Jorge Montesi

The '80s Canadian TV series "Night Heat" was a national industry landmark, one of the first locally produced programs to look and feel like its slick, south-of-the-border United States counterparts. It ran for only four years but still helped usher in a whole new era of Canadian TV productions. Among those contributing to the trend-setting run were director Jorge Montesi, who guided 16 episodes. As such, Montesi was perfectly poised to take advantage of the subsequent Canadian TV production boom in Toronto and Vancouver, locales fueled by advantageous currency exchange rates and government regulations. He moved on to a pair of West Coast Stephen J. Cannell productions, "Wiseguy" and "21 Jump Street," directing multiple episodes for both shows. In the mid-'90s, Montesi hit his award-worthy peak with a pair of Gemini Award nominations in 1994 for Best Director via the syndicated drama "Catwalk" and the CBC-TV incest movie "Liar, Liar: Between Father and Daughter." Montesi continued to work steadily through 2007 on many different West Coast shows, everything from "The Outer Limits" to "Andromeda."