Broadway actor Josh Dela Cruz to champion a dystopian thriller that 'feels like a play' on Canada Reads
Canada Reads will air April 13-16 on CBC TV, CBC Radio and CBC Books
Broadway actor and children’s television host Josh Dela Cruz will champion Foe by Iain Reid on Canada Reads 2026.
On Canada Reads, five Canadian celebrities each pick one book that the whole country should read. They debate their choices over the course of four days, voting to eliminate one every day. The last book standing is the winner.
This year's edition will take place on April 13-16. We’re looking for one book to build bridges.
The Canada Reads 2026 contenders are:
- Filmmaker and actor Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers champions A Minor Chorus by Billy-Ray Belcourt
- Hockey YouTube personality and podcaster Steve “Dangle” Glynn champions Searching for Terry Punchout by Tyler Hellard
- Musician and writer Tegan Quin champions The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor
- Broadway actor and kids TV host Josh Dela Cruz champions Foe by Iain Reid
- BookTok star Morgann Book champions It's Different This Time by Joss Richard
The Canada Reads 2026 debates will be hosted by Ali Hassan and will broadcast each day at 10 a.m. (11 a.m. AT, 1:30 p.m. NT) on CBC Radio, with a live audio stream and podcast recap on CBC Listen. Watch live at 10 a.m. ET/ 7 a.m. PT on CBC Gem, CBCbooks.ca and YouTube, or at 1 p.m. (2 p.m. AT, 2:30 p.m. NT) on CBC TV.
You can tune in live or catch a replay on the platform of your choice.
From children’s television to Broadway
Josh Dela Cruz is an American Canadian actor, singer and dancer of Filipino descent. He is best known as the former host of Nickelodeon's Blue's Clues & You!, and for starring as Aladdin in the Broadway production of the same name.
Some of his other credits include theatre roles in The King and I, Here Lies Love and Merrily We Roll Along, the movie Blue’s Big City Adventure, and guest appearances on shows such as Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent and Ripple.
Born in the United Arab Emirates, Dela Cruz was raised both there and in New Jersey. He attended Montclair State University in Montclair, N.J., where he earned a bachelor of fine arts degree specializing in musical theatre.
Blue's Clues & You! was produced in Toronto and Dela Cruz would reside in the city for half of the year. He said the pandemic anchored both him and his wife in Canada and ultimately led them to becoming permanent residents in 2022.
Dela Cruz describes himself as an avid reader: living in Canada, and now being on Canada Reads, has exposed the actor to a diverse range of Canadian authors and literature.
Dela Cruz participated in CBC Kids Reads in 2025, championing the children’s book The Little Green Envelope by Gillian Sze, illustrated by Claudine Crangle.
Drawn to a dystopian read
His pick for Canada Reads is the 2018 novel Foe by Ontario author Iain Reid.
The dystopian thriller takes place in an old, isolated farmhouse in the not-so-distant future. The house is inhabited by Junior and his wife, Henrietta, whose peaceful lives are interrupted by the arrival of a man in a business suit. Junior has been randomly selected for a scientific program and will be leaving home for the indefinite future, while his wife stays home with a companion.
The shock of this announcement, coupled with his increasingly distant wife and the intruder's vague explanations, send Junior in a tailspin as he races to figure out what's really going on.
Dela Cruz said he read two different books by Reid when considering his selection for Canada Reads, but ultimately Foe resonated with him most.
Dela Cruz noted that he has not yet seen the Prime Original movie adaptation starring Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal. The setting, which is contained mostly to a farmhouse, "almost feels like a play," he said.
“Being a theatre actor, what I really enjoyed was seeing the [story] in my mind.”
Reid is the Kingston, Ont.-based author of five books, including his New York Times bestselling debut novel I’m Thinking of Ending Things, which has been translated into more than 20 languages and was adapted into a Netflix film by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman.
Examining our relationship to AI
In an email to CBC Books, Reid said his inspiration for Foe “came from thinking about our relationship to AI, technology, space and each other.”
When Reid started writing the book in 2015, he said he “was reading a lot about the future of AI and how technology was going to re-shape our lives over the coming years.”
“I was especially concerned with how it would infiltrate our intimate relationships, and how it would alter the way we communicate with each other.”
In the time since the book came out, AI has become ubiquitous and some have observed that current events have come to resemble dystopian fiction more and more.
Asked about this, Reid said he finds himself “shocked and horrified on a near daily basis these days for many reasons related to politics, ongoing events, including our overreliance on technology, constant overconsumption and environmental disregard.”
It's a scenario that feels both scary and unsettling, said Reid. "I tried to write about that in a domestic context, zooming in on one particular relationship.”
Dela Cruz said that he enjoyed the escape into a story that Foe provided while still managing to explore issues so relevant to our times. He said the dystopian future depicted “felt like a not-too-distant future” and therefore not a period piece.
Looking back on his early reading life, Dela Cruz says that while a couple of his teachers really inspired a love of reading, for the most part the school wrung some of the joy out of it.
“I think what really ruined reading for me was that it was standardized and that you were tested and it was, you know, you're constantly being compared to your other classmates.
The gift of reading as an adult, he said, “is being able to take your time. Especially when it's not an assignment … It's impossible to fall behind when the classroom is you.”
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