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Joe Buffalo (born 1976) is a Cree skateboarder and actor from Canada.[1] He is most noted as a two-time Vancouver Film Critics Circle nominee for Best Supporting Actor in a Canadian Film, receiving nominations at the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards 2016 for Hello Destroyer[2] and at the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards 2017 for Luk'Luk'I.[3] He is a 2023 recipient of the Inspire Award in the sports category.[4]
A member of the Samson Cree Nation in Alberta, he is the great-grandson of Joe Buffalo, a former deputy chief who had an acting role in the 1958 film The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw, and the great-grand nephew of actor Gordon Tootoosis.[1] A survivor of the Indian residential school system, he moved to Ottawa after school to begin his skateboarding career, although he struggled with substance abuse issues in his early years.[5] Since getting sober, he has also served as an advocate and speaker on indigenous mental health.[6] He received the Inspire Award, in the sports category in 2023.[7]
He is associated with the indigenous-owned skateboard company Colonialism Skateboards, which released a professional model in 2021 that features Buffalo's student identification card from the Qu'Appelle Indian Residential School printed on the top.[8]
As an actor, he has also had supporting roles in the films The Fish and the Sea, Cake Day and Brother, I Cry.
He is the subject of Amar Chebib's 2021 short documentary film Joe Buffalo.[9]
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