Inside Surreal Estate: Tennille Read Unpacks Haunted Houses, On-Set Bonds, and Flirting With the Paranormal

Welcome to another episode of Exploring Humanity Through Sci-Fi. Today, we’re taking you back to season one of Surreal Estate, the hit SyFy series that puts a supernatural spin on haunted house real estate. Host Tony Tellado sits down with special guest Tennille Read, who played Megan Donovan, a pragmatic and skeptical med student who inherits a mysteriously haunted house with a life of its own. Tennille dives into what it was like bringing Megan to life—a character torn between logic and the paranormal—as she navigates spooky occurrences, a tangled love life, and a not-so-average real estate agent, Luke Roman.

Tennille shares behind-the-scenes stories about the striking set, working opposite Tim Rozon, and how the show skillfully blends horror, humor, and genuine heart. We also get an insider peek at on-set special effects, the challenges of filming during the height of COVID-19 in the hauntingly beautiful St. John’s, Newfoundland, and teases about Megan’s journey as she confronts both haunted hallways and her own personal crossroads.

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I think Meghan is a very pragmatic, very logical, but skeptical, non believer in the paranormal world. I think she just has, you know, a very routine life. She’s a med student. She has inherited this house from her grandfather that just happens to have certain quirks to it. And she’s, you know, she’s figuring out how to deal with that.

Megan’s at a bit of a crossroads right now with her own relationship to Brock. She’s engaged to Brock and he isn’t really there for her when she needs him the most. And so Luke kind of shows up literally on her doorstep to help solve this problem that she has with the house, but also be that supportive figure that Brock is failing at at the moment.

I mean, when I was on Schitt’s Creek, I didn’t get to have a scene with (Tim Rozon) him. It was amazing being able to work with Emily and Eugene. Of course I felt the same way where it’s just like, oh, my goodness, this is a Canadian legend and I get to share the screen with him. What an honor. What a treat. But I think that show, it does so well for so many reasons, but the sense of family is one of the strongest pieces to that show’s success. And I definitely felt Both with Sarah and with Tim, a kind of, yeah, communal sense of family, where they were very welcoming, extremely generous to work with and, you know, just easy to get along with.