Calgary-born actress did her homework for Fox medical drama, Doc

When Conni Miu landed the role of a nurse in the internal medicine unit at a busy Minneapolis hospital, she was determined to do her homework.

So she ordered an American teaching guide from Amazon that prepares nurses for their final exams. The hulking tome arrived in the mail and the Calgary-born actress was eager to get to work.

“I was like ‘It’s a nice thick book and I’m totally going to study this entire thing,'” says Miu, in an interview from her home in Toronto. “I opened up the first page and sat there and went ‘You know what? I don’t think this is for me.’ I read a summary version instead and called it a day.”

Well, she didn’t really call it a day. Miu. who has lived in Toronto for the past nine years, was not shirking her duty. However, she decided to take a more personal approach to the research. She called a cousin and a friend, who are both nurses and peppered them with “endless questions.”

“‘How does it feel when this thing happens? What does this medical thing mean?'” she asked.

That’s ultimately how she found her way into the role of ‘Nurse Liz’, a recurring character in the new Toronto-shot Fox medical drama Doc that premiered earlier this month on Global. Should the series be blessed with a second season, Miu says she plans to shadow a nurse in a hospital.

Immersing herself in the lingo, practices and day-to-day life of a nurse was one of the pleasures of taking on the role. It is the first time the actress has played a young professional. But that was only part of the dynamic when shaping the character of Liz.

Based on an Italian series, Doc – Nelle tue mani, which was inspired by a true story, the American drama stars fellow Canuck Molly Parker as Dr. Amy Larsen, the chief of internal medicine at a fictional Minneapolis hospital who suffers a brain injury after a car accident that causes her to lose her memory of the last eight years. She finds herself in the unit she used to oversee, being cared for by those she considered underlings.

That includes LIz.

“It’s a very interesting dynamic being a nurse of the floor who was honestly quite terrified of Dr. Larsen; she is a very accomplished doctor,” says Miu. “My character respects her quite a bit and she is also kind of a scary doctor. When she gets into the car crash she loses eight years of her memory and now she’s a patient.”

Until now, Miu may be best known for her role in Sofia Coppola’s 2023 biopic Priscilla, which starred Cailee Spaeny in the title role of Elvis Presley’s young wife. Miu played Sandy, the wife of one of Presley’s so-called “Memphis Mafia.”

The film won acclaim for Spaeny and Coppola, an Oscar-winning filmmaker and the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola. It also opened doors for Miu.

“It was a bit of a fever dream if I’m being honest,” she says. “Sofia is such an iconic director, it felt like I was living the dream. It was probably one of the easiest jobs I’ve ever done as well and all the other actors agreed with me. Everything flowed really smoothly. Sofia was so calm and clear with her direction. The environment was just so beautiful.”

Last summer, Miu upped her profile even more by appearing in an episode of the cult satirical Amazon Prime Video superhero series The Boys. It was a one-off appearance, but the episode and Miu’s central scene were memorable. She played Bonnie, a seemingly timid young production assistant for smarmy film director Ryan Bourke (P.J. Byrne) who is harassing her. At the urgings of Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) and Homelander (Anthony Starr), the filmmaker gets a humiliating comeuppance at the hands of Bonnie.? ?

“I was just really lucky that my character was weaved into a pretty important storyline for different major characters,” she says. “She gets to do a pretty cool stunt in an episode and it ended up being a fan favourite scene, which I wasn’t expecting. Twitter talked about it for a long time. So it was an exciting time.”

While growing up in Calgary, Miu spent much of her childhood as a dancer. She studied jazz at Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, but also ballet, tap and modern dance. For nine years, she was part of Alberta Dance Theatre, a company that performs productions based on classic children’s novels. It gave her a taste of developing characters and performing in front of an audience. But it wasn’t until she was in Grade 12 at Rundle College that she caught the acting bug after taking a drama course as an elective.

“I fell in love with it and was like ‘This is what I want to do. This is the perfect thing that I was looking for,'” she says. She took dance and drama for two years at the University of Calgary. But her ambition was to become a film actor and the U of C curriculum was more focused on theatre. So she went to Toronto and found a coach to teach her film acting. Her first gig was a Hallmark movie called Christmas in My Heart.

The Butchers, a short film she produced and stars in for filmmaker and fellow Calgary expat Chad Andrews is in post-production. The dark comedy centres on two psychotic butchers who sell human body parts on the black market.

Miu returned home in the winter of 2023 for a more subtle project, starring in the Calgary-shot drama Lucky Star. The film, which picked up the Audience Award for Best Alberta Feature at the Calgary International Film Festival, focuses on a Chinese-American family facing financial problems in the suburbs. Miu played Grace, the eldest daughter of a reformed gambler who returns to his old habits after losing thousands in a tax scam. Miu offers a naturalistic performance in a complex role as Grace finds herself reversing roles as her father begins to rely on her financially. Filmmaker Gillian McKercher shot Lucky Star in Calgary, including in Thorncliffe and downtown.

“It just felt like something I could slip back into,” Miu says. “I knew this life. I grew up a second-generation Canadian in Calgary. I had that weird blend of Western culture and also Chinese culture in my house. It just felt very natural to me.”

Doc airs Tuesdays on Global.