Originally Published: 2003-07-20

Fab Filippo

Two young women are sitting on the patio of Kalendar Koffee House on College Street. It's a hot Tuesday afternoon in July and the women are having their lunch and talking about work and minding their own business. And then Fab Filippo sits next to them.
Best known these days as the romantic and poetic Ethan Gold from "Queer as Folk," the Toronto-born actor has worked extensively in film, television and theatre both in Canada and south of the border. He played older brother Dom Ramone on the Global TV series "Ready or Not," Buffy's boyfriend Scott Hope on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and the lead in the critically acclaimed Canadian film, Waydowntown, which won the City Award for Best Canadian Feature at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival.
On top of all that, Filippo, 29, is boyishly handsome with a laid-back nature and a smart and charming confidence.
From the corner of my eye I see one of the young women leaning toward us, trying to find out what we're talking about.
When Filippo excuses himself to go to the washroom, the woman turns to me.
"Excuse me, can you tell me who that is," she asks. "He looks so familiar."
I tell her his name and list some of the shows he's been on.
The woman nods. "Oh, I remember that," she says.
Then I tell her he was recently on "Queer as Folk."
"Ohh, right." She then looks at her friend and says, "It's like he's from a dream."
Fab Filippo actually wanted to be a musician at first and even took piano lessons. He was particularly inspired by La Bamba, the 1987 film about '50s rock musician Richie Valens. He was working in a movie theatre at the time and remembers looking up at the screen and thinking, "I could do that - I could entertain people." But then in high school he was in a production of "Grease," and dreams of being a musician got transformed into dreams of becoming an actor.
He's been performing ever since.
"Queer as Folk," also known as QAF by aficionados across North America, takes a witty and irreverent look at the lives and loves of a group of gay and lesbian friends. The show is situated in Pittsburgh but is actually filmed in Toronto and it brought Filippo back from Los Angeles, where he had lived and worked for years.

Page 1/...Page 2

Printable Version Email to a Friend Share

Voice Your Opinion Letter to the Editor