Annabella Piugattuk was discovered by casting director Jared Valentine in the tiny town of Igloolik after spending two weeks in the Nunavut territory looking for the right person to play the role of Kanaalaq in the movie, The Snow Walker. He had auditioned over 100 Inuit women when he attended a teen dance and in walked Annabella. Six possible candidates were flown to Vancouver for a screen test and Annabella won the role. One of the producers said "Annabella is as un-Hollywood as an actress could be, and Hollywood is going to love her."
Like the character she portrays in The Snow Walker, she is an Inuit
throat singer and can fish, hunt seal and walrus, and make clothing out
of caribou hides.
Raised in Igloolik, a village of 1600 in Nunavut (once the eastern half
of the Northwest Territories), Canada. Since starring in The Snow
Walker, has moved to Vancouver, British Columbia.
Her first language is Inuktitut.
Was approached by a casting agent about auditioning for The Snow Walker
while at a dance with some friends in Igloolik.