By Jagruti Patil
The icy cliff face glittered in the February sun as Anastasia Dextrene adjusted her grip on the frozen waterfall, axe in hand. Below her, members of Montreal’s Black community cheered each other on during the second edition of BLK Winterfest: a story that would soon make her Canada’s only journalist recognized at the 46th Annual Telly Awards.
This wasn’t just another assignment for the CTV News personality, who was at CityNews Montreal at the time. The moment crystallized everything that makes Dextrene different. She’s a journalist who doesn’t just report on experiences but literally climbs into them, bringing the theatrical philosophy of full immersion to hard news.
Her unconventional journey–from the stages of New York City to the newsrooms of Montreal, from Hollywood sets to frozen cliff sides–is reshaping the notion of what makes a great journalist in an era that demands authenticity and performance. Whereas most follow a straight line from journalism school to the newsroom, Dextrene charted a deliberately meandering path. First came training at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, followed by a MFA from NYU’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts. Only then did she pursue her MS in journalism at Columbia University.
“From the moment I decided to pursue a career in entertainment and media, that was the plan,” Dextrene explains. Growing up in a Montreal family of doctors, she might have been expected to follow a more traditional route. Instead, she recognized early on that storytelling was her calling.
This dual education wasn’t about collecting degrees. Dextrene argues her time spent at each institution fed into her goals. That was the case whether she was nurturing her “on-camera presence, emotional awareness, the ability to connect with an audience, and the power to convey truth with clarity,” she notes. She gained tools that some reporters spend years trying to develop: the ability to put sources at ease, modulate her presence for different contexts, and to maintain composure during live broadcasting.
The Hollywood Years
Los Angeles offered Dextrene a unique laboratory for merging journalism and performance. She spent time working as a multiplatform editor of entertainment, news and features and The Los Angeles Times, and as an associate TV news producer on the Emmy award-winning show “LA Times Today.” She also appeared on camera in mega productions (“Scandal,” “black-ish,” “grown-ish,” “Snow Day”), often playing, fittingly, a news reporter.
The glamour wasn’t a distraction from journalism but a masterclass in it. “Los Angeles taught me entertainment value, visual polish and what it means to be a personality with an engaging, yet relaxed presence,” she reflects. The experience revealed an open secret in broadcasting: many of journalism’s most trusted faces have performance backgrounds. “I believe both realms very much feed into each other and are truly one,” she says.
The true test of Dextrene’s hybrid approach came in Montreal, where two stories would earn her international recognition. The first nearly didn’t happen. When she discovered Hike MTL’s BLK Winterfest: an ice climbing event addressing seasonal depression in Black communities, her journalistic instincts said to observe and report. But event organizer Jamillah Jean had other ideas.
“At no point was ice-climbing on my bucket list,” Dextrene admits. As she scaled the ice, she wasn’t just reporting on the intersection of mental health, race and winter activities. She was experiencing it. The resulting piece, which she single-handedly reported, filmed, wrote, and edited, earned a Silver Telly for Video Journalism.
Her second award-winning story required a different kind of performance skill: creating a safe space for vulnerability. Manon Day, diagnosed with Parkinson’s at just 27, had shared her story in print but was hesitant about television due to speech changes from her condition.
“While Manon is no stranger to print media, the challenge was convincing her to share her story on camera as her condition affects her speech,” Dextrene recalls. She worked with Day to create a comfortable environment, including having Day’s mother present during filming.
Both stories shared a common thread: amplifying voices often overlooked by mainstream media. The BLK Winterfest piece challenged assumptions about who participates in outdoor winter activities while addressing mental health stigma. Day’s story shattered stereotypes about Parkinson’s as an “elderly man’s disease.” These weren’t just news stories: they were heartfelt, honest moments.
“If you focus on serving the work and feeding your passion, it isn’t much of a balancing act,” Dextrene explains, rejecting the notion that her livelihood creates conflict. “My performing arts background helps me to connect with my interview subjects everyday,” she notes. “Whether I’m communicating through body language or tone, both skills are refined through the performing arts and both skills are crucial for building rapport.” It’s not about acting or pretending: it’s about having the full range of communication tools at her disposal.
It’s not just about interviews, it goes further. Performance training taught her adaptability and spontaneity, crucial for those unexpected moments that define live journalism. When a source becomes emotional, when breaking news disrupts planned coverage, when technical difficulties threaten a broadcast: these are moments where journalistic knowledge alone isn’t enough. They require what Dextrene calls living in the moment. “I hope to be remembered for the authenticity and grace with which I bring stories to life,” she says.
Weather presenting reveals another dimension of her prowess for storytelling. While viewers assume meteorologists read from teleprompters, Dextrene’s segments are entirely improvised. “Most of us ad lib!” she reveals. The process demands extraordinary preparation: gathering meteorological data, creating graphics, then delivering it all conversationally while managing technical elements like microphones and IFB earpieces.
“Flubs and glitches are part of the charm of live television,” she says with characteristic ease. When graphics fail or audio drops out, she doesn’t panic: she performs. The same skills that help an actor recover from a forgotten line help her navigate live television’s inevitable chaos.
A New Model for Journalism
The international recognition from the Telly Awards: competing against entries from ABC News, NBC News, BBC, and Al Jazeera shows what Dextrene has long believed: journalism needs performers. But her vision extends to systemic change in how newsrooms operate and what they prioritize.
“I think the media houses in both the United States and Canada could benefit from more solution-based journalism,” she explains, advocating for stories that don’t just highlight problems but showcase the “people and communities that are actively trying to create the change we want to see.”
This approach requires journalists who can do more than report facts: they must convey hope without sacrificing truth. Dextrene’s commitment to aspiring journalists reflects this broader vision. “Career mentorship means a lot to me. It’s something I do already and something I expect I’ll do much more of,” she says, determined to pay forward the support she received.
As for the future of the industry, surprisingly, Dextrene sees AI not as a threat but as an opportunity. “AI is not the enemy in journalism,” she insists. By handling transcription and repetitive tasks, AI frees journalists to focus on what technology cannot replicate: human connection. “As technology accelerates, I believe the human connection in journalism will become even more critical.”
This suggests major newsrooms should reconsider their hiring practices. Why recruit only from journalism programs when performing arts schools produce graduates fluent in many of the very skills that modern media demands?
As on that icy cliff face in Montreal, Dextrene continues climbing toward new heights. Nearly one year in at Canada’s #1 network, she’s getting her hands dirty–using resources to cover previously unreachable communities and engage in more live reports.
In an era of media distrust and digital disconnection, Dextrene represents something essential: a journalist who understands that facts alone don’t change minds or touch hearts. It takes performance–not in the sense of artifice, but in the ability to embody truth in a way that moves people.
“I believe the voices that reveal inequalities, rights issues and urgent crises deserve to be prioritized,” she reflects. But prioritizing these voices requires more than traditional reporting. It demands those who understand that journalism’s highest function is to create understanding between human beings.
The future of journalism may well belong to those who, like Dextrene, understand their role as a “vessel that helps to amplify voices”, and who have the performance skills to make those voices truly heard.
