Origin Story

I was raised in a conservative Toronto suburb with “thespian” parents—my dad, a Shakespearean-actor-turned-drama-teacher; my mom, a part-time vocal coach and actor. As an only child, I spent a lot of time hanging out with wildly creative adults.

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When I was about 14, my friends Eleanor and Debbie and I thumbed through Eleanor’s dad’s stash of Playboy magazines. Along with the pictures there were some erotic short stories and we decided to try writing our own. Eleanor and Debbie read me theirs. I read them mine. It was vivid. Entirely disconnected from any actual experience but they turned pale and gasped. They never quite looked at me the same after.

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This was my first experience of the power of writing and I was hooked. Fast forward to today. I’ve made my living writing, in one form or another. But when I started writing for film and TV, I experienced a joy—and a “rightness”—that a lifetime of other kinds of professional writing has never given me.

 

I’d rather be doing this than anything else.