Biographie
Emily Schooley is an acclaimed actor and filmmaker celebrated for her genre-blending and boundary-pushing work. She founded Laughing Cat Productions, a Toronto-based company dedicated to telling intelligent, women-centered stories.
Emily’s first passion is acting, debuting in a lead role as the Country Mouse in Aesop’s Fables at age five. Throughout elementary and high school, she performed in numerous plays and musicals and later pursued formal training in theatre at the University of Windsor.
Her debut short film role was in Viktor, a student project by William Yeung, which won best picture and earned her a best actress nomination at the university’s film festival. Two years later, Emily moved to Waterloo, Ontario, continuing her dramatic arts studies and graduating with honors from UW Drama in 2007.
Early notable roles include the quirky lead in Orange Girl, which gained international attention at the Portobello Film Festival in the UK and won a two-star award at the Canadian International Film & Video Festival. Her portrayal of the sinister Spook in the horror short The Ticket helped establish her reputation as a scream queen.
In February 2010, Emily relocated to Toronto and made her feature film debut in Black Eve, playing the charming Pimp. The film won the Audience Choice Award at the Bare Bones International Film Festival. Embracing her affinity for horror, she starred in numerous genre films and was featured in A Big Set of Lungs, a documentary about scream queens.
Emily has appeared in hundreds of screen, stage, and web productions. Some standout roles include the Lady in Red in Park Enforcer, Michelle in the acclaimed web series Clutch, Cherry Bomb in the transmedia series Spy Slutz, herself on Save Our Shelter advocating for rescued animals, and a memorable portrayal of Dana Scully in an X-Files spoof.
Her favorite stage performances include Dahlia Joss in Zed.TO (recipient of the Performance Innovation Award at Toronto Fringe 2012), the “sensual and exciting” Lilith in Erotic Tales From the Old Testament, Frieda Ball in the world premiere of Maureen Jennings’ Death in a Black Suit, and Mia in Heatwave (also known as Labels). She has also trained extensively in improv with Second City and the now-defunct Impatient Theatre Company.
Currently, Emily balances her acting career with developing her voice as an emerging director. She has written, produced, and directed projects ranging from intimate stage pieces to large-scale productions involving over 100 cast and crew. Since 2016, she has been an associate member of Film Fatales.
Emily began creating her own films in 2009, submitting her first short, Complex, to the Project Direct competition for Sundance Film Festival. In 2010, she was invited to speak at Notacon, presenting on independent filmmaking. Her recent award-winning shorts Life and the Art of Lying and Psyche showcase her talents as an actor, writer, and director, with Emily playing the lead role in Psyche.
Beyond her creative pursuits, Emily is an activist and animal lover. She advocates for gender equality, supports women escaping abusive situations, monitors police misconduct, and champions LGBTQ rights and media representation. She also fosters rescue cats with Team Cat Rescue, an organization dedicated to saving animals from high-kill shelters.
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