Credits include Orphan Black, Queer as Folk
TORONTO — Award-winning writer-producer Karen Walton is joining the 2016 Bell Media Prime Time TV Program as executive producer in residence, to lead a story room of television writers as she develops an original series, Bell Media and the Canadian Film Centre announced Thursday.
The 2016 Bell Media Prime Time TV Program, presented in association with ABC Signature Studios, provides a real-world story room experience for six to eight TV writers a year. From this September to December, Walton will lead a group of soon-to-be announced TV writers through the story room development of her original series.
Walton is an award-winning creator, screenwriter and executive producer who has worked on ground-breaking television productions, including Bell/BBC America’s Orphan Black, Showtime’s Queer as Folk (U.S.), The Many Trials of One Jane Doe (for which she wrote a Gemini award-winning script), and original drama series, such as Flashpoint, The Eleventh Hour and The Listener. Film screenwriting credits include the cult horror film classic Ginger Snaps.
She currently has two series in development — her adaptation of Canadian mystery writer Ian Hamilton’s best-selling Ava Lee Mysteries for CBC, and her original science fantasy, Alchemy, for Corus.
Her awards include a Canadian Comedy Award, two Canadian Screen Awards for Best Dramatic Series, a special jury citation for the Ginger Snaps screenplay from the Toronto International Film Festival, a Writers Guild of Canada’s Writers Block Award for outstanding contribution to the national screenwriting community, and the Margaret Collier Award, the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television’s highest honour for career achievements in screenwriting.
“We are so incredibly fortunate to have Karen Walton at the helm of this program,” Kathryn Emslie, chief programs officer for the Canadian Film Centre (CFC), said in a news release making the announcement. “She is an alumna, community builder, passionate advocate for writers, champion of originality and one of the most highly regarded writers in our industry. This is going to be an exciting year indeed!”
Walton was quoted in the news release as saying: “Twenty years ago, CFC took a chance on this eccentric rebel without a cause with a big voice, buckets of attitude and no clear place to put it in the domestic industries of the day. To say I am re-committed as a creator and creative producer and excited about returning to my amazing alma mater doesn’t do it justice. This year’s Prime Time writers represent the courage, moral fortitude and fiercely prolific talent I know I need for my next original’s development. They are full of promise as writer-creators in their own right: vital, smart and keen to run with the ball in the ‘stay-tuned’ future of cutting-edge TV. I’m ecstatic, inspired, and can’t wait to get started.”
The 2016 Bell Media Prime Time TV Program participants are scheduled to be announced next month, with the program getting officially underway on September 19, 2016. For more information about the program, visit cfccreates.com/programs/15-bell-media-prime-time-tv-program.
