Noah Reid as Rapp and Clark Backo as Carson in YAGA, the Crave mystery series filmed in the Greater Victoria region of British Columbia.
Photo credit: Christopher Lawrence / Crave
Crave’s upcoming mystery series YAGA was filmed in Victoria and the surrounding area of southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The coastal region stands in for Whittock, the fictional town at the centre of Kat Sandler’s adaptation of her stage play. The eight-episode series premieres October 23.
Victoria stands in for the fictional town of Whittock
Private investigator Rapp (Noah Reid) arrives in Whittock to investigate the disappearance of Henry Park (Hudson Williams), heir to a powerful fishery. Among those he encounters are local detective Carson (Clark Backo) and university professor Katherine (Carrie-Anne Moss). Bell Media describes the setting as a small coastal community. Whittock is fictional, with Victoria and the surrounding area providing the production’s real-world backdrop.
The Victoria location was reported while the cameras were rolling. In February, production reporter Susan Gittins identified the city as the centre of the shoot. At San Diego Comic-Con in July, The Beat reported that the series had filmed there, and The Canadian Press placed the production in Victoria in its September coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival.
Hudson Williams brought up the location during the festival, describing Victoria to The Canadian Press as a “perfect little town” and discussing the effect of its surrounding nature on the series.
How Victoria was photographed for YAGA
Sam Krochmal, who plays deputy Billy Granger, specifically credited cinematographer Jaryl Lim for the way the series uses Victoria. In a September interview with That Hollywood Show, Krochmal praised Lim’s work for giving the setting an unusual, mysterious appearance. Lim independently lists YAGA among his television cinematography credits, alongside directors David Frazee and Rachel Talalay.
The move from stage to television gave Sandler more room to build Whittock beyond the confines of a theatre production. Krochmal told Film Obsessive that the original play used three performers in multiple roles, limiting which characters could appear together. The series allows a larger group of characters to share scenes and gives its fictional town a physical screen environment.
The recognizable landmark in the trailer
One public landmark has been named in reporting on YAGA’s advance footage. CTV News coverage, reproduced by eBOSS Canada, identified the Kiwanis Tea Room at Willows Beach in Oak Bay among the locations visible in the trailer. Oak Bay is part of Greater Victoria, and the Kiwanis Club of Oak Bay confirms that it operates the tearoom in Willows Park, beside the beach. The club uses proceeds from its tearoom to support community activities.
There is an important limit to that identification. Seeing the building in promotional footage does not establish whether a scene was filmed inside the tea room, whether cameras were positioned on its grounds, or when any work took place nearby. It is a recognizable place associated with the footage rather than an independently confirmed filming address.
When did YAGA film on Vancouver Island?
Bell Media announced on February 18, 2026, that principal photography was underway. Gittins reported a Victoria production window running from February 11 through March 24, under the working title WING NIGHT. Those dates and that working title come from contemporary production reporting; Bell Media’s announcement did not confirm the precise first and last filming days.
In September, Jennie Punter reported for Variety that the series had been shot over 32 days on Vancouver Island. The 32-day count describes days of filming, while the longer February-to-March span is a reported production window. Krochmal offered a glimpse of how the schedule worked for one performer: he told Horror Geek Life that the show used block shooting, sometimes bringing him in for two or three days in a week and then leaving a gap of two weeks before his next day. Krochmal noted that the pattern could differ for other actors.
The Vancouver Island crew behind the series
The production also drew on film workers who live in the region. In an October interview with Seaside Magazine, Sidney hairstylist Carmel Graham discussed her work as part of YAGA’s senior hairstyling team and her career on Vancouver Island productions. She described the appeal of creating looks for supernatural stories and spoke about how visiting film crews support businesses in the communities where they work.
Front Street Pictures, one of YAGA’s production companies alongside Blink49 Studios, also has an office in the Victoria area. Its official staff directory identifies vice-president of production Allen Lewis as the series’ line producer and says he divides his time between Victoria and Vancouver. Front Street’s Vancouver base and Victoria office help explain the production infrastructure behind a Vancouver Island shoot, but office locations are not evidence of filming in the City of Vancouver.
Which filming locations remain unconfirmed?
Some online location guides have named Victoria motels, downtown businesses and residential streets as YAGA shooting sites. Those individual claims lack the independent production or firsthand confirmation needed for inclusion here. Nor does the regional filming evidence prove that every scene representing Whittock was shot inside Victoria’s municipal boundaries. Further location details may become verifiable as the episodes are released, but the currently supported picture is a southern Vancouver Island production centred on Victoria, with the Kiwanis Tea Room separately identified in trailer coverage.
YAGA premieres with its first two episodes on Crave in Canada on Friday, October 23.
