Ennis originally came to Toronto from Ankara, Turkey at the age of 3. He trained at Second City while attending the fine arts high school Earl Haig (where he studied theatre & improv, produced monthly variety shows and performed his first sketch comedy.) He made it through three years of theatre training at York University before getting the boot, while spending much of the 00s working on stand-up, sketch (with Mustered & Relished) and musical comedy (as frontman of Calcu-Lator & The Oral Presentation) at clubs in Toronto.
His standup work led to a gig as host and creative consultant of The Toronto Show, an hour-long showcase of Canadian music and comedy. During the show's 120 episode run, Ennis performed with some of the best in Canadian comedy, including Dave Foley and Sean Cullen. Since then he has hosted events for The Gemini Awards, The ACTRA Awards, Telefilm, and TIFF, and his summer 2009 turn in Melancholy Play at the Factory Theatre marked his return to theatre after a 10 year "break."
In summer 2014, Esmer shot the lead role of Nash, the charming, chain-smoking, philandering head tennis pro in the Amazon Studios pilot Red Oaks, directed by David Gordon Green (Eastbound & Down, Pineapple Express), produced by Steven Soderbergh, and co-created by Greg Jacobs & Joe Gangemi. Earlier in 2014, Esmer wrapped shooting his 5th and final season as Oz Bey, best friend of telepathic crime-solver Toby Logan, on the hit original series The Listener produced by Shaftesbury. His work on the show has earned him an ACTRA Award nomination and multiple Canadian Comedy Award nominations. He also recently shot a recurring role on the FX comedy Man Seeking Woman, produced by Lorne Michaels & Starring Jay Baruchel, and will be shooting the feature How To Plan An Orgy In A Small Town, co-starring with Jewel Staite (Firefly), Lauren Lee Smith (The Listener), Katherine Isabelle (Hannibal), Tommie Amber-Pirie (Bitten), Zoie Palmer (Lost Girl), Kristian Bruun (Orphan Black), Mark O'Brien (Republic Of Doyle), James McGowan & Jonas Chernick (The Border). Last October Esmer shot his first feature film lead role in the comedy Big News From Grand Rock. The movie was written and directed by Daniel Perlmutter, who Esmer met in 2009 while hosting Telefilm's Pitch This! Competition at TIFF, a competition Daniel won. The film costars Gordon Pinsent, Meredith MacNeill, Peter Keleghan & Aaron Ashmore, and is produced by Markham Street Films. The movie has enjoyed success at film festivals across Canada and is tapped for a Winter 2015 theatrical release. 2014 Also saw Esmer popping up in the feature films Sex After Kids and Dirty Singles. Both movies saw runs in film festivals across North America. In Sex After Kids, Esmer plays half of a sexually frustrated married couple with a 6 month old baby, to whom a sex therapist issues a challenge to have sex daily for 100 days. In Dirty Singles, Esmer plays Sean, who is cuckolded by his high-school sweetheart, the only woman he's ever been with, and forced to deal with the consequences. His work in Sex After Kids earned him a Canadian Comedy Award nom. Esmer returned to theatre in 2013 in the lead role of Ralph, the neurotic, tortured birthday boy in Claire From The Bus, a new play, a comedy about love and blackmail in the age of sexting. Ennis also starred as Eddie, the cantankerous landlord of The Lux, on Epitome Pictures' The LA Complex, which aired on MuchMusic in Canada and The CW in the U.S. Ennis' first national exposure came in the form of a role in the romantic comedy Young People Fucking, which became a word-of-mouth hit when it premiered at TIFF. It was named one of the top ten Canadian films of 2007 by TIFF, and after getting caught up in the media storm of the Bill C-10 controversy, enjoyed a wide release across Canada in summer 2008. His role earned him a Canadian Comedy Award nomination. He also hosted Pitch This! From 2008-2011, after which he was replaced for being almost too good at the job, in his mind. Other past credits include Zoltan, the miserable immigrant janitor the corporate law comedy Billable Hours, and hosting gigs on Wipeout Canada & The Toronto Show. When not working in film and TV, he keeps busy doing improv shows around town, and working with charities such as Live Below The Line Canada & Youth Without Shelter.
