Sheila McCarthy

Sheila McCarthy is recognized as one of Canada’s finest actors, and she has the awards to prove it. She was given the Genie Award for Best Actress in 1987 for I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing, which also produced a Charles Chaplin Award in Vévey, Switzerland and a People`s Choice Award at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival. McCarthy won another Genie in 1994 for her work in The Lotus Eaters. Since 1970, McCarthy has worked in just about every regional theatre across Canada, playing a variety of parts including Ophelia in Hamlet at CanStage; Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris at Vancouver Playhouse; You Can’t Take it with You at the Arts Club, Vancouver; Private Lives in Kamloops; Putting on the Ritz at the Shaw Festival; The Boyfriend, Toronto; Say Hello to Harvey at the Royal Alexandra, Toronto; and Really Rosie at Young People’s Theatre in Toronto, for which she won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Actress. She also appeared on stage in Little Shop of Horrors at Crest Theatre, again taking home the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Actress. She spent four seasons on CBC`s Emily of New Moon as Aunt Laura, winning the Gemini Award for Best Actress in 1999; and guest-starred on Picket Fences, Wonderland, Avonlea, and Sesame Street, for which she won the Gemini for Best Featured Actress in 2000.

Also see: TIFF 2022 – Day Six.
Also see: Peter Donaldson

Features & TV Movies:
VR indicates Direct-to-Video Release

Passion: A Letter in 16mm (1985)
Love & Larceny (TV-1985)
9B (TV-1986)
A Nest of Singing Birds (1987)
Much Ado About Nothing (TV-1987)
I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987)
Really Weird Tales (TV-1987)
George’s Island (1989)
Friends, Lovers and Lunatics (1989)
Beethoven Lives Upstairs (1989)

White Room (1990)
Pacific Heights (1990)
Labor of Love (TV-1990)
Beautiful Dreamers (1990)
Die Hard 2 (1990)
Stepping Out (1991)
Montréal vu par (aka Montreal sextet, 1991)
Bright Angel (1991)
Paradise (1991)
A Private Matter (TV-1992)
The Awakening (TV-1993)
The Lotus Eaters (1993)
Menendez: A Killing in Beverly Hills (TV-1994)
The Possession of Michael D. (TV-1995)
The Marriage Bed (TV-1996)
House Arrest (1996)
The Care and Handling of Roses (TV-1996)
Shadow Zone: My Teacher Ate My Homework (1997)
You Know My Name (TV-1998)

Virtual Mom (TV-2000)
Custody of the Heart (2000)
Haven (TV-2000)
Red Green: Duct Tape Forever (2001)
Rare Birds (2001)
Full Court Miracle (TV-2003)
Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004)
Being Julia (2004)
Bailey’s Billion$ (2004)
Geraldine’s Fortune (2004)
The Multiple Selves of Hannah Maynard (2005)
Breakfast with Scot (2007)
The Stone Angel (2007)
Year of the Carnivore (2009)

Love Letters (TV-2010)
Antiviral (2012)
Algonguin (2014)
A Fighting Man (2014)
The Curse of Clara: A Holiday Tale (voice, TV-2015)
Considering Love and Other Magic (2016)
Cardinals (2017)
The Wanting (aka Isabelle, 2018)

Anything for Jackson (2020)
The Middle Man (2020)
Women Talking (2022)

TV Series – Cast:
Free Willy (1994)
A Woman of Independent Means (1995, mini-series)
Emily of New Moon (1998-2000)
More Tales of the City (1998, mini-series)
Too Rich: The Life of Doris Duke (1999, mini-series)

Marvin the Tap-Dancing Horse (voice, 2000)
Super Rupert (2001)
I Was a Rat (2001, mini-series)
The Endless Grind (2001)
The Shields Stories (2004)
Little Mosque on the Praire (2007-2012)

TV Series – Guest appearances:
The Detail (2018)