Our Hero is a critically acclaimed television show on the CBC from 2000 to 2002. It ran for 26 episodes over two seasons, and was syndicated in the U.S. and U.K.

The title character was teenager Kale Stiglic (Cara Pifko

Cara Pifko

Cara Pifko is a Canadian actress known primarily for her work on television shows produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation....

) who created a zine

Zine

A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier....

 about her life in suburban Toronto, with her friends Ross (Justin Peroff

Justin Peroff

Justin Peter Papadimitriou , family name changed to Peroff, is best known as the drummer for the Toronto based indie rock collective Broken Social Scene. He was also a member of Junior Blue, a collaboration with Dylan Hudecki of By Divine Right...

), Mary-Elizabeth (Jeanie Calleja), and Dalal (Vik Sahay

Vik Sahay

Vikram "Vik" Sahay is a Canadian actor best known for playing Lester Patel, a member of the Nerd Herd in the NBC television series Chuck on which he became a series regular from the second season, and Rama in the Roxy Hunter Saga.-Life and career:...

). Each episode was named after an "issue" of her zine. Plot segments were interspersed with quirky animated sequences narrated by Kale, with the animation reflecting the illustrations used in that issue's zine.

Episode list

Season 1

1. "The Imperfect Issue"
2. "The Passion Issue"
3. "The Gutsy Issue"
4. "The If The Shoe Fits Issue"
5. "The Shallow Issue"
6. "The Revenge Issue"
7. "The Trashy Issue"
8. "The Yin Yang Issue"
9. "The Stupid Issue"
10. "The Pusher Issue"
11. "The Unresolved Issue"
12. "The If You Love Me And You Know It Issue"
13. "The Last Laugh Issue"

Season 2

1. "The Comeback Issue"
2. "The Trapped Issue"
3. "The Porn Issue"
4. "The Crabby Issue"
5. "The Psycho Issue"
6. "The Winnie Crundel Issue"
7. "The No Regrets Issue"
8. "The Birthday Issue"
9. "The There's Probably A Word For This In Japanese Issue"
10. "The Karma Issue"
11. "The Secrets Issue"
12. "The D.I.Y. Issue"
13. "The Brown Issue"

Cast

• Kale Stiglic (Cara Pifko
  Cara Pifko
  Cara Pifko is a Canadian actress known primarily for her work on television shows produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation....
  
  )
• Mary Elizabeth Penrose (Jeanie Calleja)
• Ross Korolus (Justin Peroff
  Justin Peroff
  Justin Peter Papadimitriou , family name changed to Peroff, is best known as the drummer for the Toronto based indie rock collective Broken Social Scene. He was also a member of Junior Blue, a collaboration with Dylan Hudecki of By Divine Right...
  
  )
• Ethan Stiglic (Michael George)
• Dalal Vidya (Vik Sahay
  Vik Sahay
  Vikram "Vik" Sahay is a Canadian actor best known for playing Lester Patel, a member of the Nerd Herd in the NBC television series Chuck on which he became a series regular from the second season, and Rama in the Roxy Hunter Saga.-Life and career:...
  
  )
• Malachi (Christopher Ralph
  Christopher Ralph
  Christopher Ralph is a Canadian actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as Tobias in the 1998 TV series Animorphs.-Acting Roles:* Animorphs - Tobias * Gossip - Bill...
  
  )
• Rollins (Jesse Nilsson
  Jesse Nilsson
  Jesse Allan Nilsson was a Canadian actor who starred in several television programmes, one of his notable and last parts being Gabriel Patterson on Adventure Inc...
  
  )
• Joey Stiglic (Robert Bockstael
  Robert Bockstael
  Robert Theodore Bockstael was a Liberal party member of the Canadian House of Commons. He was a businessman by career....
  
  )
• Mila Stiglic (Mimi Kuzyk)
• Bill Fisher (Daniel Enright)
• Gordon (Tory Cassis)
• Shana (Erin Hickock)

Writers, directors and producers

Our Hero was created by John May and Suzanne Bolch who also had writing credits on all but two episodes. John May also directed a number of episodes. Along with Karen Lee Hall these three form Heroic Film Company, a Toronto production company that is mainly focused on creating youth oriented television programming.

Filming

Our Hero was filmed in the CBC

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

 Broadcast Centre at Front St

Front Street (Toronto)

Front Street is an east-west road in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The street marks the rough outline of the shoreline of Lake Ontario as it existed during the original English settlement of York, then called Palace Street...

 and John St in Toronto, Ontario. To save time and money, there were always two episodes shot at once.

Some still and Super 8

Super 8 mm film

Super 8 mm film is a motion picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement of the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format....

photography for the zine sequences was shot with a very small crew along the city's streets.

Wins

• 2003 – Writer's Guild of Canada award for writing ("The Karma Issue")
• 2002 – Writer's Guild of Canada award for writing ("The Unresolved Issue")
• 2001 – Writer's Guild of Canada award for writing ("The Shallow Issue")

Nominations

• 2002 – Canadian Comedy Award – Pretty Funny Female Performance for Jeanie Calleja
• 2002 – Canadian Comedy Award – Pretty Funny Male Performance for Vik Sahay
• 2002 – Canadian Comedy Award – Pretty Funny Writing for TV Series for Suzanne Bolch & John May
• 2002 – Gemini Awards – Best Children's or Youth Fiction Program or Series
• 2002 – Gemini Awards – Best Writing in a Children's or Youth Program and Series
• 2001 – Gemini Awards – Best Original Music Score for a Dramatic Series