These days Drake is living the high life: Touring, picking up awards, and collaborating with Kanye West, Eminem, and Rihanna.
And just like any story of a superstar, you have the true cliches of an embarrassing past he covered up: A long time ago, he was known as Aubrey Graham, one of Degrassi: The Next Generation's original cast members.
Nowadays you see Nina Dobrev everywhere: Playing The Vampire Diaries' star Elena and her evil vamp doppelganger Katherine, and dating co-star Ian Somerhalder. (Lucky!) But even though she seemed like an unknown when TVD started up a few years ago, before that she actually put in some time on Degrassi.
Nina used to be known only as Mia Jones, Degrassi's first teen mom. She consistently struggles with doing "normal" things like being a cheerleader while trying to keep her babydaddy (who goes to rival school Lakehurst) out of her daughter's life.
For a while, she dates Peter--who also had a serious relationship with another lady on this list--but when her modeling career takes off and he feels insignificant, she breaks things off and goes to model in Europe.
These days Drake is living the high life: Touring, picking up awards, and collaborating with Kanye West, Eminem, and Rihanna.
And just like any story of a superstar, you have the true cliches of an embarrassing past he covered up: A long time ago, he was known as Aubrey Graham, one of Degrassi: The Next Generation's original cast members.
Jimmy! We'll always have a soft spot for Drake's Degrassi character because a) he was one of the original cast members, and b) RICK SHOT HIM. Jimmy spends four seasons in a wheelchair and even has some awkwardly hilarious lines about his condition ("I would stand up, but I got SHOT," etc.). He's one of those character who comes to be defined by his circumstances, but in this case we were OK with pigeonholing him.
2011 seems to be Miriam's year to move out of the Degrassi shadow: She'll be appearing in The Sitter with Jonah Hill, and she recently got cast in the Arrested Development movie. We have no idea who she'll play, but we wonder if she'll end up facing off against Mae Whitman for Michael Cera's affections...
Emma Nelson, daughter of one of the starring characters from the original-original Degrassi show, was TNG's guinea pig. Any bit of drama you could do, she did: Almost getting raped by an Internet stalker, getting gonorrhea, becoming anorexic, getting her period in front of everyone at school, drunkenly getting married. Oh, Emma.
Terra Nova has a similar premise to Land of the Lost (except that we meant to go back to prehistoric times) with the hubris of Jurassic Park: Fleeing a devastated future, humans go back to live with dinosaurs and try to recreate civilization. Landon's character Josh is the eldest child of the Shannon family, and the only one who's reluctant to leave their old life behind.
That's a sharp departure from his Degrassi character, rich American Declan Coyne. Due to their glamorous lifestyle, he and twin sister Fiona stick out at Degrassi, but they eventually find social groups. Declan and Holly J (Charlotte Arnold) were one of our favorite couples, but when Declan has to go back to the States, they break up and Holly J starts dating Sav.
We never thought we'd feel sympathy for spoiled Declan, but there's a sad plotline where he returns to Degrassi and sort of forces Holly J into having sex with him. She regrets the whole thing, whereas he thinks they're back together. Once he realizes that what they had doesn't exist anymore, he leaves for NYC. (But he still sends flowers and a card after her kidney surgery!)
Sorry to say, we're not huge fans of Shenae on 90210: Her character Annie is such a sadsack, and gets caught up in ridiculous, boring plotlines. Plus, she talks in a weird hoarse voice and scrunches up her eyes a lot. But did you know that before she came to Beverly Hills, she spent some time up on Degrassi Street?
Oh, Darcy Edwards--one of my all-time favorite characters on Degrassi, for how she goes from stuck-up Christian kid to fucked-up and depressed. You'll want to read her whole rise and fall on the official wiki, but here are the highlights:
• Darcy is Degrassi's abstinence queen, even as she dates non-virgin Spinner. But he has sex with his ex-girlfriend, and they break up.
• Her next serious boyfriend is Peter, but their relationship is fraught with drama. In one of my favorite plotlines on the show, Darcy decides to take sexy photos and post them online for money. Then her biggest admirer Adams (see the creepy guy in the pic above) tracks her down to her house. Shit!
• But Darcy's biggest change comes when she gets raped at a ski party, and later contracts chlamydia.
• She becomes depressed and is embarrassed because people assume she's a slut, and tries to kill herself multiple times.
• Finally, she seems to recover from her depression and goes to Africa to help the needy. (It seems that Degrassi's solution to get rid of actors is to send the characters to other countries.)
