Amanda Stepto

Amanda Felicitas Stepto (born 31 July 1970) is a Canadian former actress who is best known for her role as Christine "Spike" Nelson in the Degrassi television franchise.

Stepto was born on 31 July 1970 in Montreal, Quebec, the daughter of a young local woman and an "American jazz musician just passing through".

Her birth mother put her up for adoption at three months old.

She was raised in Meadowvale, Mississauga.

With no previous acting experience, Stepto rose to prominence playing the character in the critically and commercially successful CBC series Degrassi Junior High (1987–89) and its follow-up Degrassi High (1989–91).

Spike's controversial teenage pregnancy storyline, as well as her spiked hairstyle, gave Stepto significant media attention in Canada.

Degrassi Junior High was largely truncated and later dropped by the BBC in large part due to episodes about Spike's pregnancy.

As part of the Playing With Time Repertory Company, Stepto was made a Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF Ontario.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror on 13 May 1988, Stepto called the ban "kinda silly", and elaborated: "The issues we've been dealing with in the episodes they wouldn't show happen everywhere and people are going to find out about them sooner or later."

She also explained that the show intended to educate its viewers on the subject and did not encourage it at all.

Stepto later said that the English press tried to make her "talk shit" about the BBC.

Stepto was among the cast of Degrassi that were named UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors by the Ontario branch of UNICEF Canada in 1989.

Along with cast member Pat Mastroianni, Stepto visited the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York City, and met with other ambassadors.

She served as the narrator for the UNICEF video The Degrassi Kids Rap On Rights.

In the early 1990s, Stepto was a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood and was sponsored by the organization for a controversial 1993 tour of Albertan high schools.

Having left acting in the 1990s due to typecasting and loss of interest, Stepto returned to reprise the role of Spike as an adult in the first seven seasons of Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001–08).

In 1991, Stepto was one of the main six actors to host an episode of Degrassi Talks, a documentary series in which cast members interviewed teenagers and young adults across Canada about various topics.

Stepto's episode focused on sex, and highlighted issues such as teenage pregnancy, safe sex, and abortion.

In the episode, Stepto interviews a young woman who gave her baby up for adoption, an experience which had a profound impact on her.

Outside of Degrassi, Stepto appeared on stage in the play Flesh and Blood, written by Colin Thomas, about several young adults dealing with AIDS; the play won a Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award for playwriting in 1991.

Reviewing the production for the Toronto Star, Geoff Chapman opined that Stepto had "little chance to make her role count", and criticized her "indistinct diction", while Stewart Brown of the Hamilton Spectator said she was "too soft-spoken and understated in her first appearance in professional theatre".

Following the end of Degrassi, Stepto indicated to the Calgary Herald in 1992 that she was interested in further pursuing her acting career, and stated that she was particularly interested in playing destructive, "psychotic" characters.

However, she was largely typecast because of Degrassi, and she later admitted to sabotaging her own auditions, as she disliked many of the roles she was offered.

In one instance, she did not want to audition for the YTV musical drama series Catwalk, which she derided as a "cheesy low-budget show", but did not explicitly turn it down because she felt intimidated by her agent, and instead deliberately ruined the audition.

she later explained that this, among other things, may have been a factor in her lack of success post-Degrassi.

In 1992, she was appointed a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood in Alberta.

Stepto visited Calgary as a representative of the organization in September 1992, and that same month, appeared in television, radio, and print advertisements promoting the "Just Talk About It" campaign.

On a 2016 episode of Damian Abraham's podcast Turned Out A Punk, Stepto recalled that her first exposure to punk rock was an outdoor concert by the English new wave band The Police, dubbed the "Police Picnic", which took place in Oakville, Ontario in August 1981.

Stepto recalled that she was transfixed by the punks in the audience and developed an interest in the genre and aesthetic.

She attended the Etobicoke School of the Arts for three years, where she majored in dance and minored in drama, and later a school in Mississauga while on starring on television. While attending Etobicoke, Stepto learnt of an open audition for Degrassi Junior High from her drama teacher. She was the only student to act on it.

She did not have a resume or professional headshots, and was required to send in a photo of herself to the production company.

Stepto's parents felt her punk hairstyle was not suitable for television, and she argued with them over it.

Insisting she keep her hair spiked, she told her parents: "If they don't like me, fuck them!".

She was subsequently accepted.

When her character became pregnant, fans mistook her for being pregnant in real life, and would often send the actress toys.

She was also often asked for advice from parents and teenage mothers on sex and pregnancy as if she was a counselor.

In the United Kingdom, where Degrassi Junior High experienced its highest viewership, the BBC refused to air "It's Late" along with several other episodes, shortly before Stepto was expected to promote the series in London.

Stepto was critical of the BBC's decision when speaking to the British press.

Degrassi remains her only major acting role, and as of 2018, she no longer acts.

She was praised for her performance and was nominated for a Young Artist Award (as part of an ensemble) and a Gemini Award.