Aviva Armour-Ostroff was born in Montreal, raised in South Africa, called Toronto home for over thirty years before moving to back to Montreal last year.

Since graduating from George Brown Theatre School, Aviva has made a name for herself as an accomplished stage actor and director, having seven Dora nominations and one win to her credit. Over the last ten years, Aviva has incorporated screenwriting and film directing in her repertoire.

Aviva founded and produced The Lab Cab Festival, an annual multi-arts festival of new works. Aviva ran Lab Cab for thirteen years, expanding it from a monthly cabaret to an annual 2km street festival, employing over one hundred artists/arts groups from various disciplines and back grounds.

Aviva is heavily involved in new script development, combining her skills as an actor, director, dramaturge and writer. She has worked across Canada and with all the major theatres in Toronto, and many independent companies, prioritizing building and supporting Canadian content.

With experience being in front of the camera, Aviva got behind the lens when she and partner Arturo Pérez Torres directed and produced The Drawer Boy. The film, based on the play by the same name, won fourteen international film festival awards.

She continued her collaboration with Arturo, co-directing the feature, Lune.

Lune won five festival awards and honoured her as the first Canadian to win The Micki Moore Award for Best Director at TJFF. Aviva was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for her performance in Lune.

Most recently, Aviva directed the short play Dear Robert for VideoCabaret and Discount Dave and the Fix for Toronto’s Coal Mine Theatre. She is currently directing Discount Dave for CBC’s podcast series, Personally.