Heated Rivalry might have some racy competition on its hands — and the rival that’s lacing up its skates is another steamy hockey streamer with a Canadian pedigree.
Off Campus, adapted from Toronto author Elle Kennedy’s bestselling novels, follows quiet music student Hannah Wells (Ella Bright) and all-star university hockey player Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli), whose arranged tutoring relationship sparks a romance amid campus rivalries and locker-room drama.
The series, which is currently No. 1 on Amazon Prime Video in Canada, features Canadians on screen and behind the scenes, in addition to Canadian locations and homegrown music.
Here are some standout connections.
That’s right, the author of the Off Campus book series is Canadian. She also serves as a producer on the TV adaptation.
Elle Kennedy grew up in the suburbs of Toronto. From an early age, she knew she wanted to be a writer and actively began pursing that dream when she was a teenager.
She holds a BA in English from York University and is now the author of nearly 50 contemporary novels.
Off Campus was filmed almost entirely in Vancouver.
The show is set at the fictional Briar University in Boston, brought to life by the University of British Columbia (UBC).
Notable campus spots include the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre (where Garrett asks Hannah to tutor him) and the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre, which stands in for the hockey arena and locker rooms.
UBC’s real-life Sigma Phi Delta (Theta Chapter) fraternity was also used for the show’s hockey player fraternity.
Popular pub and live music venue The Heatley serves as the real-life Malone’s. It’s the college bar where Hannah and and her roommate Allie Hayes (Mika Abdalla) both work, and a regular hangout spot for Allie’s secret romantic partner Dean Di Laurentis (Stephen Kalyn) and his hockey teammates.
Dean’s swanky New York apartment, where he and Allie stayed for Thanksgiving, is actually a suite in The Douglas Autograph Collection Hotel.
The Beaches’ entire catalogue has received a significant boost after their 2023 single Edge of the Earth was featured in the second episode of Off Campus.
The Toronto band’s management team and Billboard Canada report the song has experienced an 888 per cent increase in streams across platforms since the show’s release.
The band is name-checked twice in the second episode. In one scene, Hannah and Garrett are forced to share a room. She asks if he’s ever heard of The Beaches and tells him, “their Coachella set will change your life,” before they fall asleep watching the performance on her laptop.
Later, Garrett scrolls through the band’s Spotify page, lands on Edge of the Earth, and the song plays over the final scene and end credits.
The band has leaned into the show’s shout‑out, taking to social media to share video reaction clips. They also uploaded a clip of their actual Coachella performance of Edge of the Earth to YouTube with the title “for Hannah and Garrett from Off Campus.”
And in a recent X post, they revealed they played an Off Campus clip at one of their concerts.
Off Campus put us in the show so obviously we had to put them in our concert 💙 <a href=”https://t.co/qALfx1QtHQ”>pic.twitter.com/qALfx1QtHQ</a>
Kalyn stars as the charismatic hockey defenceman Dean Di Laurentis and Garrett’s best friend. He hails from Markham, Ont., and is a life-long hockey player in real life.
Vancouver-born Dylan Kingwell, who played hockey throughout his childhood, plays Joe Rogers, a teammate of the Briar U hockey players.
Calgary-born Khobe Clarke plays Briar University quarterback Beau Maxwell, a loyal friend to the hockey players.
Vancouver actor Julia Sarah Stone plays Jules Logan, a character created exclusively for the series by showrunner Louisa Levy. Jules is hockey player John Logan’s (Antonio Cipriano) vibrant nonbinary younger sibling.
Karis Cameron, from Tofino, B.C., appears as the recurring character Kendall, who has an on-and-off fling with Garrett.
Vancouver’s Chelah Horsdal has a recurring role as Hannah’s mother, Carrie.
Jennifer Spence, who was born and raised in Toronto, plays Professor Tolbert, Hannah and Garrett’s philosophy professor.
Canadian actor and producer Chad Willett plays Coach Jensen, the head coach of the men’s hockey team, known as the Briar Hawks.
Leanna Billings, a Fredericton native, serves as an executive producer.
Though she trained as a neuropsychologist, she launched Billings Productions during the pandemic. After spotting the novels on BookTok, she optioned the rights and helped develop the pilot.
Montreal’s Ian Deitchman is a co-executive producer and writer for the series. He also wrote and produced for Suits.
Canadian Dawn Wilkinson was part of the all-female directing team that helmed the show’s eight-episode first season.
Wilkinson is also known for Power Book II: Ghost and the football drama All-American.
