Réjean Cournoyer is a Canadian actor and singer, and was raised in a bilingual, Mormon

Mormon

The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...

 home. After graduating from Mount Saint Vincent University

Mount Saint Vincent University

Mount Saint Vincent University is a university located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It was established in 1873 and is locally referred to as The Mount.-History:...

 with a degree in public relations

Public relations

Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....

, and leaving Mormonism

Mormonism

Mormonism is the religion practiced by Mormons, and is the predominant religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement. This movement was founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. beginning in the 1820s as a form of Christian primitivism. During the 1830s and 1840s, Mormonism gradually distinguished itself...

, he began working at the Charlottetown Festival

Charlottetown Festival

The Charlottetown Festival is a seasonal Canadian musical theatre festival which runs from late May to mid-October every year since 1965.Named after its host city, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, since its inception the festival has showcased Canada's most popular and longest-running musical,...

, then made his way to Toronto in 1995 to pursue his acting career. He had a recurring role in the short-lived situation comedy Rideau Hall

Rideau Hall (TV series)

Rideau Hall is a Canadian television series broadcast begun in 2002 on CBC Television. It starred Bette MacDonald, Fiona Reid, Jonathan Torrens, Joe Dinicol, and Rejean Cournoyer....

on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

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...

 in 2001, was awarded an ACTRA Award

ACTRA Award

The ACTRA Awards were first presented in 1972 to celebrate excellence in Canada's television, film and radio industry. Organized and presented by ACTRA, the Association of Canadian Television and Radio Artists, which represented performers, writers and broadcast journalists, the Nellie statuettes...

 for his role in Thom Fitzgerald

Thom Fitzgerald

Thomas "Thom" Fitzgerald is an award winning American-Canadian film director as well live theater director.-Life:Fitzgerald was born and raised in New Rochelle, New York. His parents divorced when he was five years old. He moved with his mother and brother, Timothy Jr., to Bergenfield, New Jersey,...

's feature film The Event

The Event (film)

The Event is a 2003 drama film directed by Thom Fitzgerald. It tells the story of Matt Shapiro who has died in Manhattan, resulting in an aborted 9-1-1 call...

in 2003 and was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award

Dora Mavor Moore Award

The Dora Mavor Moore Award is an award presented annually by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts which honours theatre, dance, and opera productions in Toronto. Named after Dora Mavor Moore, who helped establish Canadian professional theatre, the award was established on December 13, 1978...

 in Toronto in 2004 for originating the role of Joseph Beausoleil

Joseph Broussard

Joseph Gaurhept Broussard , also known as Beausoleil, was a leader of the Acadian people in Acadia; later Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Broussard organized a resistance movement against the forced Expulsion of the Acadians...

 in the musical epic Pélagie

Pélagie

Pélagie is a Canadian epic musical written by Allen Cole and Vincent de Tourdonnet, based on the 1979 novel Pélagie-la-Charette by Acadian writer Antonine Maillet, about the Acadian widow Pélagie LeBlanc...

.

After releasing a bilingual recording of French Art songs and Jazz standards in 2007, Cournoyer left his home in Halifax, after accepting an invitation from the Canadian Stage Company in Toronto. He has starred in Les Misérables

Les Misérables (musical)

Les Misérables , colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz , is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg, based on the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo....

at the Arts Club Theatre Company (Jessie Award nomination), is well known for his turn as Sweeney Todd

Sweeney Todd

Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as then antagonist of the Victorian penny dreadful The String of Pearls and he was later introduced as an antihero in the broadway musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and its film adaptation...

 in The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award

Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award

The Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award is a local Edmonton, Alberta award presented annually which honours excellence in theatre...

 Nomination), and as Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice (musical)

Pride and Prejudice is a musical by Bernard J. Taylor based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was first produced as a concept studio recording in London, England, with singers including Peter Karrie, Claire Moore, Christopher Biggins, and others...

at the Citadel Theatre

Citadel Theatre

The Citadel Theatre is the major venue for theatre arts in the city of Edmonton, located in the Downtown Core on Churchill Square.-History:Originally the "Old Salvation Army Citadel", the Citadel was bought by Joseph H. Shoctor, James L. Martin, Ralph B. MacMillan, and Sandy Mactaggart, and the...

 in Edmonton, Alberta. Cournoyer also played "The Beast" in Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast (musical)

Beauty and the Beast is a musical with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice and a book by Linda Woolverton, based on the 1991 Disney film of the same name. Seven new songs were written for the stage musical...

at Theatre Calgary

Theatre Calgary

Theatre Calgary, theatre company in Calgary, Alberta, established as a professional company in 1968.-History:The origin of the company dates back to the 1940s, when students of Betty Mitchell, a drama teacher at Calgary's Western Canada High School, established an amateur group known as "Workshop...

 and the Citadel Theatre

Citadel Theatre

The Citadel Theatre is the major venue for theatre arts in the city of Edmonton, located in the Downtown Core on Churchill Square.-History:Originally the "Old Salvation Army Citadel", the Citadel was bought by Joseph H. Shoctor, James L. Martin, Ralph B. MacMillan, and Sandy Mactaggart, and the...

, and played "Gaston" in the Neptune Theatre

Neptune Theatre (Halifax)

The Neptune Theatre is the largest professional theatre company in Atlantic Canada with a capacity of 497 and is located in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It performs a mixture of new and classical plays....

production.