Who is Gracyn Shinyei? Everything to know about the actor who plays Emily Montgomery in When Calls the Heart

Gracyn Shinyei's Emily Montgomery is one of the recurring characters in When Calls the Heart. Emily is one of the students of Elizabeth Thatcher, the show's lead character. Although a lot of kids have appeared in the series since season 1, Emily is one of those characters who has become integral to the cast of When Calls the Heart.

When Calls the Heart is a Western drama series based on Janette Oke's novel. Created by Michael Landon Jr. and Brian Bird, it premiered on Hallmark Channel on January 11, 2014, and on Super Channel in Canada on April 16, 2014.

When Calls the Heart follows the story of Elizabeth as a young school teacher in a small town named Hope Valley, who gets an emotional surprise just in time for Little Jack's first day at school. When the craze for comic books takes over the town, she takes it upon herself to teach her students through nature.

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Everything to know about When Calls the Heart actress Gracyn Shinyei

Born on April 14, 2006, Gracyn Shinyei is a Canadian actress from Vancouver, British Columbia. She is the younger sister of Valin Shinyei, who is also an actor and played the role of Jason Webster in Debbie Macomber's Mrs Miracle. Valin has also voiced several characters in animated TV projects.

Gracyn Shinyei started her acting career with roles in commercials when she was just 3 years old. She began doing movie and TV roles by the time she was 5 years old. Her first big screen role was in a zombie film and the next one was as the younger version of Abigale Breslin in a film named Final Girl.

Shinyei joined the cast of When Calls the Heart in 2014. Although her on-screen mother, Cat Montgomery, portrayed by Chelah Horsdal, has not appeared since season 1, the young actress has been a part of it ever since she first appeared in it. According to IMDb, she has appeared in a total of 98 episodes.

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Gracyn Shinyei's first project with Erin Krakow was a Hallmark movie

Shinyei starred with Erin Krakow before When Calls the Heart. In the 2014 Hallmark Christmas movie A Cookie Cutter Christmas, she appeared as the younger version of Krakow.

The movie followed the story of two longtime rivals and elementary school teachers who went against each other in a bakeoff, but the real feud between them was over a single dad they both liked.

In an interview with Simply Entertaining, dated February 24, 2017, Shinyei opened up about what it was like to work with Krakow again. She said:

"Erin is awesome and so sweet. She even called me to personally tell me that I got the role on A Cookie Cutter Christmas! She is just like her character on TV and helps everyone all the time. She is like a big sister!"

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Gracyn Shinyei revealed what she liked about doing voice acting

While her brother, Valin Shinyei, has done a lot of voicework, Gracyn Shinyei had not done much until 2019. In an interview on Media from the Heart dated March 26, 2019, Shinyei shared that she was doing voice work for a cartoon series.

Although she kept the name a secret, she opened up about what it was like to do voice acting, saying:

"I like how you can take more breaks and sit down between takes. Sometimes when filming voiceover work, you either go in by yourself or with a bunch of people. When I go in with other people, I’m very excited and happy and we always have lots of fun."

She recorded for only four hours at a time for Dorg Van Dango (2020), where she voiced Voulez Van Dango.

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When Calls the Heart is available to stream on Hallmark+.