Canning was born in Gander, Newfoundland, Canada, the daughter of Wayne and Daphne Canning.[1] She lived in Brown's Arm, Newfoundland until age eleven, and was then raised in Sherwood Park, near Edmonton, Alberta.[2][3] She competed as a figure skater in her childhood and early adolescent years, and became interested in theatre as a student at F.R. Haythorne Junior High.[4] Canning starred in several stage productions while attending Bev Facey Community High School,[5] and acted in shows at her hometown stage at Festival Place.
Canning made her professional acting debut in George Orwell's 1984 at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton at the age of 18. She began studying general arts at the University of Alberta, and considered going into journalism. Still interested in performing, Canning left university at 19 and moved to Vancouver to pursue a career in acting.[1] She graduated from a year-long screen acting program at Vancouver Film School in 2007.[6]
Career
Canning found an agent and began acting in television series and TV films produced in Vancouver. She worked in a restaurant and would take time off to film.[7] Her first role was in 2008, playing Nicky Hilton in Paparazzi Princess: The Paris Hilton Story.[8] In 2009, she guest-starred on Smallville and Kyle XY, and starred in the based-on-real-events TV movie, Taken in Broad Daylight. She played Anne Sluti, a 17-year- old girl who was abducted by a demented criminal (James Van Der Beek).
Canning co-starred on The Vampire Diaries as Jenna Sommers, the aunt and guardian of Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev), and her younger brother Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen).[11] Canning was younger or the same age as her fellow cast members who played high school students.[12] Makeup artists and the wardrobe team worked to make her look older.[13] Canning also downplayed her Canadian accent for the role. Matthew Davis played her character's love interest, Alaric.[13] Canning appeared on the second season of The Vampire Diaries from 2010–2011, until her character was killed in the episode "The Sun Also Rises".
Canning is interested in writing and directing. As of September 2010, she was co-writing a love story set in the Western time period.[7] In 2011, she worked on a short film noir, titled Corvus, and shot the Lifetime network film, Hunt for the I-5 Killer, in Vancouver.[14] She filmed the Hallmark Movie Channel Western, Hannah's Law, in Calgary, Alberta in late 2011, starring alongside Greyston Holt.[15]
Canning starred in the 2012–2013 Space channel television series Primeval: New World, a Canadian spin-off of the British sci-fi series Primeval.[19] She played predator control expert Dylan Weir, a member of a dinosaur hunting team; the series was filmed in Vancouver.[6] Canning also starred in 2012 with Aaron Ashmore in the dark romantic comedy, I Put a Hit on You.[20] In 2013, she joined the cast of the psychological drama film, Eadweard, starring Michael Eklund. She played Flora, the wife of 19th-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge.[21]
Canning was nominated for the 2020 UBCP/ACTRA award for best female lead performance for her work on the Web series Hospital Show.[30]
She starred in the 2021 film Superhost and stated that she had hard time filming the YouTubevlogging scenes.[31]
Personal life
Canning relocated to Atlanta, Georgia to film The Vampire Diaries. She stated to Parade that she found that the Southern U.S. had "a much different culture than the west coast of Canada", but it became like her "second home".[12] Canning lived in Atlanta for two years and returned to Vancouver, British Columbia after finishing the series.[32]
