You’re going to see a lot more of Dalmar Abuzeid on television this fall. And that’s not a bad thing.

The 27-year-old Toronto actor is known for playing the precocious Danny Van Zandt on six seasons of the Canadian series Degrassi: The Next Generation.

But this season he has roles in three major Toronto-shot series, including Anne With an E from CBC and Netflix, CBC’s comedy Crawford and Audience Network’s thriller Condor. And don’t forget a cameo in Drake’s Degrassi blockbuster reunion music video for “I’m Upset.”

Abuzeid is not a household name, but he is having something of a breakout moment, fuelled by the fact that according to the CBC he is the first Black character to appear on the critically acclaimed series, based on the 1908 classic Anne of Green Gables books by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

“It puts a huge smile on my face and I’m absolutely honoured to see a role like this, where there is more and more inclusion and possibility for actors of different ethnicities,” says Abuzeid in an interview. “This story is such a part of Canadian culture and to be a part of that is something I can’t even begin to understand.”

In a series of exclusive interviews with producers and talent, the Star pieced together how history was made and a Canadian classic updated for the 21st century. The show returns for Season 2 on Netflix in July and on the CBC in September.

The reimagined Anne, appealingly gritty and far edgier than any interpretation before, is powered by the distinctive vision of acclaimed Canadian showrunner Moira Walley-Beckett and an all-female writers room that has breathed new life into a familiar format.

Abuzeid’s character Sebastian is a manual labourer who stokes coal in the engine of a steamship. Sebastian, originally from Trinidad, befriends Gilbert Blythe, the love interest of Anne Shirley (Amybeth McNulty).

“He is jovial, smart and someone who has worked with his hands his whole life,” says Abuzeid.

More importantly, Sebastian’s character wouldn’t exist if not for a production staff that includes veteran writer Shernold Edwards and creator Walley-Beckett, who won the Showrunner of the Year award this month at the Banff World Media Festival for her work on Anne.

The fact that Edwards is of Trinidadian descent and used her life to inform and update a corner of the CanLit canon is perhaps the most striking endorsement of Walley-Beckett’s inclusive writer’s room, and a reminder that characters are sparked in the imagination and forged on a page before anyone else becomes involved.

It joins another CBC show now in production, Diggstown, which will feature Canada’s first Black female lead in a mainstream television drama. But Anne of Green Gables, of course, has always been special, based on a beloved classic that has a global following. It also happens to be 110 years old this month.

“I personally think this is earth-shattering,” says writer Edwards, previously a writer and story editor on the supernatural series Haven, in an interview. “I remember what Anne was about when I was a kid and I think I would have been thrilled as a kid to see myself represented.”

Shernold credits Walley-Beckett, who wanted a Black character, for pushing a more diverse vision on the series.

“Some people will be thrilled, other people will say why are you changing the book, but it’s an important step forward,” says Shernold, who was the first Black female showrunner on a major network show in Canada with Global’s Da Kink in My Hair.

Producers researched and discovered that Charlottetown had a neighbourhood called “The Bog” that housed the town’s Black community, which served as inspiration for Walley-Beckett.

“It had always bothered me that the world of Avonlea wasn’t reflective of the multiracial world we live in and the world that is Canada,” says Walley-Beckett. “The Bog was a marsh where they marginalized people of colour and it’s really buried in P.E.I. history. When we found out about it, we were appalled but thrilled … it became this awful, wonderful gift to us.”

Walley-Beckett says Abuzeid’s character returns to Avonlea and viewers will see “what kind of prejudices or racism” minorities encountered during that era. “It’s a big story point for us and we’re really excited.”

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Born in the Beach area of Toronto, Abuzeid — who is of East African descent — says he had Edwards and a Trinidadian friend tape the lines of his character, which he would “constantly play back” to get the right cadence.

“Dalmar is just this incredibly smart actor and he nailed the Trini accent,” says Edwards.

He was so convincing that he fooled Edwards’ parents, who were visiting the set in Port Dalhousie, a part of St. Catharines that doubled for Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad.

The character of Sebastian is dramatically different than the other roles Abuzeid plays in the fall season, including that of Caleb Wolfe, an “information activist” in the slick, action-focused thriller Condor, based on the 1975 movie Three Days of the Condor starring Robert Redford.

Wolfe is an Edward Snowden-like character, says Abuzeid, “calling out abuse at the highest level. His goal is challenging authority, keeping the powers that be honest.”

In CBC’s Crawford, which premiered June 14 on conventional television (episodes have been available at CBC online), he plays Devon, an assistant who endures abuse to climb the corporate ladder. The quirky, brilliant show by Mike Clattenburg (Trailer Park Boys) stars Jill Hennessy.

“When I first read the script it felt like there was no comedy in the writing, just a series of things happening,” says Abuzeid. “Then I realized that it wasn’t about doing something with the words, it was about being in the situation.”

But it will be as Sebastian on Anne With an E that he makes his most significant mark yet. Degrassi, with its unrelenting focus on teen social issues, was the first time that Abuzeid saw the power of the medium to create a conversation.

“Degrassi was this incredible platform to talk about issues and seeing how it impacted young people’s lives,” says Abuzeid. “I think the situation is the same with Anne, it has the power to move things forward.”

It was a bit surreal, Edwards says, to see Port Dalhousie transformed into her parents’ hometown for a Lucy Maud Montgomery-inspired show.

“I took them through the market and the shantytown, which was supposed to look like Port of Spain. My father just stood there, hands on his hips, and said, ‘You know what, I’m back. I’m back home.’ It’s the power of television to make our world a smaller, more comprehensible place.”