There is a particular kind of jewellery that never really comes off. It is not the statement piece bought for an occasion but the everyday one, the thin chain or small stone that migrates from event to errand and back again, quietly absorbing a life as it goes. This is the emotional territory Birks has decided to claim as its own, and in Sophie Nélisse, the nearly 150-year-old Canadian house has found an ambassador whose relationship to the brand predates any contract. Announced in late August, the appointment installs the Montréal-raised actress as the face of a national campaign, built around the idea that every jewel holds a story, that will unfold across the coming year.
Nélisse, twenty-six, is having the kind of moment that makes brands pay attention. Born in Windsor and raised in Montréal, she first drew notice at eleven with a Genie-winning turn in the French-language drama Monsieur Lazhar, a role that arrived, improbably, out of a childhood spent training as a competitive gymnast with her sights on the Rio Olympics. The pivot to acting stuck. International audiences came to know her as teen Shauna in the Emmy-nominated Yellowjackets, and more recently as Rose Landry in the Canadian sports romance Heated Rivalry, a performance that has kept her firmly in the cultural conversation heading into 2026.
The campaign opens with the latest additions to the Birks Dare to Dream collection, with Nélisse photographed in pieces the house has positioned as the emotional core of its signature offering. Over the following months, the initiative will move through Birks Snowflake and Birks Beekeeper, each chapter returning to the same question: what do the things we wear every day actually mean to us. It is a deliberately unhurried structure, more editorial than advertorial, and it lets the jewellery accumulate significance rather than simply appear.
For Nélisse, the fit is less strategic than sentimental. “Growing up, Birks was always one of those names that felt timeless,” she says. “So now being part of their story feels incredibly meaningful.” Pressed on which pieces she actually reaches for, her answer sidesteps spectacle entirely. “The pieces I wear most are the ones that have meaning. They’re the ones I reach for every day because they make me feel close to the people I love and the moments we’ve shared.” Coming from an actress who spent her adolescence on film sets far from home, in London, in Morocco, the sentiment reads as lived rather than scripted.
That personal register is precisely what Birks is after. “We are incredibly proud to welcome Sophie to Birks,” says Katie Reusch, the company’s head of marketing and communications. “She represents a new generation of Canadians who have grown up with the brand and are now creating stories of their own.” The line does real work. Founded in 1879, when Henry Birks opened a small shop on Saint James Street in the heart of Montréal’s commercial district, the house carries a heritage that risks reading as inheritance rather than aspiration for younger shoppers. Nélisse is the bridge, a Canadian talent with an international profile who can make a legacy name feel like a personal one.
There is a commercial logic beneath the emotional one. Last month, Birks reported a 15.5 percent rise in sales to 205.4 million dollars for fiscal 2026, buoyed by its European Boutique acquisition and growth across both its own jewellery and third-party brands. An ambassador who can translate that momentum into cultural relevance, rather than mere reach, is worth more than her follower count. In an era when consumers trust people over logos, Birks has wagered that the most persuasive thing it can sell is not a diamond but a memory, and that Nélisse is the right person to remember it out loud.
