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Sylvia Kuzyk
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Broadcaster, journalist.
Born at Berlin, West Germany around 1950, first of five children born to Eva Ida Johanna Becker (1930-2003) and landscape architect Gunter A. Schoch, she immigrated to Winnipeg with her parents in 1953. After graduating from River East Collegiate, she enrolled in the practical nursing program at Red River Community College in 1967. There, she had her first exposure to improvisational theatre. While working as a practical nurse at King George Hospital, she appeared with local theatre groups and studied at Actors Showcase, while also doing part-time modeling at Eaton’s.
She spent nearly 38 years in television journalism, mostly at CKY Winnipeg (later CTV Television), where she played a number of roles. She served as its on-air weather specialist, was a news interviewer and host/producer of its arts and entertainment segment “Spotlight”, a late night anchor/editor/producer and host/producer of news programs and several daily and weekly interview shows. She retired in Fall 2011.
She received numerous public service awards from such organizations as the Kidney Foundation of Canada (1988). She received a John Alexander Media Award for her interview series “Multiple Sclerosis: The Baffling Disease” (1994), and the Manitoba Volunteerism Award for Media (1996). She was awarded the Toastmasters International Communication and Leadership Award (1999) and received a YMCA-YWCA Women of Distinction Award (2004). The Broadcasters Association of Manitoba gave her its Broadcast Excellence Award (2005) and she received a Canadian Radio and Television News Directors Association (Prairie Region) Lifetime Achievement Award (2010). She was inducted into the Order of Manitoba (2009) and Manitoba Broadcasters Hall of Fame (2011). She was the featured speaker at the 2012 fundraising dinner of the Manitoba Historical Society.
In 1969, she married schoolteacher Victor Anthony Kuzyk and they had a daughter, Vanessa Maria Kuzyk (1969-2023), before separating.
“‘Weather girl’ enjoys TV climate,” Winnipeg Free Press, 26 May 1977, page 21.
Obituary [Gunter A. Schoch], Winnipeg Free Press, 16 September 2017.
Obituary [Vanessa Maria Kuzyk], Winnipeg Free Press, 7 October 2023.
Obituary [Vanessa Maria Kuzyk], Ethical Death Care.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 22 February 2025
