Simcoe actress enjoying roles in string of horror films

If you’re a fan of horror or thriller movies, you may see a Simcoe actress in a number of upcoming film productions.

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Alexxis Marcia – born Alexis Cook – grew up in Simcoe and attended Lynndale Heights Public School and Simcoe Composite School.

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The actress chose that screen name so it would be more easily searched online with the extra ‘X’, and to honor her mother Marcia who passed away when she was a young child.

Although she played hockey from a very young age – TimBits, Simcoe Warriors, and Norfolk Hurricanes – an interest in acting took hold while she was in Grade 8.

“Living so far outside of the city I never got to do anything real,” Marcia recalled. “It wasn’t until I went to college that I started taking it seriously.”

She studied at Niagara College for one year in general arts and sciences before switching to acting classes at George Brown College and improv at Second City.

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After obtaining an agent in 2020, Marcia was booked for a horror movie called Murder, Madness, and Mayhem.

“Horror is definitely my favorite thing,” she shared. “Once I made some connections, I started to break into the industry a little more. It was really hard to get my first role, but after that things started to move a lot quicker.”

Roles came along in succession with a new sci-fi thriller called Human Nature that will be released next year, followed by Murderfest that will stream worldwide also in 2024.

Marcia said she’s “very excited” for her lead role in the psychological-thriller movie Transcendent.

She will play a vlogger who ends up in a town she can’t leave.

“We haven’t started shooting yet,” said Marcia. “It was delayed due to the SAG/ACTRA strike.”

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The 23-year-old actress has also had leading roles in Murderfest, as well as Murder, Madness, and Mayhem.

The latter screened in Toronto theaters earlier in October, and Marcia attended with the entire cast.

“That was my first time seeing the movie so I was nervous the whole time,” she said. “It was a weird feeling.”

Marcia recently spent two-and-a-half weeks screen testing in Los Angeles and North Hollywood for an upcoming movie.

She explained that following an audition, if you get a callback, the next step is a chemistry read, then the top candidates appear on set and on camera where producers review to choose who did the best.

“That was the my very first time doing that because only bigger productions do that.”

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Her father John Cook wasn’t a fan of her acting in the beginning, she admitted.

“But the last year, that things have started to pick up the pace, he’s gotten really excited,” Marcia shared. “He has every poster so far, framed and hung up in the basement. I don’t know what he’s going to do when the walls fill up.”

On the less scary front, Marcia also does commercial work, and is currently on set for a Rogers television commercial that will air in early 2024.

Marcia will be appearing this Saturday and Sunday at Frightmare in the Falls, a horror convention at the Niagara Falls Convention Centre.

There, she’ll be doing meet and greets, and poster signing for Murderfest. (You can find her in Section A4, booth 115.)

“The killers will be in costume walking around the convention,” she said.

[email protected]

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