Netflix’s new hit show ‘Crew Girl’ showcases Vancouver Island to a global audience

Netflix’s Crew Girl showcases a variety of Vancouver Island locations, with filming taking place across Greater Victoria and communities including Victoria, Saanich, North Saanich, Sidney, Brentwood Bay and Colwood. From waterfronts and beaches to local businesses, hotels and the historic Royal Roads University campus, recognizable B.C. locations help bring the series’ fictional world to life. (Netflix)

When a TV series needs a setting, any place can fill the frame. But sometimes, a landscape becomes part of the story itself.

For Netflix’s new young adult series Crew Girl, Vancouver Island does exactly that.

From the quiet waters of Elk Lake to the historic grounds of Royal Roads University, familiar corners of the Island have been transformed into the fictional world of an elite prep school, bringing a distinctly British Columbia setting to audiences around the world.

The series is also making a strong early impression on the streaming platform. Currently, Crew Girl sits at No. 1 on Netflix’s Top 10 TV shows in Canada. Last week, it ranked No. 4 globally among Netflix’s English language TV shows.

The series follows Teagan Tao, played by Miku Martineau, a gifted young rower whose life is suddenly upended when her father becomes embroiled in an embezzlement scandal.

Forced to move with her mother to the East Coast, Teagan enrols at the elite Easton Prep, only to discover the school does not have a girls rowing team.

She instead joins the all boys crew, stepping into an unfamiliar world where she must learn to trust her teammates, find her voice and discover where she belongs.

While the story is set on the East Coast, much of the first season was filmed across Vancouver Island.

For Blue Ant Media executives Lindsay Macadam and Jessica Young, the Island offered almost everything the production needed.

“We were specifically looking for a beautiful setting that was on the water that also had an amazing rowing community,” said Macadam, executive vice-president of scripted at Blue Ant Media.

Victoria had both, along with an established production community the team already knew well.

The Island’s natural beauty also allowed the production to create the feeling of an entirely different part of Canada.

“It honestly wasn’t too long a conversation,” Macadam said of choosing Victoria. “We just felt like Victoria was a natural place to be able to shoot it and could double very easily for the East Coast as well.”

That transformation is visible throughout the series.

In Victoria, Selkirk Waterfront sets the stage for the opening regatta, where Teagan first takes to the water.

In Saanich, Elk Lake Regional Park becomes Easton Prep’s rowing grounds and serves as the heart of much of the show’s rowing action.

For the production team, filming at the lake also meant working alongside the real rowing community.

“We really wanted to lean into the authenticity of that, to the beauty of that,” Macadam said.

The production also ventured farther afield.

North Saanich Freeride Park becomes the setting for an Iron Crucible challenge, while Port Sidney Marina provides the backdrop for a dock party.

In Brentwood Bay, Seahorses Cafe was transformed into the fictional Crabshack.

And in Colwood, the historic Royal Roads University campus takes on one of the series’ biggest roles as Easton Prep.

Royal Roads helped create the old-world atmosphere the fictional school required, while Sidney provided something entirely different.

The community became the backdrop for Eagle’s Cove, the warmer and more intimate coastal town where Teagan and her mother begin their new life.

That contrast between old money and coastal community life is central to Teagan’s journey, along with rowing.

Young, an executive in Blue Ant Media’s scripted production and content division, said the sport offered a fresh way to tell a coming-of-age story.

She says competitive rowing demands endurance, discipline and trust, while also being a sport that has received relatively little attention in television and film.

The production brought in rowing consultants during both the writing and filming stages, while the actors trained before cameras rolled.

None of the principal actors had previous rowing experience, Young said.

The production itself also had to learn how to capture the sport safely and cinematically.

At times, as many as five boats were involved in regatta sequences, requiring extensive planning on the water.

Water specialists Crosby Marine Film Services built a custom barge, nicknamed the Armada, which became an important part of the production’s approach to filming the rowing sequences.

Weather added another layer of complexity.

The production team had to schedule its water work around seasonal conditions, balancing the demands of filming with the safety and comfort of the cast and crew.

But those challenges helped shape the production.

At its heart, Crew Girl is less about rowing than it is about belonging.

Teagan begins the story as an accomplished individual athlete. Her new circumstances force her to become part of a team and, eventually, to learn what it means to lead one.

For Macadam, that journey is one that can resonate well beyond high school.

“Even as we age and we’re not in the heightened world of experiencing things for the first time, we’re still learning, and we’re still figuring out where we belong,” she said.

The producers also hope families will discover the series together.

The relationship between Teagan and her mother, Ella, is a major thread throughout the season, with the show intentionally designed to appeal across generations.

And for Vancouver Island, Crew Girl offers something special: a chance for viewers thousands of kilometres away to see places that Islanders know by heart through an entirely different lens.

Young described the production as a love letter to the Island, not only because of its landscapes, but because of the people who helped bring the story to life.

The local rowing community welcomed the production, shared its expertise and even appears on screen.

Macadam also sees the series as a celebration of Canadian filmmaking.

Crew Girl features a predominantly Canadian cast and crew, with many of its actors coming from British Columbia.

For the producers, however, the ultimate measure of success is much simpler.

“It’s all you can hope for when you set out to make a project is that the audience will find it, and enjoy it,” Macadam said.

Now, audiences around the world are getting the chance to do exactly that, while Vancouver Islanders get to watch a familiar piece of home take on a starring role.

Crew Girl is now streaming globally on Netflix. Fans can also explore the real Canadian locations featured in the series through the Netflix in Your Neighbourhood website.