Five of the most famous ‘Degrassi’ graduates, from Drake to Dobrev

By Nick Patch

THE CANADIAN PRESS

TORONTO _ Some mighty famous faces roamed the halls of “Degrassi: The Next Generation” over its stunning 14 seasons.

With news that school’s out on “Degrassi” _ which will end its long run next month _ The Canadian Press looked back at some of its most accomplished graduates:

Nina Dobrev (5.62 million Twitter followers)

The Toronto actress played teen mom Mia Jones during seasons 6 through 9, managing to pack a lifetime’s worth of trauma in merely 35 episodes of work. One plotline saw Mia providing sex to boost her modelling career, while another saw the teen mourning her boyfriend, J.T. Yorke, after he was stabbed to death. Perhaps that prepared Dobrev for her signature role on the melodramatic hit “The Vampire Diaries,” which recently wrapped its sixth season. Dobrev, 26, announced in April it would be her last.

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Jake Epstein (21,500 Twitter followers)

Epstein’s Craig Manning was a bipolar rocker who developed the inventively named fictional bands U Got the Look and Downtown Sasquatch _ as well as a cocaine habit _ before last appearing in 2009’s TV movie “Degrassi Goes Hollywood.” Epstein immediately took his talents to the stage, starring in the touring “Green Day’s American Idiot,” the Broadway Carole King musical “Beautiful” and the notoriously ambitious “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.”