Canada

Chrystia Freeland

Canada's deputy PM, shaped by Soviet Ukraine

Michael Ignatieff

Canadian statesman shaped by imperial Russian exile

Pamela Anderson

Baywatch icon with Mennonite roots in the Russian Empire

Seth Rogen

Canadian comedy star with roots in the Russian Empire

William Shatner

Captain Kirk, rooted in the Russian Empire

Brandon Cronenberg

Body horror's second generation

Chilly Gonzales

Montreal pianist with Russian-Hungarian roots who holds the Guinness record for longest solo concert

Dan Levy

Schitt's Creek co-creator and Emmy winner, son of Eugene Levy, grandson of Russian-Bulgarian immigrants

David Cronenberg

Canadian auteur with Russian-Jewish roots who invented body horror

David Steinberg

Canadian comedy legend with Russian-Romanian Jewish roots who defined 1960s irreverent humour

Denis Shapovalov

Russian-born Canadian tennis prodigy and Wimbledon semi-finalist

Drake (Aubrey Graham)

Global rap superstar whose mother Sandi has Latvian-Russian Jewish roots

Eugene Levy

SCTV comedy legend with Russian-Bulgarian Jewish roots who found global fame in Schitt's Creek

Geddy Lee

Rush bassist and vocalist whose parents survived the Holocaust and emigrated from Russian-controlled Poland

Howie Mandel

Canadian comedian and Deal or No Deal host with Eastern European Jewish roots

Ilya Samsonov

Magnitogorsk-born NHL goaltender who became a Toronto Maple Leafs starter

Ivan Reitman

Czech-born Canadian director with Russian roots who produced Animal House and directed Ghostbusters

Ksenia Solo

Riga-born Canadian actress who starred in Lost Girl and Black Swan

Leonard Cohen

Montreal poet and songwriter whose mother came from Lithuania — Hallelujah became humanity's anthem

Lorne Michaels

Toronto-born creator of Saturday Night Live — his parents came from Russia

Mark Adler

Canadian film composer with Polish-Russian Jewish roots who scored The Artist and Life of Pi

Nikita Zadorov

Moscow-born NHL defenceman who has played for multiple teams across a decade in the league

Peaches (Merrill Nisker)

Toronto-born electronic punk provocateur with Polish-Russian Jewish roots — Berlin-based avant-garde icon

Peter Van Loan

Canadian Conservative MP whose family traces to Estonia and Russia — former House Leader

Rick Moranis

Ghostbusters' Louis Tully — his grandparents came from Russia and Ukraine

Rustem Karimov

Russian-Tatar co-founder of 1Password — the world's most trusted password manager

Sasha Sokolov

Born in Ottawa to Soviet spy parents — became Russia's most avant-garde novelist and escaped the USSR in a wetsuit

Saul Rubinek

Canadian actor born in a German DP camp to Polish-Russian Jewish survivors — Unforgiven, Warehouse 13

Victor Garber

Canadian actor with Russian-Jewish roots who starred in Titanic, Alias, and won multiple Tony Awards

Vitalik Buterin

The Russian-born mind who reinvented money

Vitaly Pechersky

Ildar Shar

Russian-born Toronto entrepreneur who co-founded StackAdapt — one of Canada's most valuable adtech companies