An older white man with gray hair and a beard. He wears rectangular glasses, a blue suit and white shirt. He stands on a small street with trees on the left and buildings on the left.

Photo by Graham Isador

Michael Healey
playwright and actor

Michael Healey trained as an actor at Toronto’s Ryerson (now Toronto Metropolitan University) Theatre School in the mid-eighties. He began writing for the stage in the early nineties and his first play, a solo one act called Kicked, was produced at the Fringe of Toronto Festival in 1996. He subsequently toured the play across Canada and internationally, winning the Dora Mavor Moore Award for best new play.

The Drawer Boy, his first full-length play, premiered in Toronto in 1999, winning the Dora Award for best new play, the Chalmers Canadian Playwriting Award and the Governor General’s Literary Award. It has been translated into multiple languages and continues to be produced regularly across North America and internationally.

Healey’s other works include The Road to Hell (co-authored with Kate Lynch), Plan B, Rune Arlidge, The Innocent Eye Test, The Nuttalls, and 1979. His trilogy of works focussing on Canadian values and politics, entitled Generous, Courageous, and Proud, met with great critical success and have had multiple productions. In all, his plays have won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for best new play five times.

He has also adapted works by Chekhov, Molnar, Hecht & MacArthur, Dürrenmatt and Shaw for Soulpepper, and the Stratford and Shaw festivals. 

For Peggy Baker Dance Projects: Michael collaborated with Peggy Baker and Daniel Brooks on Are You Okay; and performed opposite Peggy in Radio Play.