Edmonton's Sam Krochmal Makes His Mark in Crave’s New Series YAGA

Sam Krochmal. Photo courtesy of Christopher Lawrence for Crave Canada.

For Sam Krochmal, a “starstruck” trip to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2025 came with a promise to himself: that he'd be back, and next time he'd have a project to celebrate. “Fast forward a year later, to be walking the red carpet is extraordinary,” he says.

The Edmonton-raised actor joins the close-knit cast of Crave’s newest original series YAGA, alongside Carrie-Anne Moss, Noah Reid, and Heated Rivalry’s break out star Hudson Williams. The horror-tinged mystery follows Rapp (Reid), a private investigator who arrives in a small coastal town to investigate the disappearance of the heir to a powerful fishery, Henry Park (Williams). As Rapp attempts to solve the unfolding mystery around him, he finds himself at odds with an apprehensive local detective, Carson (Clark Backo), a charismatic university professor, Katherine (Moss), and an ever-increasing list of suspects, secret lives, and ancient magic.

Krochmal brings a little levity to the dark sea-side town as Billy, the rookie cop at the station, rounding out the investigation. Billy is painfully earnest, a little nervous, and perhaps not entirely convinced he's qualified to be part of one of the largest cases the town has seen. As the more experienced officers attempt to get to the bottom of a disappearance, Billy is doing his best to keep up, while occasionally delivering a perfectly timed comedic break in the action along the way.

Still from YAGA, Episode 1. Photo courtesy of Crave Canada.

Krochmal describes his character as someone “trying his best to be helpful, but he's often coming up short.” Before the central mystery of the show, Krochmal says “Billy was probably just writing speeding tickets, so [a missing persons case], is a lot for him. He’s in a little over his head, but he's trying his best.”

He says the role came together almost unexpectedly. When the audition crossed his desk late last year, he immediately felt a connection to the character.

“It's one of those auditions you receive as an actor that feels like you're playing yourself, which is very much a luxury and like not something that happens all the time,” he says. “I kind of just was thinking like, this just feels like playing me, which makes the work really easy.”

For Krochmal, working alongside such an accomplished Canadian cast was a highlight of the experience. He credits writer and director Kat Sandler's background in playwriting with giving the production a particularly strong creative direction.

“Her vision is just so specific, and I think it's really a superpower with her coming from like a playwriting background,” he says. “Working with Kat who is someone that had such such a clear vision and such a strong voice in her writing, just made playing in that world so easy.”

The series also reunited Krochmal with fellow Canadian actor Hudson Williams, whose profile has risen considerably following the success of Heated Rivalry. The two previously worked together on Public Swim, a proof-of-concept comedy about a failing public pool, roughly three years ago.

“It's kind of a small world moment,” he says. “Super funny, and weird that we had worked together on a little web series years before, and to come full circle and get to work with him again on a project like YAGA was pretty special.”

For Krochmal, the experience of returning to set with someone he already knew was a reminder of how much can change in a few years. Their connection also offers a glimpse into the often-unpredictable nature of building a career in the Canadian entertainment industry, where smaller projects can continue to find audiences of their own.

The production was filmed in Victoria earlier this year, and Krochmal admits that the show's eventual premiere at TIFF wasn't something he had anticipated while working on set.

“We were making this little Canadian TV show in this little bubble in Victoria,” he says. “Of course, I was optimistic that I think we were making something really cool, but it's pretty special to have that recognized by a pretty big establishment like TIFF.”

Krochmal’s path to the TIFF red carpet began nearly a decade ago after he graduated from Strathcona High School in Edmonton, and shortly after moved to Vancouver to pursue a career in film, a decision that he describes as a leap of faith.

“I kind of came to that conclusion and was like, well, I have to at least try this,” he says.

After completing a six-month film program, he began regularly auditioning. Rather than pursuing a more formal education, Krochmal wanted to get into the industry and learn through experience. The years that followed involved gradually building connections, finding work, and developing confidence in his abilities. Now, Krochmal feels his risk is paying off.

His advice to anyone pursuing a creative career is persistence. “It's gonna be messy for a while. But if you're persistent long enough and you don't quit, and you keep pushing, you will inevitably improve.”

It's a motto that also seems fitting for Billy, a character who might not always know what he's doing, but keeps trying to get the job done anyway. And while YAGA marks an exciting moment in Krochmal's career, it’s only the beginning, as he is next set to appear in The Young People, the upcoming NEON horror film written and directed by Osgood Perkins, alongside Nicole Kidman and Lola Tung.

For the moment though, Krochmal is looking forward to seeing the audience reaction to YAGA, and is excited for what’s to come as more and more eyes land on Canadian television. “I think a show like Heated Rivalry is a great example of a Canadian TV show that really exceeded expectations,” adding, “why not more? Why not? Canadian content is awesome. I think we should be making more of it, and I think it should be recognized as really, really good cinema.”

The first two episodes of the Crave Original series YAGA premier tonight.