Born in Costa Rica, Jefferson Guzman is also Canadian and lives in Toronto. He works professionally as an actor, writer, director and is a member of ACTRA, CAEA, and SAG-AFTRA.
ACTOR
Jefferson attended Humber College’s Performance program where he won the Distinguished Performance Award upon graduation.
In a supporting role, Jefferson played ‘Blade’ in the feature film Mouth to Mouth starring Elliot Page, written and directed by Alison Murray, with Executive Producer Atom Egoyan. The film was shot in Europe and premiered at San Francisco’s Film Festival and won the top two prizes at the Brooklyn Film Festival (Best Feature and the Grand Chameleon Award).
His television appearances include Privates Eyes (opposite Jason Priestley), Queer As Folk (opposite Sharon Gless), a supporting role on DOC (opposite Billy Ray Cyrus and Tyler Posey) and several commercials including BMO, Molson Canadian, KFC, Kokanee, Pepsi, and Motts Clamato.
On stage, he played the lead role in the world premier of three plays written and directed by Sky Gilbert: Heliogabalus: A Love Story, The Secret Life of Haddon McKenzie (both at The Theatre Centre), and Bad Acting Teachers (at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre). He toured for three consecutive seasons with Theatre Direct Canada in two plays directed by Lynda Hill: Andrew’s Tree and I Met a Bully on a Hill. Both productions were nominated for a Dora for Outstanding Production in the Theatre for Young Audiences category. Jefferson made his professional musical theatre debut in Master and Margarita at Crow’s Theatre in the role of Behemoth.
Additional stage productions include: Surviving Mom (a staged reading written by Barbara Bondar and directed by Mark Cassidy), Your Palace in the Sky (Summerworks, directed by Chris Dupuis) and Sir Richard Wadd, Pornographer (Fringe Festival, written and directed by Queer as Folk writer, producer Shawn Postoff). Jefferson played ‘Leo’ opposite Rosa Laborde in a stage reading of his play Sofie & Leo, directed by Guillermo Verdecchia.
Jefferson was selected for Penguin Random House Audio’s 2025 Narrator Mentorship Program. The six month program paired him with an audiobook producer at Penguin Random House Audio Publishing as a mentee, and culminated in a professionally produced audiobook narrator demo.
Jefferson played Azazel, in the short film Cull, which is currently in post-production.
WRITER
Published articles include a feature story in Xtra Magazine about his climb of Mount Kilimanjaro, which was also published by Book Land Press in Canadian Voices, Volume 2. He wrote two plays that premiered at Toronto’s Rhubarb Festival at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Excerpts of his first play Playing in the Leaves were published by Playwrights Canada Press in Gay Monologues and Scenes, An Anthology. His play Sofie & Leo was workshopped through Alameda Theatre Company and the staged reading was directed by Guillermo Verdecchia. His play Solaz received development grants, workshops, and public readings through Alameda Theatre Company directed by Anita La Selva, and Cahoots Theatre Company, directed by Marjorie Chan. Jefferson wrote M-F, a short film which he also directed.
DIRECTOR
Upon graduation from Algonquin College’s Theatre program, Jefferson was awarded the Director’s Award. He wrote, produced and directed the short film M-F, which premiered at the Canadian Filmmakers Festival in Toronto and received a worldwide distribution deal. He also produced, directed and edited the “Soft Step” music video for Canadian indie artist Eastborough. Jefferson directed and provided dramaturgy, from development through to the world premiere, of útszan, an Indigenous language play produced by Arts Whistler, developed with Native Earth Performing Arts, and Playwrights Theatre Centre.
