Most people prepare for their first day at a new job by buying a new shirt or cleaning their shoes. For North York–born actress Liane Balaban it was a stint in front of YouTube learning how to take a dog’s pulse.

Balaban will be hitting screens this fall in the new season of the CW’s demon-fighting series Supernatural, in which she plays the love interest for leading actor Jared Padalecki. In addition to being Padalecki’s character’s squeeze, her character is also a vet.

“I thought at least I’d have something to do with my hands when faced with a canine,” says Balaban, explaining her decision to teach herself animal diagnostic procedures from Internet clips.

To her relief, she found, when she turned up to the set, she wouldn’t need to fall back on her YouTube training — the producers had brought in expert veterinary advisers to show her how it’s done. “They showed me how to hold operating pincers and how to swab a wounded animal,” she says.

Balaban is arriving on the hit drama in its eighth season, and she likens joining such a well-established cast to being “the new kid in school.” But, she says, “Luckily everybody is nice. And happy because they are making a show that really works.”

Born and raised in North York, where she attended Lawrence Park Collegiate, the Genie Award–nominated actress first found fame in 1999 with her charming portrayal of Moonie Pottie in New Waterford Girl.

After a stint studying journalism at Ryerson, Balaban decided to concentrate on acting and has been a regular face on screens large and small since. In addition to a string of guest roles in series like NCIS: Los Angeles and Covert Affairs, Balaban also starred in Last Chance Harvey, acting alongside Dustin Hoffman.  

In Supernatural, Balaban will be playing the role of Amelia. Although producers are staying tight-lipped on exactly where her character is headed — even Balaban doesn’t know — it seems that, whereas Padalecki fights the bad guys from the underworld, Balaban might have some inner demons of her own to slay. Her character is described as having a “damaged soul.”

The actress, who previously appeared on sci-fi drama Alphas, is excited to be getting into the fantasy adventure series. Having previously spoken about her passion for women’s issues and the portrayal of women on the screen, Balaban points out that sci-fi and fantasy genres often present “more rich and empowering” female characters.

Being an actress, Balaban has found it impossible to avoid the siren call of L.A. She moved there two years ago and says, “It’s a great city, full of creative people, parks and with lovely weather.” Nobody is ever going to describe Toronto’s climate as lovely, but Balaban will always consider it home and comes back regularly.

Last year, she returned to Toronto to star in the theatre adaptation of Michael Ondaatje’s Divisadero, which marked her stage debut.

When she’s not here working, Balaban likes to take in the North York neighbourhoods where she grew up (“It has changed so much since I lived there,” she says) and her old hangouts, like Mitchell Field swimming pool and Abbotsford Park. She also likes to drive by her old middle school, Willowdale on Senlac Road.

If you’re downtown, you might also spot her in Chinatown as she has a passion for Mother’s Dumplings restaurant. 

But Toronto is far from the only place you’re likely to find Balaban. This summer has been a coast-to-coast Canadian journey for the actress, who films Supernatural in Vancouver but also found herself in Newfoundland filming an indie flick.

In fact, when I contact her for this interview, she is sitting in the Two Whales Café in the tiny town of Port Rexton. Clinging to Newfoundland’s Atlantic-facing coast just north of St. John’s, it’s about as far east as you can go in Canada.

Balaban is in that far-flung part of the country filming The Grand Seduction, an English-language remake of the 2003 Quebecois film La grande seduction (also known as Seducing Doctor Lewis).

The film, which is being directed by fellow Torontonian Don McKellar sees Balaban play yet another love interest. (Considering she has a look that’s distinctly reminiscent of Black Swan star Natalie Portman, it’s not hard to see why she gets these roles.)

This time, her leading man is Taylor Kitsch who, having had a tough time at the box office with John Carter and Savages, is taking a break from the big-budget blockbusters to play the role of the doctor. Balaban takes on the role of the local post mistress who catches Kitsch’s eye, though his feelings aren’t necessarily returned — Balaban’s environmentally minded character being more concerned with an oil reprocessing plant that’s opening up in the community.

“It’s a funny, touching script about a community trying to lift their town out of economic disaster,” says Balaban. “That’s a situation many people can relate to right now, with the economy in such a slump and the closing of so many factories in the U.S. What I love most about it is the ensemble aspect, people rallying together for a good cause.”

Though she doesn’t have a film in this year’s TIFF, Balaban says she loves the film fest. Last year she was on the Canadian features jury, judging films like Monsieur Lazar and Nuit #1. “It’s the films like the latter that make TIFF really exciting, I think,” she says, “More so than the stars and glamour, it’s the revelation of new talents.”

Having established herself as an actress in a cutthroat industry, Balaban occasionally speaks at Reel Canada events, a program that screens Canadian films in Canadian high schools. Despite all her TV and movie credits and the stars she has worked with, it’s one of her lesser-known roles that get the school kids interested: Balaban provided the voice of the crazy Lucrezia Borgia in the video game Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.

“Doing Assassin’s Creed has given me serious cred with teenaged boys,” she says.

Balaban is also involved in a project that’s aimed squarely at the other half of that high-school audience. Balaban,  is one of the creative forces behind Toronto-based website Crankytown.ca. The site, which was founded in 2011, is designed to give teen girls information about their menstrual cycle through short online films.

Balaban is currently working with Toronto-based iThentic video website on a series of comedy shorts for Crankytown, featuring actors such as Jessica Paré (from Mad Men) and Ryan Cartwright (from Alphas).

Whether she’s fighting demons, period pain or economic hardship, the future looks bright for Balaban.