Lindsey Middleton returns to Fort Erie roots in comedy series ‘Cows Come Home’

Lindsey Middleton’s love for acting started to take shape in Fort Erie, before she moved to pursue a career in the entertainment world when she was 18 years old.

She performed in musicals and dabbled in blacklight puppetry with Gypsy Theatre, a theatre company that no longer exists.

While a student at Ridgeway-Crystal Beach High School, which closed in 2017, she was also in a number of plays.

This led to her enrolling in the theatre and drama studies program offered by the University of Toronto immediately out of high school.

Now 33 years old, she has several roles on her resume.

The latest is the lead role in a comedy series currently being shot at a dairy farm in Ridgeway, one she coincidentally spent a lot of time on as a kid.

‘Cows Come Home’ will be making its debut spring in of 2025 on Bell Canada’s Fibe TV1.

She co-created the show with Katie Uhlmann, who is best known for her recurring role on the hit medical drama ‘Nurses’.

She also co-wrote, produced and directed two seasons of the award-winning comedy series ‘My Roommate’s an Escort’ and directed the festival favourite short film ‘When you know you…know?’

Middleton, a Canadian Screen Award nominee and 2024 Dora Award winner, was one of the leads and producers on the award-winning show ‘Out with Dad’ which has over 38 million views on YouTube. She is also the co-creator and producer of the Roku Channel show ‘Just Hysterics’.

While shooting scenes at Walnutknoll Dairy Farm, where Middleton participated in 4-H club in her younger years, the co-creators took some time to chat with Fort Erie Radio about the show.

“It’s been an incredible experience to come home and bring what I left Fort Erie to pursue, film and television, back to my hometown,” Middleton said between scenes on Thursday.

She is playing the role of Sam Acres, a young woman who returns to her hometown for a fresh start and finds herself immersed in the world of competitive cow showing.

Middleton’s first paid gig as an entertainer was doing puppetry for a motion picture that never ended up being made–but she did still receive a cheque, she explained with a laugh.

Sticking with your goals is something she has lived by to grow in the industry.

“If there’s something you want to do, just go do it,” she said, emphasizing the importance of using connections and asking questions of people who have experiences to share.

“From there, it’s just one big network of people who help bolster you and make your dreams come true,” she said.

The first conversation about ‘Cows Come Home’ started two years ago at a birthday party for Middleton’s brother Gordon, when Uhlmann told her she was hoping to create a rural comedy, explained Uhlmann.

“It’s kind of surreal we’re shooting,” said Uhlmann, who is directing all six episodes and originally from Trenton, another small Ontario town.

The show “highlights the people, the values that we grew up with and really love,” said Uhlmann, adding the show’s themes are centred around female friendship.

About 30 per cent of the series is shot at the farm on Ridgemount Road. She said the local community has met the cast and crew with “so much enthusiasm” and that “it’s been really touching.”

There were some scenes shot around town away from the farm, including I CAN-T.E.R., a therapeutic equestrian facility near the Fort Erie-Port Colborne border.

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