Orphan Muses (Touchstone), and Brad in The Rocky Horror Show (Kaleidoscope). Select film/TV credits include: K-19: The Widowmaker (with Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson), Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story (William Hurt and Mary-Louise Parker), Chain of Fools (Steve Zahn), Blue Murder, Stargate, and The X-Files. He has created and produced his one-man show FETCH! with Liesl Lafferty and collaborated as writer/performer/producer on Bloodline with Foursight Theatre in England.

Dmitry can also be seen as Bob Melnikov in Shaftesbury Films' new series ReGenesis, coming to The Movie Network/Movie Central in October.

David Collins (THE GENERAL)

David is a Dora-nominated actor, who has performed extensively throughout Canada on stage and in film, television and radio. Most recently he was featured in El Paso (Factory Theatre), Orsino in Twelfth Night (CanStage), and the Mirvish Productions remount of Djanet Sears' The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God.

David can be seen in upcoming episodes of Odyssey 5, Doc, Soul Food and the feature film Owning Mahoney.

Steve Gallagher (ICEMAN)

Steven just finished the successful run of the Canadian Premiere of Urinetown, directed by Tony winner John Rando. He has been involved with Top Gun! The Musical since its inception at the Toronto Fringe Festival and again for the remount in Toronto in 2003. Most recently in New York, he performed a new musical version of The Nightingale and the Rose by composer Neil Bartram and writer Brian Hill at the Broadway Institute. He was a member of the original Vancouver company of Forever Plaid and played Sparky in the Canadian National Tour of that show. Other recent roles include Phil in Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh at the Jewish Theater of New England and Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream. He has been seen on Queer as Folk and Showtime's The Big Dance.

He is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.

Sharon Heldt (CHARLIE)

Sharon is thrilled to be a part of the Top Gun! The Musical cast for the inaugural NYC Musical Theatre Festival. She has just come off the hit Toronto Fringe musical, Sleepless, the second collaboration between the TG!TM creators Denis McGrath and Scott White. Selected credits include Wrong For Each Other (Cambridge Theatre), Chapter Two (Port Mansion Theatre), Mono (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre), U.I. Or Die (Factory Studio), Emerald City (Manitoba Theatre Centre), the bittergirls' Flush (Factory Theatre), Twelfth Night directed by the infamous William Hutt (Banff, Alberta), and two seasons at the Stratford Festival, which included Richard III, All's Well That Ends Well, Much Ado About Nothing, Troilus And Cressida, My Fair Lady and Cabaret. Sharon has also tackled Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (Annex Theatre), playing opposite her husband, Adam Large. Selected musical theatre credits from Toronto include: Gypsy, Evita, Kiss Me Kate, Oklahoma, Best Little Whorehouse In Texas and Pal Joey, which toured to the Grand Theatre (London) and National Arts Centre (Ottawa).

Selected film and television include Queer As Folk (Bravo), 1 800 MISSING (Showtime), King Of The Volcano (HBO), Rememberance (NBC), Phunkee Zee (YTV), More Tears (CBC), Borrowed Hearts (CBS), Code Named Eternity and Avenging Angelo (both Warner Brothers).

Alison Lawrence (WENDY)

Alison Lawrence is an actor, writer and director who has been flying with Top Gun! The Musical since its maiden flight at the 2002 Toronto Fringe. Her play bittergirl, co-written with and co-starring Annabel Griffiths and Mary Francis Moore, has played to sold-out houses in Toronto, London, England and throughout Ontario. The book version of bittergirl is to be published by Penguin Canada for Valentine's 2005 and the bittergirls are currently in development for the television series Get Over It.

Brett McCaig (BILLY)

Brett McCaig is delighted to be joining the Top Gun crew, especially here in NYC where he was last seen graduating from AMDA. He just debuted a new musical satire, co-wrote with his wife, called Waiting for Trudeau: The Return of the King. He spent the early part of this summer playing Max in Race Day a new musical by Norm Foster and has recently been seen on tour playing the King himself, the Pharaoh, in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with Drayton Entertainment. Some favourite roles include Hysterium in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Beast in Beauty and the Beast, Kirk in Dads! The Musical, Flute in A Midsummer's Night's Dream, Ebenezer in A Christmas Carol, and just about everybody in The Compleat Wrks of Wm Shkspr (Abridged), to name a few. But his favourite roles are husband to his lovely wife Racheal and dad to Molly.

Next up: George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life for the Grand Theatre in London.

Racheal McCaig (GOOSE)

Racheal is thrilled to be stepping back into her flight suit. Since creating the role of Goose in the Dora-nominated Top Gun! The Musical, Racheal has gone on to have a baby, create the role of Leslie in Home and Away for Theatre Orangeville, co-produce Upstairs at Bluma's, a cabaret series at the Bluma Appel Theatre, and create the role of Nurse Bridget in Sleepless, a new musical from the creators of TG!TM. Some of her favourite roles include Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Woman 1 in I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, wife to the fabulous actor Brett McCaig, and mom to beautiful Molly. Racheal, an alumna of the American Academy of Dramatic Art, is also a singer-songwriter and can be found playing in clubs around Toronto, London and Miami.

Denis McGrath (Books and Lyrics)

Denis was born in New York City, where his first-ever address was on Broadway (up in Riverdale, but still...). He now lives and works in Toronto, where he writes for television, film, and theatre. Credits include many Canadian documentary, drama, and comedy series you've never heard of, and the one act plays American Without Tears, Press'd and Shooter. In 2000, Denis produced and wrote a short film based on Shooter, which placed third in the Houston Film Festival, and aired nationally on Canadian TV. He recently returned from South Africa, where he was writing the internationally syndicated sci-fi show Charlie Jade, which will premiere in 2005. Top Gun! The Musical has been produced commercially in Toronto, where it was nominated for two Toronto theatre Dora Mavor Moore Awards, and in Houston, Texax. Denis and Scott White's follow up show, Sleepless, premiered to enthusiastic crowds at the 2004 Toronto Fringe Festival.

Denis is a graduate of Norman Jewison's Canadian Film Centre, and a part time professor at Toronto's Ryerson University. He's thrilled to be bringing TG!TM – a little show that could – to New York.

Scott White (Composer and Music Director)

Scott has written hundreds of songs for theatre, film and television including three full-length musicals. Top Gun! The Musical was Scott's first collaboration with writer Denis McGrath., and their work was rewarded with a Dora Mavor Moore Award nomination (Best New Musical). Their latest show, Sleepless, showcased in July at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. Scott's other credits include The Dance of the Dead, which premiered in Toronto at the Berkeley Street Theatre in January of 2002. Favorite musical direction credits include productions of The Pirates of Penzance (St. Lawrence Stage Co.), Cabaret, and I Love You, You're Perfect Now Change (both for the Sudbury Theatre Centre) and numerous shows with The Second City in exotic locales such as New Orleans and Singapore. Scott is also an actor whose credits include leading roles in musicals such as The Eddie Cantor Story, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story and one of only two actors to have ever played both roles in the international smash hit 2 Pianos 4 Hands.

Upcoming projects include development of his newest piece Choralocity! (an a cappella jazz clown musical) that will premiere in Toronto in 2007. For more information on Scott White, please visit www.geocities.com/scottwhite40.

Colin Viebrock (Director)

TG!TM marks Colin's third collaboration with Denis McGrath, having directed the intial Fringe run of Top Gun! The Musical, Shooter, and the SummerWorks and subsequent extension at the Tarragon of Press'd. Other credits include Slawomir Mrozek's Out at Sea and The Party, Kim Orton's Raven and The Savage Lily, and his own play, Time and Again. He has worked and studied with (among others) Ken Gass, Steven Bush, Herbert Olschok, and Theatre Smith-Gilmour. Colin also produced the SummerWorks Theatre Festival for two glorious seasons last century.

Recently, he spends most of his time with his new daughter, Natalie, and is thrilled that his first ever trip to NYC is to direct a musical on Broadway (or nearby, at least).

Nicola Pantin (Choreographer)

Nicola, a native of Waterloo, performed in the 2003 Stratford Festival's The King and I, and also returned in 2004 to choreograph The Count of Monte Cristo and Timon of Athens.   Her work with both Spark Theatre's Romeo and Juliet Remixed and LKTYP's 2004 production of Jacob Two Two Meets the Hooded Fang garnered her Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding Choreography. Film credits in choreography include various music videos for Big Toad Productions and Revolver Films. Nicola most recently performed on tour with Dusk Dances and created choreography for the Red Barn Theatre'sJasper Station. Nicola continues to run her company 3 Degrees Dance and Theatre with her husband Adam Nashman in Toronto.

Shauna Japp (Stage Manager)

Shauna is thrilled to stage manage TG!TM for the third time. Her other recent credits include fusion (DNA Theatre), bittergirl (bittergirl co-op), Much Ado About Nothing (National Arts Centre), Poochwater (Poochwater Collective), Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, Anything Goes, Evita, It Runs In The Family, Forever Plaid (Drayton Entertainment), A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Compleat Wrks of Wm Shkspr (Abridged)and Mass Appeal (St. Lawrence Stage Company).

C. Derrick Chua (Producing Consultant)

Derrick is an entertainment lawyer and independent film and theatre producer whose most recent theatrical ventures include two new musicals: Sleepless: A New Musical, and Waiting For Trudeau: The Return of the King. Other recent shows he has produced include This Is Our Youth, directed by Woody Harrelson (macIDeas), the Dora-nominated productions The Laramie Project (Studio 180), (nod) (Theatre Gargantua), Miss Orient(ed) (Carlos Bulosan Theatre), Snappy Tales (Theatre Non Nobis), The Teenage Girl Diaries (The Great Hailey), and the Dora Award winning Poochwater (Poochwater Collective) being remounted at Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace in February 2005. Derrick can be contacted at dchua@pathcom.com.

Philip Akin (THE GENERAL - Toronto '03)

Philip is totally chuffed to be making his musical theatre debut in Top Gun! The Musical. He was last seen on stage in New World (Tarragon) and Stephen and Mr. Wilde (Theatre Calgary). Since then it has been a round of MOW's, Television and film. He directed El Paso (Factory Theatre 2002) and is currently the Administrative Producer of the Obsidian Theatre Company.

Next up: Othello (Arts Club Theatre, Vancouver).

Drew Carnwath (BILLY - Toronto '02 & '03)

Drew is thrilled to once again fly at Mach 3 with the fantastic cast and crew of TG!TM. Fresh from playing the title role in a sold-out, held-over production of Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story for Persephone Theatre, some of Drew's other favourite roles include Jacob Mercer in Salt Water Moon, Gilbert Blythe in Anne Of Green Gables, and his three seasons with the Advanced Actors' Company at The Banff Centre; under the keen and kind direction of William Hutt and Patricia Hamilton). As a writer, Drew's plays (including Total Body Washout, Hide And Seek, Johnnyville and Grace And After) have been produced across the country. In 1996 he was a member of Tarragon Theatre's Playwrights' Unit, and in 1998 both Johnnyville and Total Body Washout were published by Playwrights Canada Press.

More recently, Drew has been writing and producing for CTV and CBC television, and next month he begins his residency as screenwriter at The Canadian Film Centre.

Mary Francis Moore (CHARLIE - Toronto '02 & '03)

Mary Francis is over the moon to be reunited with the fabulous Top Gun the Musical! family. She was most recently seen in Chris Earle's play Russell Hill at Tarragon Theatre. Some other credits include; Grendalmaus (Eldritch Theatre), One Good Marriage, Girls and Horses, and A Midsummer Night's Dream at Magnus Theatre where she also spent several seasons as Associate Director. Along with Annabel Griffiths and Alison Lawrence, Mary Francis co-wrote and co-starred in the much produced hit bittergirl which is undergoing its next metamorphosis into the much anticipated bittergirl brigade book! Keep an eye out.

Next up Mary Francis will head to Picton, Ontario's Regent Theatre, and will be seen next season in Theatre Passe Muraille's production of One Good Marriage.

Patrick Burwell (Musical Director - Toronto '03)

As an actor, Patrick has performed lead roles at theatres from coast to coast, travelled internationally as a vocalist aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines, and has hawked everything from hamburgers to vodka in numerous industrial shows.

He can be heard on the cast recordings of Pirates! (Charlottetown Festival), Bye Bye Birdie (ABC TV) and a solo recording called Standard Issue. As a "piano man", Patrick has appeared at the Spiral Lounge and the Boston Club and was assistant musical director for The Cradle Will Rock at Equity Showcase.

Patrick Stiles (Assistant Musical Director - Toronto '02)

Patrick (who's writing his bio in hindsight) feels so privileged to have been part of such a legacy – Top Gun! The Musical. Prior to TG!TM, Patrick had worked with Drayton Entertainment, Stirling Festival Theatre, Ross Petty Productions, and aboard Sunquest Cruise Lines. Since then, he's been keeping busy with a production of 42nd Street in Moscow, Russia, A Chorus Line (Stage West Calgary/Mississauga), Swing!, Leader of the Pack (Drayton Ent.), the US National Tour of 42nd Street. "Thanks to the creators of this awesome hit, for letting me be a small part of it!"

Michael McGinn (Musical Staging - Toronto '03)

Michael is excited to be joining the TG!TM family for their run in 2003! He spent two years as Artistic Director for Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville. His work has been seen as director of Godspell 2000 (Bathurst St. Theatre), Forbidden Broadway, Almost Famous, and The Sound of Music (Limelight Dinner Theatre). Michael spent three seasons at the Stratford Festival, four years as director in residence for the York Region Catholic School Board, and five seasons as part of the resident directors team at the Georgian Theatre Festival in Meaford. He has been teaching acting and musical theatre at George Brown College, private workshops for The Drama Workshop/Toronto and at York University. He is a resident teacher for Arts Express in Etobicoke and he will be teaching in the new year for the musical theatre department at the University of Windsor.

He is currently working on a new comedy written by Anne Marie Scheffler, called Not Getting It, which will also be filmed for CTV as a comedy television special, airing January 2004. Michael is also proud to be directing the Toronto Premiere of HONK! The Story of the Ugly Duckling, opening at the Betty Oliphant Theatre in September.