Biografia
Ed Macdonald was born and raised on Cape Breton Island as the youngest of five siblings. He had a strong fascination with comedy and aliens, showing little interest in academics. Despite this, he attended school for the captive audience it provided. At the University of Cape Breton, Macdonald spent much of his time in the playhouse, rehearsing and exploring the mechanics of theater.
In 2001, Macdonald's play Gemini premiered at the 78th Street Theatre Lab, earning excellent reviews, including high praise from The Village Voice. NBC later remounted Gemini in their showcase venue, PSNBC. Since then, several of his plays—such as Mutant Sex Party, The Escape Artist, Erratica, and Titus Lucretius Carus—have been produced by The Drilling Company. Titus Lucretius Carus received a nomination for the New York Innovative Theatre Award.
In the mid-1990s, Macdonald began staff writing for television shows like 22 Minutes and many others. Over time, he has written and produced numerous hours of television, winning three Gemini Awards for writing excellence and garnering multiple nominations. His accolades also include the Writers' Guild of Canada Award and The Golden Sheaf Award, among others.
Although his acting career took a backseat to his writing pursuits, Macdonald appeared in episodes of Trailer Park Boys, Hatching Matching and Dispatching, The Bette Show, and briefly on The Jon Dore Television Show, where he also served as showrunner. His first film role was in 1984 in Daniel Petrie’s The Bay Boy, acting alongside Josephine Chaplin and Kiefer Sutherland.
Macdonald wrote his first novel, Spat The Dummy, while living in Montreal for ten years. Released in 2010, the novel received rave reviews and was nominated for the QWF First Book Award.
In 2012, Mutant Sex Party and Other Plays was published, featuring mostly productions by The Drilling Company in New York.
His latest novel, Atomic Storybook, was published in 2014.
