Bree Williamson has played a psychiatrist helping a town cope with supernatural forces, a high-class call girl and a woman afflicted with dissociative personality disorder — all very different, but intense and strong female characters. 

Williamson, who has a degree in women’s studies and originally dreamed of a career as a sexual health counsellor, draws on those experiences when portraying these roles. 

Though her career has taken her south of the border, it’s evident that she is still very much a Toronto girl at heart. 

When asked where she wants to meet, Williamson chooses Kiva’s, the North York bakery and restaurant known for its hand-rolled, boil and baked bagels.

“Of course I had to visit. This place is an institution,” she says, before adding that, as a fellow baked-goods lover, I must have a bagel and the chocolate babka. 

Bagels and desserts aside, Kiva’s holds a special spot in Williamson’s heart — it’s owned by her first boyfriend’s family. 

She moved stateside 13 years ago, but says being in Toronto always feels more like coming home than visiting. 

It’s easy to see why. When I enter Kiva’s and scan the tables, staff ask if I’m looking for someone. 

Before I can add words to my nod, I’m told “You’re meeting a very special young lady, aren’t you? Follow me.” 

When I’m brought to Williamson, she’s finishing a conversation with her high school sweetheart’s family who are playfully teasing her for being a stranger. 

Growing up, Williamson lived in Pickering but attended private school Bayview Glen and feels more connected with Bayview than Pickering. 

Interestingly, despite being in every school play, she never dreamed of being an actress. But she credits the school’s focus on academics and its high standards with helping fostering the life skills she needed to break into acting — like discipline and ambition.

Her former agent Sherrida Rawlings noticed that ambition from the first time they met. 

“Besides having a beautiful face, her personality was absolutely over the top. She was very confident in herself — very sparkly and bubbly. She was the complete package,” says Rawlings speaking to what helped set Williamson apart. 

Williamson pursued acting on the side, performing in commercials and minor television parts while earning her degree in psychology and women’s studies at the University of Toronto. 

Even with those early breaks, she still planned to pursue a career as a sexual health counsellor — a job that would combine her love of psychology, desire to help people and passion for women’s rights. But a guest role on Toronto-based sci-fi television show Mutant X changed the plan, making her realize she wanted to be an actress. 

“I got nervous because I knew it was what I wanted to do for a living, and I knew that it was going to be difficult,” she says of her conflicting feelings about landing the part. 

Then an open casting call from the American soap opera One Life to Live came through Rawlings that would change everything. 

Although it was a long shot, Williamson took a you-can’t-win-if-you-don’t-play approach. 

That approach eventually led to her decade-long performance on the show (which also garnered her three consecutive Daytime Emmy Award nominations), but it was a winding road to get there.

The producers liked her audition tape at the open casting call, but Williamson looked too much like actress Erin Torpey who played Jessica Buchanan on the show so they turned her down.

However, a couple years later, Torpey left the show and the producers invited Williamson back to read for the part of Buchanan, and this time she got it. Williamson went on to hold that role from 2003 to 2012. It not only kick-started her television career, but she also earned a loyal group of fans that continue to follow her career today. 

At the time she didn’t realize how difficult it would be to portray a role that another actress had held for 13 years. 

“If I’d known what a big deal it was, I probably would have psyched myself out.”

Becoming a soap star also led to some big life changes. She had to leave Toronto, which meant parting with Rawlings. 

She also had to put counselling on hold but continued with causes she is passionate about by volunteering with Planned Parenthood and United Nations Development Fund for Women. 

“It opens up a lot of really cool doors,” she says about the power of volunteering. 

“At Planned Parenthood I got a lot of amazing opportunities,” she says. “Like I got to sing on stage with Lou Reed, which was super fun, at a Planned Parenthood event.”
Sharing the stage with a legendary rocker is a cherished memory of hers, along with the opportunity she was given to speak in front of the UN. 

Her move to the U.S. also eventually led to her meeting her now husband, Michael Roberts. The couple became parents in 2010 with the birth of their son McGreggor Edward Roberts. 

Williamson’s career has also shifted from series work to movies in recent years. 

One project she's really excited about is the film A Beginner’s Guide to Snuff — currently in post-production and set to be released later this year.

It's a horror film that has Williamson being kidnapped by two actor brothers (played by Joey Kern and Luke Edwards) hoping to ignite their careers by making a fake snuff film. 

The film was written and directed by the Butcher Brothers, also known as Mitchell Altieri and Phil Flores who were behind the 2010 film, The Violent Kind which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010. 

“There was every reason for it not to be fun,” says Williamson about the film.

“I was covered in blood in 40 degree Celsius heat in the scary part of downtown L.A.,” but it was an “actor’s dream experience,” she says.

Williamson credits the quality of the script, chemistry among the small cast and the commitment of the crew for her amazing experience on set. 

“It’s the best thing I’ve ever worked on.”