Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie Sterling Point has arrived, and it has sent the 23-year-old Canadian actor from Muskoka to the front row at YSL’s Spring-Summer 2027 show in Paris, barely three months after the series first aired. Created by Megan Park, Sterling Point premiered on Amazon Prime Video on 5 August 2026 and shot straight to the top of the streamer’s most-watched list. Life, for Whiteduck-Lavoie, has not been quiet since.
In the series, he plays Ellis, a seaplane pilot and boater from Muskoka whose outdoorsy, practically granola wardrobe is a deliberate world away from the striped open-collar shirt, scarf, pleated trousers and classic black shoes he wore to the Paris show. Two weeks after the premiere, Sterling Point was renewed for a second season. In the weeks that followed, Whiteduck-Lavoie attended New York Fashion Week, then boarded a flight to Paris for his first visit to the city and only his third time in Europe altogether.
Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie on Sterling Point fame: ‘It went from zero to a hundred’
He spoke to GQ by phone shortly after the YSL show. The adjustment to sudden, widespread attention has been a process. ‘It went from zero to a hundred really, really quick,’ he says. ‘In the three weeks following the release of the show, it was just Sterling Point as soon as I opened my phone, and it got to a point where it was, not scary, but a little bit.’ His response has been practical: stay off his phone, take in the cities on foot, and keep moving.
Walking is not incidental for Whiteduck-Lavoie. It is a system. In New York he pinned spots on Apple Maps and worked through them methodically, wandering SoHo, eating well, shopping a little. In Paris, with only one full day before an early departure, he went straight from the fitting to a solo walk, a bike ride, and the Eiffel Tower. His Paris playlist ran to Steve Lacy, Malcolm Todd and Jack Johnson. ‘I was in the streets of Paris all alone, just vibing to some music and listening to podcasts,’ he says. ‘I enjoyed it.’ Tomorrow morning, before leaving, he plans to find a French brunch spot and get a croissant, delivered, when he mentions it, in a thick French accent.
The front row at YSL had its own geography. Seated next to Belmont Cameli, Whiteduck-Lavoie found himself in a row that also included Post Malone and Hailey Bieber, with a direct sightline to the Eiffel Tower. ‘Our row was stacked with celebrities,’ he says. ‘It was surreal, honestly. It was crazy.’ He and Cameli bonded over hockey. It was, he notes, a ‘What Am I Doing Here?’ kind of moment, asked and answered by the view.
Season two: ‘I don’t want it to be all sunshine and rainbows’
The show Sterling Point is built around its ensemble. Alongside Whiteduck-Lavoie, the series stars Ella Rubin, Amélie Hoeferle, Daniel Quinn-Toye, Bo Bragason and Keen Ruffalo. Whether season two deepens those ensemble dynamics or bears down on specific relationships, Whiteduck-Lavoie has a clear idea of where he wants Ellis to go.
‘I don’t want it to be all sunshine and rainbows,’ he says. ‘Obviously, we’re the end game, but I want it to be rocky and for Ellis to maybe get jealous, or maybe we see a side of him that we haven’t really dug into in season one.’ He had a meeting with producers the week before the Paris trip to discuss his character’s direction, and says he is waiting on scripts with genuine excitement. Ellis’s past is, so far, largely unexamined. ‘We don’t know much about his past, maybe someone from his past, or… We don’t know. Anything could happen,’ he says.
The heartthrob label that has followed Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie since Sterling Point’s debut is one he handles carefully. He nominates Cameli as the actual internet boyfriend, deflects the title for himself, and gets on with the walking. His style off-set has drifted away from brands and towards sport shorts and hoodies, comfortable, functional, low-maintenance. He has borrowed some of Ellis’s workwear, though. Some things from Muskoka, it turns out, travel well.
Production on season two of Sterling Point is already under way, with Whiteduck-Lavoie back on set after his fashion week circuit. The scripts, when they arrive, will tell him how dark it is going to get for Ellis.
