Jill Belland is a Canadian TV personality and business person. She is a co-owner of Bare Belle in Calgary, where she provides dance and exercise training.[1]
She was previously a TV host and producer at Citytv Calgary,[2][3] where she was the "On Location Host" of Breakfast Television.[4]
Early life
Belland was born in Edmonton and moved to Calgary at a young age.[4]
She studied classical piano and trained to be a singer.[4]
Belland studied at the University of Calgary.[4]
Belland joined the Calgary Stampeders Outriders cheerleading squad,[5] which she was part of for four years.[4] While with the Stampeders, she sang the national anthem at home games.[4]
She has also worked as a stage actress, performing in local productions such as Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train,[6]The Full Monty,[2] and Man Out of Joint.[7][8]
Broadcasting
Belland was hired by A-Channel in Calgary[3] (CKAL-DT was previously known as A-Channel, and is now known as Citytv Calgary).
Her initial job was "Coffee Girl" doing various gopher tasks for The Big Breakfast TV show.[2][3]
She then assisted in production with the Big Breakfast show and the station's news department.[4]
In 2004, Belland was hired as an entertainment reporter for the show MTV Select.[3] (at the time A-Channel and MTV Canada were both owned by Craig Media). She was then promoted to become host[9] and producer of Wired on A-Channel in 2003.[3][4]
She also served as a host of Your City,[2] Citytv's weekday evening show.
Belland became the host and producer of The City Show, a weekend show, that won the Rosie award for "Best News Information Series" by the Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association (AMPIA) in 2006.[4][10][11]The City Show and Your City were cancelled in January 2010.
Belland has won AMPIA's "Best Host" award for 2009, 2010, and 2011.[3]
Belland was voted "Sexiest Women" in Calgary by Fast Forward Weekly readers in 2009.[12]
In 2011 she won another Rosie as Best TV Host for the Breakfast Show.[13][14]
Belland was included in Avenue Magazine's 2011 "Top 40 Under 40" list of Calgarian's.[3]
Fitness business
After covering Barre Body Studio for a segment on City in January 2013, she became a dance and fitness instructor there.[5] In February 2016 Belland and friend Kristi Stuart opened up their own barre studio together, called Bare Belle.[1]
As co-owner of Bare Belle, helped organize hundreds of other small business owners in June 2019 to call for a reduction of municipal taxes by Calgary's City Council, which did lower taxes by 10%.[15]
Belland, Jill (2009-06-29). "Get outside and enjoy Canada". Metro News (Calgary). Free Daily News Group Inc. Archived from the original on 2011-06-04. Retrieved 2009-09-10.
^Hobson, Louis B. (2007-05-12). "Play shines light on Guantanamo". jam.canoe.ca. Canoe Inc. Archived from the original on May 17, 2014. Retrieved 2008-08-03.