Caribbean-flavoured reality show airs prime time on Canadian TV
August 12, 2020
Camping in the wild overnight isn’t something that Warren Danford would be easily lured into.
That was until this year when his wife, YouTube and media personality Jillian Danford, threw out some suggestions, including camping, for family outings.
Married for 30 years, Danford knows that listening to your wife and sometimes acting on some of her ideas go a long way in sustaining a healthy relationship.
“Of course, I have to take a role now in making sure we have a tent and I have to put it up which is something I have never done before,” the investment advisor and creator of FNG hot sauce said. “We have gone up North before with friends and family and spent a day, but I am not the guy who likes to share my space with wild animals. I am scared of the wildlife.”
The Danford’s camping trip was captured in the first episode of ‘Auntie Jillian’ that’s the first Canadian Black family reality television show.
“We are in the big leagues now,” was Jillian Danford’s excited reaction after learning that CTV had added her show to its summer schedule.
Jillian and Warren Danford with their children Myles and Milan
The six-episode prime time series features the Ajax family doing their best to raise, entertain and inspire their millennial and Gen Z children.
“Me and my husband are from the Caribbean and we have Canadian kids,” she said. “So just the mixture of the Canadian and Caribbean flavours make it really funny and really relatable. We have different personalities and represent different generations.”
The unscripted series initially aired on Bell Fibe’s TV1 last year.
Myles Danford relishes the groundbreaking experience.
“The big thing for me is that my cousins and friends get to see our family represent Black folks in a very positive manner,” said the E-Commerce Co-ordinator who, with his younger sister Milan, graduated from Pickering High School.
Spending more quality time with his wife and children is the one thing that the family patriarch really enjoyed during the groundbreaking process.
“Our children are 27 and 21 and after their 14th or 15th birthday, they don’t really like to spend time with mom and dad,” said Danford who came to Canada at age 17 after graduating from Titchfield High School which is the alma mater of notable Jamaican Canadians Michael Lee Chin and Dr. Upton Allen. “The show kind of helped us to stick together.”
His wife agreed that the COVID pandemic brought the family closer together.
“My husband taught us how to play dominoes, my son decided he wanted to write some music, so he did that and our daughter took up cooking,” she noted. “So we did different things while in quarantine to bond. Some things went good and others went not so good.”
Blessed with an infectious personality, Jillian Danford envisaged becoming a television news presenter.
“I didn’t see myself in this capacity even though I have been in front of the camera before,” she said. “So it felt natural for me to do this. What didn’t feel natural at first was introducing my family and everybody knowing almost everything about them. We are showing a lot of ourselves to people which is something I never thought I would do.”
Jillian Danford isn’t really a fan of reality shows.
“Absolutely not,” is her quick response. “This is the one that I am going to claim because we are in it and our show isn’t scripted as those in the United States. What we have is authentic. What I was caught up is family sitcoms like ‘Good Times’ and ‘The Cosby Show’. I hope people will see us in that kind of light.”
She acquired the ‘Auntie Jillian’ moniker after appearing on her niece’s YouTube channel.
Latoya Forever is a Canadian YouTube personality and author.
“She would normally say, ‘Let’s ask Auntie Jillian’, and from there everyone wanted to ask Auntie Jillian all the time,” she said. “She opened up a YouTube channel for me and there were about 12,000 to 13,000 people on there with no video. So I decided to bring the family in.”
Her YouTube channel (@AskAuntieJillian) has approximately 13 million views and more than 100,000 subscribers from a culturally diverse and international audience.
Migrating from Trinidad & Tobago at age five, Jillian Danford graduated from Ajax High School and was a court registrar at the Oshawa Superior Court of Justice before transitioning into the entertainment industry.
She clerked for Justice of the Peace (JP) Martha DeGannes who was the only Black female judicial officer in Oshawa for eight years until her appointment last year as the first Black female regional JP.
“Jillian is a go-getter and just an amazing human being,” said DeGannes. “In the entertainment business, one can easily get carried away with the fame and publicity that comes with the territory. She isn’t interested in that. The only thing she cares about is giving people what they want and will enjoy.”
Jillian Danford left her full-time job in 2014 after successfully auditioning for the Shopping Channel.
“I couldn’t do both of them at the same time,” said the older sibling of retired Major League Baseball (MLB) outfielder Nigel Wilson who signed with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1987 as an amateur free agent. “I had been in the law field for 15 years and I decided it was time to try something else.”
The Danford family were on the inaugural edition of Family Feud Canada
The Danford family along with Jillian’s cousin – Krystle Wiltshire – appeared on Family Feud Canada that was renewed for a second season last February.
The six-episode ‘Auntie Jillian’ series started on July 25.
