Directors

Colleen Murphy

B: 1954 in Rouyn-Noranda, Québec

Colleen Murphy was born in Québec but grew up in a small town north of Lake Superior and studied acting at Ryerson University and at the Strasberg Institute in New York. Her first screenplay, Termini Station, received a Genie nomination for Best Original Screenplay in 1990. As a director resident at the Canadian Film Centre in 1994 and 1995, Murphy completed her second short film The Feeler which won a Golden Sheaf Award for Best Performance at the 1996 Yorkton Film Festival and was nominated for a Genie for Best Short Film in 1996. She directed the feature Shoemaker, which premiered at the 1996 Toronto International Film Festival and won the Audience Choice Award. It was nominated for three Genie Awards in 1998. Murphy is a two-time Governor General Literary Award Winner for Drama. In 2016 she won for her play Pig Girl, and in 2007 she won for The December Man (L’homme de décembre). Twice she has won the Carol Bolt Award for Best Play. In 2017, she had four world premieres in Canada including The Breathing Hole at the Stratford Festival, Oksana G. at Tapestry Opera in Toronto, for which she wrote the libretto (composer, Aaron Gervais), and The Society For The Destitute Presents Titus Bouffonius at Rumble Theatre in Vancouver. Other plays include I Hope My Heart Burns First, Armstrong’s War, The Goodnight Bird, Beating Heart Cadaver and The Piper. Other libretti include My Mouth On Your Heart (composer, August Murphy-King). Colleen Murphy has been Playwright-in-Residence at Finborough Theatre in London, U.K., Necessary Angel Theatre and Factory Theatre in Toronto. She has been Writer in Residence at the University of Regina, McMaster University, the University of Guelph, Wilfrid Laurier University, the Lee Playwright in Residence at the University of Alberta, and Writer in Residence at the University of New Brunswick. She was married to filmmaker Allan King from 1987 until his death in 2009.