B.K. Cannon
B.K. Cannon is an actor, born 1990.
Barbara-Kimberly Cannon, who works as B.K. Cannon, grew up in Kailua on Oahu and survived neuroblastoma as a child. That second fact is not incidental to how she spends her time away from a set: she volunteered at Camp Anuenue, a retreat on the North Shore for children dealing with cancer, and later became its director.
Her screen work has been steady rather than showy, and it clusters in television. She played Mary Beth Tucker on Switched at Birth, a family drama built around deaf and hard of hearing characters, which gave its supporting cast a different rhythm to work in than a standard network soap. Why Women Kill then handed her Dee Fillcot in an anthology that resets its cast, its decade and its tone every season. The Politician used her in the register that show does best, which is absurdity delivered with a completely straight face.
The film credits are smaller. Road House put her in a studio remake, and Mall in an ensemble indie. The through-line is that directors keep casting her as the grounded one, the person a scene can lean on while the leads do something more theatrical, and she is unusually good at making that job invisible.
Movies (2)
TV (4)
Where to start with B.K. Cannon
The longest look at her is Switched at Birth, so go there first. Its premise, two teenagers swapped as babies into families that do not share a language, gives every supporting player something to push against rather than merely react to, and Mary Beth is one of the show's more quietly interesting inventions.
Follow it with Why Women Kill, easily the most stylised thing on her list and the best showcase of her comic timing; the anthology format means you can pick the season that appeals and lose nothing. The Politician is a short stop but a useful one, because Ryan Murphy's deadpan only works with actors who refuse to wink.
Road House and Mall are the two films, both small parts in very different pictures. Completists can go back to Flight 29 Down, a kids' castaway series and one of her earliest jobs.