Brian Dooley - teaching artist in the Acting and Directing programs

Brian Dooley has been involved in radio, television, film and theatre for over thirty five years. During that time he has garnered several awards and many honours in several media. He has worked as producer, director, actor, writer and instructor. Early in his career Brian was Associate Dramaturge and Director of the Young Playwrights Program at the Playwrights Workshop in Montreal, and has been a guest instructor at various colleges and universities across Canada. He has participated in many, many workshops and in the development of new plays for a variety of organizations including: Playwrights Workshop Montreal, Factory Theatre in Toronto, The Banff Playwright’s Colony , The National Film Board of Canada and Le Centre des Auteurs Dramatiques (CEAD). As former Vice President, Creative, for Great North Productions, Alliance Atlantis, Brian over-saw the development and production of a variety of documentary and drama projects. As a producer for Great North Productions, he was also directly involved in both documentary and drama production and development. Among his many credits were the long running series The Things We Do For Love and Who’s On Top both of which he created for LIFE Network , The $100 Taxi Ride, for National Geographic, The Canadians for HISTORY Television and the dramatic television series Jake and the Kid for Global. Other broadcasters Brian has worked with include: Discovery Canada, Discovery Health, Food Network, BBC, National Geographic, TLC, S4C, CBC, Global and CTV.

Before embarking on a career as a producer Brian was involved primarily as an actor, director and dramaturge in both television and theatre. As an actor he appeared in principal roles in many productions over the years. His efforts were rewarded by a Gemini nomination (Best Supporting Actor) for the internationally acclaimed drama, The Boys of St. Vincent. He has received a Dora Mavor Moore nomination along with a Betty Mitchell award nomination as well as a Sterling Award nomination for Outstanding Performance in The December Man. He received Betty Mitchell Award nominations for his performances in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and The December Man at Alberta Theatre Projects in Calgary and has been honoured with two AMPIA (Alberta Motion Picture Industry Awards) awards , one for best performer and another for best production under 60 minutes, both celebrating work on a drama pilot for CBC entitled The Beat.

Brian maintained a long-standing relationship with the National Theatre School of Canada having been involved as an instructor and coordinator for many years. From 1990-94 Brian lead and coordinated the Directing and Self-Start Programs of the National Theatre School in Montreal, and was an Acting Instructor from 1983-94. His passion for mask work led him to direct the acclaimed NFB film: Pierre Lefebvre: On Acting. The film profiles Brian’s legendary and inspiring instructor and mentor, Pierre Lefebvre. Brian has conducted many masks workshops in both neutral and character mask. In addition to his diploma from the National Theatre School (where he received the Leo Cicery Award), Brian is a graduate of Bishop's University (B.A. Honours, Drama/1977 and recipient of the O.B. Thornton Scholarship).

Brian was the Director of Play Development at The Citadel Theatre, one of Canada’s largest and leading regional theatres from 2010-2017. He recently stepped away after six seasons as Artistic Director of L’UNITHEATRE, Alberta’s only professional French language theatre. While Brian has served on a variety of juries , he was very proud and honoured to be invited to participate as an international juror at the 28th Fajr International Theatre Festival in Tehran, Iran.

Fluently bilingual, Brian relocated from Montreal to Edmonton in 1995. In 2018 he returned to Montreal.