Little did 22-year-old Canadian actress Miku Martineau know that all those years spent lacing up hockey skates, practicing her volleyball serve, and navigating the rigorous demands of competitive youth sports would ultimately pave the way for her breakout role as a leading lady in the streaming world.
Martineau currently anchors the new Netflix series “Crew Girl,” which officially premiered in early September to strong audience interest and has already been greenlit for a highly anticipated second season. The show centers on Teagan Tao, a dedicated competitive rower whose life is turned upside down when she and her mother are forced to relocate cross-country to her mother’s hometown. Upon arriving at her new school, Teagan discovers that the institution only fields a boy’s crew team. Refusing to let her athletic drive go to waste, she boldly finds herself auditioning to become a coxswain, setting off a journey of high-stakes teenage drama, athletic grit, and personal reinvention.
Growing up far from the glittering, fast-paced world of Hollywood, Martineau spent her formative years in The Beaches, a relaxed and vibrant neighborhood in Toronto, Ontario. Rather than being born into the entertainment industry, her roots are firmly grounded in hospitality. Her parents run a beloved family-style restaurant called The Beacher, a local neighborhood staple renowned for its popular brunch menu and welcoming community atmosphere.
“My parents know nothing about the industry. I think they’ve learnt along the way, same as me,” Martineau reflects, speaking over a video call from her backyard in Toronto, where she continues to process her rapidly ascending career.
Long before she ever stepped foot on a professional television set or read lines for a major streaming platform, Martineau’s childhood was heavily defined by athletics. As a young girl, she first took to the ice as a figure skater before naturally transitioning into hockey. Her hockey aspirations hit an unexpected roadblock when she broke her leg, forcing her to sit out the crucial tryout season. Once she was fully healed, she quickly pivoted to volleyball, while gymnastics remained a steady and disciplined fixture in her active routine throughout her youth.
Looking back, Martineau recognizes that those early athletic endeavors provided much more than physical conditioning; they laid the mental groundwork required for a demanding career in acting.
“Sports are great. There’s so much emotion involved in them, and it really teaches you resilience and a lot of mind over matter, which is a huge concept involved in rowing,” Martineau explains.
The path to “Crew Girl” began like many opportunities in the modern television landscape—with an audition notification landing quietly in her inbox. When Martineau opened the casting details, she immediately recognized several of the creator names attached to the project from “Bet,” another series in which she stars. Recognizing familiar and trusted creative forces right away felt like an auspicious sign that the project was meant for her.
Once she officially landed the role of Teagan Tao, the preparation began in earnest. Her training regimen took her across different locations, starting initially in Ithaca, New York, where she was simultaneously filming an independent feature film. From there, she traveled to Victoria, British Columbia, to participate in an intensive, two-week rowing bootcamp alongside the rest of the show’s ensemble cast.
The dual nature of her physical preparation mirrored the very arc of her character on screen. While she was learning the mechanics of rowing in a single scull, she was simultaneously mastering the specialized, high-stress tactical role of a coxswain—the strategic voice and director of a racing shell.
“I was still practicing in my single skull, but also I was learning how to become a coxswain. And throughout Teagan’s journey, she’s also learning how to become a coxswain,” Martineau says. “So I was kind of learning with her, which was a really fun experience.”
Despite her growing resume, Martineau admits to feeling a natural flutter of pre-set nerves before arriving on location and meeting the young actors who would portray the members of the crew team. Entering a long-term production environment requires chemistry, trust, and a strong sense of camaraderie among the cast members who spend grueling, multi-month schedules together under intense lights and demanding weather conditions.
“When I’m working, I want it to be a great environment. You’re there for months on end working long, long days with these people every single day, so I just want to become friends. And I was like, ‘I hope they want to be friends,’” she shares.
Fortunately, those initial anxieties quickly melted away. The cast bonded instantaneously during the exhausting physical demands of the early rowing bootcamp sessions in Victoria. The shared struggle on the water forged immediate friendships built on mutual respect and shared exhaustion.
“And they were all so sweet. We really bonded during the beginning rowing bootcamp sessions. We had the most fun together, and those boys are so sweet and funny. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed harder on any other set,” she adds with a smile.
“Crew Girl” marks Martineau’s official entry into the competitive and fiercely popular young adult genre. As teen dramas continue to dominate streaming charts and capture global cultural conversations, Martineau expresses genuine enthusiasm for being part of this current wave of serialized storytelling.
Rather than viewing the genre through a cynical lens, she appreciates the emotional authenticity and messy reality that good teen television manages to capture. To her, the appeal lies in the universality of growing up, making mistakes, and figuring out who you are when the world expects you to have it all figured out.
“It’s just a juicy, fun teenage story about the messiness of adolescence, but in the best way possible,” she notes. “I think in our teen years, we’re navigating friendships and crushes and new romances, but also family dynamics as we become our own people. We grow into who we are, and it’s all about making mistakes and learning and trying new things and finding our place in whatever world that we’re in. And that was really appealing to me because I think it’s something that all teenagers go through on very different levels.”
With Season One streaming globally on Netflix and a second season officially greenlit, Martineau’s journey from the family restaurant in The Beaches to the front lines of international streaming success has only just begun, proving that her lifelong dedication to resilience, teamwork, and hard work has prepared her well for whatever lies ahead.
