Samantha Weinstein death: Alias Grace and Jesus Henry Christ actor dies, aged 28

Canadian star Samantha Weinstein has died, aged 28.

The actor, who appeared in Alias Grace and the 2013 remake of Carrie, had been suffering from ovarian cancer.

The news was announced via her social media pages in a statement reading: “After two and a half years of cancer treatment, and a lifetime of jet setting around the world, voicing a plethora of cartoon animals, making music, and knowing more about life than most people ever will, she is off on her next adventure.”

Weinstein began acting at the age of six, and appeared in films Jesus Henry Christ, starring Toni Collette, Big Girl and Toronto Stories.

The actor shared her cancer diagnosis in a personal essay for Love What Matters, writing that she made the discovery after feeling “strangely bloated”.

She wrote: “My roommate assured me her girlfriends got like this all the time and it was just ovulation… or something. It was not ovulation or something.

“Every day was a struggle to keep my spirits up and not collapse into the blackhole that was my mind. What would happen to my health? My career? My life?”

After her diagnosis, she reconnected with her old friend Michael Knutson, whom she married.

Writing of Knutson, Weinstein said: “First dates were nerve wracking enough, but I had just received some devastating news the week before – it was cancer. Talk about scaring a guy off! There was something about him, though, that put me at ease.”

She said that, after learning the news, “Michael smiled and squeezed my hand”, adding: “His mother had fought cancer for eight years and had passed away two years ago. He was ready for this.”