If you've spent any time scrolling through casting announcements over the last few years, you've probably run into the name Joel Oulette more than once. He's one of those actors who seems to show up everywhere lately — a supernatural drama here, a Netflix hit there, now a Disney franchise and a Stephen King adaptation. And honestly, once you start looking into his story, it's easy to see why he keeps landing these roles.
Joel Oulette is a Cree and Métis actor from Medicine Hat, Alberta, and at just 24 years old, he's already built a career that a lot of actors twice his age would be proud of. Let's walk through who he is, where he came from, and where he's headed next.
Early Life and Family Roots
Joel Oulette was born in 2001 in Medicine Hat, Alberta. His roots trace back to the Red River Métis Nation and the Cumberland House Cree Nation, and that heritage isn't just a line on a bio page. It shows up again and again in the projects he chooses and the stories he wants to help tell.
He started acting young, really young. Around age five, his mom — who was an actress herself — got him into it. By the time most of us were still figuring out what we liked to do after school, Joel was already stepping in front of a camera. He also went to Strathmore High School, where he played on the school's football team, so he wasn't some kid who only lived and breathed acting. He had a pretty normal childhood mixed in with all of it.
Family clearly means a lot to him. His older sister, Shayla Oulette Stonechild, has talked publicly about how close the two of them are, calling him one of her best friends and pointing out how far he's come at such a young age. Their mom even chimed in on one of those posts with a story about dressing young Joel up in a tiara, because that's just what big sisters do. It's a small detail, but it tells you a lot about the kind of family that shaped him before any of the acting credits started piling up.
Getting His Foot in the Door
Joel's very first time on a film set came in 2007, when he worked as an extra on the HBO film Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. He was barely six years old at the time. From there, the roles trickled in slowly, the way they usually do for young actors trying to break through.
In 2018, he played a young hunter in the adventure film Alpha. A couple of years after that, he landed a bigger part in the 2020 drama Monkey Beach. Around the same stretch, he also showed up in the crime series Tribal and took on a role called Runaway in the sci-fi thriller Parallel Minds. None of these were huge, headline-grabbing roles, but they were real work — the kind of steady grinding that quietly builds a career before anyone's really paying attention.
Breakthrough: Trickster
Here's where things really started to change for him. In September 2019, Joel Oulette was cast as Jared, the lead in CBC's supernatural drama Trickster. The show was based on Eden Robinson's novel series about a Haisla teenager whose life gets turned upside down by supernatural forces he never asked for.
By his own account, Joel was 17 at the time and mostly just hanging around the house, not doing a whole lot, when the role came through. He'd been auditioning without much luck and was seriously thinking about applying for a job at Home Depot. Then everything shifted.
Trickster premiered in October 2020, and what made it stand out was how committed it was to telling an authentic Indigenous story. Most of the cast and crew were Indigenous themselves, and the show wove in real Haisla Nation folklore, including the trickster figure Raven, or Wee'git. For a teenager who was still new to acting, carrying a lead role in a show being called groundbreaking was a lot to take on, and Joel has admitted he felt genuinely nervous stepping into it.
It paid off. His performance as Jared earned him a nomination for Best Actor in a Drama Series at the 9th Canadian Screen Awards in 2021. For a first-ever lead role, that's not a small thing.
Worth mentioning too: the show's director, Michelle Latimer, later faced public scrutiny over questions about her own claims to Indigenous identity. It's a messy chapter, and Shayla, Joel's sister, spoke up at the time, encouraging people to keep supporting the show's Indigenous cast and crew, who had genuinely poured themselves into making it. It's a fair way to think about it — the controversy is real, but so is the work the cast did, and both things can be true at once.
Building Momentum
After Trickster, the offers kept coming, and you can really see him branching out. In early 2021, he appeared in an episode of Netflix's anthology series Two Sentence Horror Stories, playing an Indigenous man confronting some ugly history during an Old West reenactment. That same year, he starred in the thriller Abducted and took the lead role of Ben Taggart in the first season of Ruby and the Well.
In 2022, Joel Oulette landed a role as Hahn in Netflix's live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender, part of a casting push that brought more Indigenous and Asian actors into the Avatar world — something fans have genuinely appreciated. He appears in the Northern Water Tribe storyline, sharing the world with castmates like Antonio Marziale, who plays Sokka in the same series.
That year also gave fans a look at a totally different side of him. Joel and Shayla competed together on Season 9 of The Amazing Race Canada, and it was a nice reminder that behind the characters, he's just a guy who enjoys a good challenge with his sister by his side.
Beyond Acting: Stunt Work and Wellness Advocacy
Something that barely gets mentioned when people write about Joel Oulette is that acting isn't the only thing he does. He's also worked as a stuntman, which honestly makes sense once you think about the physical, high-energy roles he's taken on. On top of that, he's been active as an Indigenous wellness advocate, using his platform to talk about health and wellbeing in Indigenous communities.
It's easy to reduce someone to their biggest credits, but these parts of his life round him out. They show a guy who isn't just chasing the next role — he's using the platform he's built for something bigger than himself.
Part of a Bigger Wave: Indigenous Representation in Hollywood
Joel Oulette doesn't exist in a vacuum, and it's worth zooming out for a second. He's part of a growing group of Indigenous actors, alongside names like D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai and Lily Gladstone, who are changing how Indigenous stories get told on screen. That same wave includes actors like Abubakr Ali, who's been part of a similar shift toward more authentic, three-dimensional casting across streaming and film.
What separates a show like Trickster from a lot of older Indigenous-adjacent media is that it treats its characters like real people, not stereotypes. The show doesn't shy away from heavy topics like intergenerational trauma from residential schools, but it also lets its teenage characters just be teenagers — dealing with family drama, romance, and the everyday mess of figuring out who they are. That balance matters, and it's something Joel has talked about directly: representation isn't just about being seen; it's about being seen accurately.
Recent and Upcoming Work
2024 kept him busy. He co-hosted the documentary series Warrior Up! alongside Anna Lambe and Joshua Odjick, following young Indigenous people doing genuinely inspiring work in their communities. He also appeared in a short film called Julian and the Wind, directed by Connor Jessup, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Jessup publicly thanked Joel for his openness on the project, and the short has been described by viewers as honest in a way that actually resonates.
Then came the big ones. Joel Oulette was cast in Mike Flanagan's Amazon Prime Video adaptation of Stephen King's Carrie, playing Tommy Ross, the well-meaning boyfriend who takes Carrie to prom. The Joel Oulette Carrie 2026 casting news drew a lot of attention, and rightly so — Flanagan has a strong track record, and the series also features Summer H. Howell, Samantha Sloyan, Amber Midthunder, and Matthew Lillard. Filming wrapped in Vancouver between June and October 2025, with a premiere set for October 7, 2026. Fans of rising talent might also want to keep an eye on actors like Will Price, who's been building a similar kind of momentum around the same time.
He also landed a role in Disney's Descendants: Wicked Wonderland, reportedly playing Robbie Hood, a new-generation character in the franchise. It's a different kind of project for him, opening him up to a much younger, broader audience that may be discovering him for the first time. Beyond that, his resume includes appearances in Nancy Drew, Don't Even, Can I Get a Witness?, and Robert Zemeckis's Here.
What Makes Joel Oulette Stand Out
There's no shortage of talented young actors out there, so what actually makes Joel different?
For one, he stays genuinely connected to where he comes from. His Cree and Métis identity shows up consistently in the work he chooses, from Trickster to Avatar to Warrior Up! — that's not a coincidence; it's a pattern.
Then there's the range. Supernatural drama, horror, short film, reality TV, family series, and now a Disney musical, all before turning 25. That kind of variety usually signals someone who's building a career meant to last, not just chasing a single moment of viral attention.
And then there's how people describe working with him. Co-stars and collaborators consistently mention his warmth and openness on set, which says a lot about who he is once the cameras stop rolling.
Final Thoughts
Joel Oulette's story still feels like it's being written, and that's part of what makes it fun to follow. He's only 24, which in actor years is still early days. He's already helped bring authentic Indigenous storytelling to mainstream audiences, shown Indigenous kids that they can see themselves reflected on screen, and built a career without watering down who he is to get there.
What makes him worth watching isn't only his talent, though that's clearly there. It's that he seems to actually understand the weight of what he's doing, while still enjoying the ride and staying grounded through all of it. For a kid from Medicine Hat who almost ended up applying at Home Depot, that's a pretty remarkable turn of events. If the pattern of the last few years holds, we're going to be hearing the name Joel Oulette a lot more in the years ahead.
Frequently Asked Questions
What ethnicity is Joel Oulette?
He's Red River Métis and Cumberland House Cree, born and raised in Medicine Hat, Alberta. His Indigenous heritage is deeply tied to the roles and projects he takes on.
Who does Joel Oulette play in Carrie (2026)?
He plays Tommy Ross in Mike Flanagan's Amazon Prime Video adaptation of Stephen King's Carrie, set to premiere October 7, 2026.
Is Joel Oulette related to Shayla Stonechild?
Yes, Shayla Oulette Stonechild is his older sister. The two competed together on Season 9 of The Amazing Race Canada.
How old is Joel Oulette and where is he from?
He was born in 2001 in Medicine Hat, Alberta, which makes him 24 as of 2026.
What Disney project is Joel Oulette in?
He was cast in Descendants: Wicked Wonderland, reportedly playing Robbie Hood.
What is Joel Oulette best known for?
He's best known as an Indigenous actor for his lead role as Jared in Trickster, which earned him a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Actor in a Drama Series.
