Mark Leiren-Young (born 1962) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

playwright, author, journalist, screenwriter, filmmaker and performer. He lives in

Saanich, British Columbia Saanich ( ) is a district municipality on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, within the Greater Victoria area. The population was 117,735 at the 2021 census, making it the most populous municipality in the Capital Regional District and V ...

Early life

Mark Leiren-Young was born in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. He spent two years at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...

where he wrote extensively for

The Ubyssey ''The Ubyssey'' is the University of British Columbia's official, independent student-run paper and is published bi-weekly on Tuesday. Founded on October 18, 1918, ''The Ubyssey'' is an independent publication funded by a $7.09 annual fee, from ...

student newspaper. His first stage play, "The Initiation," which he wrote and directed while a UBC student, is the subject of his comic memoir "Free Magic Secrets Revealed." He completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre and Creative Writing at the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary insti ...

and graduated with distinction in 1985. Leiren-Young's first full-time journalism job was at ''The Williams Lake Tribune'', a newspaper in

Williams Lake, British Columbia Williams Lake is a city in the Central Interior of British Columbia, in the central part of a region known as the Cariboo. Williams Lake is the second largest city, by population of metropolitan area, in the Cariboo after neighbouring Quesnel. ...

. He left Williams Lake to write and direct "Exposé: Sometimes the World's Fair, Sometimes it Ain't" a comedy revue about

Expo 86 The 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication, or simply Expo 86, was a World's Fair held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from May 2 until October 13, 1986. The fair, the theme of which was "Transportation and Communicatio ...

that played for several months at Vancouver's Firehall Theatre (now the Firehalls Arts Centre), and the 1 act play "Escape From Fantasy Gardens", a play about then Premier Bill VanDerZalm.

Career

Film and Television

Leiren-Young's documentary, "The Hundred-Year-Old Whale" (2017), which he wrote and directed, won the 2017 Writers Guild of Canada award for "best documentary." The movie explores the life of Granny (

killer whale The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black-and-white ...

) and the history of our relationship with the Southern resident killer whales

Leiren-Young's first feature film, ''The Green Chain'' (2007), which he wrote, directed and produced, explores the issues facing dying logging communities in

. The movie won the El Prat de Llobregat Award at the 15th Annual Festival Internacional de Cinema de Medi Ambient (FICMA 2008) in Barcelona. Leiren-Young also has extensive television writing credits, with over 100 hours of produced work. His love of comic books inspired his work on a number of animated series, including a

ReBoot In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...

episode parodying

The X-Files ''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction drama television series created by Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who ...

(details of which were featured in ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...

'') and Beast Wars: Transformers. He has written for numerous TV shows including '' PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal'' and '' Blood Ties''.

Theatre

Leiren-Young's plays have been produced in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, and Australia. His work has been translated into French, Czech and Danish. In 2017 his play ''Bar Mitzvah Boy'' was the winner of the Jewish Playwriting Contest of the Jewish Plays Project. The play has been produced in Canada and the U.S. and is being published in 2020 by Playwright's Canada Press. His award-winning '' Shylock'' (Anvil Press, 1996), about the tensions surrounding theatre's most famous Jewish character. ''Shylock'' has been produced around the world. Leiren-Young frequently collaborated with director John Juliani. The work they developed together included ''Articles of Faith'' (Anvil Press, 2001), about the Anglican church's internal struggle over the issue of same sex marriage and Leiren-Young's 1991 radio drama, ''Dim Sum Diaries'', which received international recognition when it debuted on

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

's '' Morningside''. Leiren-Young has frequently written for and about young audiences. His Theatre for Young Audiences scripts include ''Basically Good Kids'' (about teens caught up in a riot) and ''Jim'' (a solo show about a teen runaway obsessed with

The Doors The Doors were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most controversial and influential rock acts ...

frontman

Jim Morrison James Douglas Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was an American singer, poet and songwriter who was the lead vocalist of the rock band the Doors. Due to his wild personality, poetic lyrics, distinctive voice, unpredictable and err ...

Memoirs

Twenty years after his stint at ''The Williams Lake Tribune'', Leiren-Young turned his experiences into a comic memoir, ''Never Shoot A Stampede Queen'' (Heritage House, 2009), which won the 2009

Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, also known as the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour or just the Leacock Medal, is an annual literary award presented for the best book of humour written in English by a Canadian writer, published or self ...

. Leiren-Young adapted the memoir for stage, where it received its world premiere with the Western Canada Theatre company in Kamloops,

, Canada in 2013. A second production debuted at

's Granville Island Stage in May, 2013. The book was adapted for the stage by Leiren-Young and directed and dramaturged by

TJ Dawe Ti-Jon David "TJ" Dawe (born August 22, 1974) is a Canadian playwright and director. Early life Dawe was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He studied theatre at the University of Victoria, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1997. Caree ...

. His latest memoir, ''Free Magic Secrets Revealed'' (

Harbour Publishing Harbour Publishing is a Canadian independent book publisher. The company was founded in 1974 by Howard and Mary White, and is based in Pender Harbour, a small town on British Columbia's Sunshine Coast. Harbour mainly publishes books on British ...

, 2013), tells the story of his high school misadventures staging a disastrous magic show. Leiren-Young is currently adapting both memoirs for film.

Journalism

Leiren-Young's news and feature writing, humour pieces, reviews, and columns have appeared in a host of publications in

and the

, including ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'', ''

Maclean's ''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian persp ...

'', and '' The Utne Reader''. He writes a theatre column for ''

The Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. Published si ...

''. He's a contributor to ''

The Georgia Straight ''The Georgia Straight'' is a free Canadian weekly news and entertainment newspaper published in Vancouver, British Columbia, by Overstory Media Group. Often known simply as ''The Straight'', it is delivered to newsboxes, post-secondary schools, ...

'', where he has written since the mid-1980s. He has covered the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

for ''

'' for the past ten years. In the fall of 2014, Leiren-Young was appointed editor of ''Reel West Magazine'', a publication focused on the Western Canadian film industry. Leiren-Young also became the

's 2014 Harvey Stevenson Southam Lecturer in Journalism and Nonfiction for the Department of Writing, the first alumnus to hold this position.

Environmentalism

Leiren-Young is a passionate

environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...

. He hosts the Skaana podcast where he interviews experts like

Paul Watson Paul Franklin Watson (born December 2, 1950) is a Canadian-American conservation and environmental activist, who founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an anti-poaching and direct action group focused on marine conservation activism. Th ...

, David Suzuki and

Elizabeth May Elizabeth Evans May (born June 9, 1954) is a Canadian politician, environmentalist, author, activist, and lawyer who is serving as the leader of the Green Party of Canada since 2022, and previously served as the leader from 2006 to 2019. Sh ...

about orcas, oceans and the environment. He has written and spoken about how Canada's

Trans Mountain Pipeline The Trans Mountain Pipeline System, or simply the Trans Mountain Pipeline, is a pipeline that carries crude and refined oil from Alberta to the coast of British Columbia, Canada. The pipeline is currently owned by the Government of Canada th ...

could lead to the extinction of the endangered Southern resident killer whales. He hosted a podcast for Vancouver's independent online news site ''

The Tyee The Tyee is an independent online daily news source primarily based in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was founded in November 2003 as an alternative to "corporate media". Articles in The Tyee focus on politics, culture, and life. The Tyee was f ...

'', where he often addressed issues facing

's old growth forests. His Tyee interviews provided the content for his book, ''The Green Chain: Nothing Is Ever Clear Cut'' (Heritage House, 2009), which examines the logging industry. Described by the

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

as "Canada's go to guy for dolphins, whales and trees", Leiren-Young has also been dubbed "Canada's greenest writer". Many of his projects feature a sustainability theme, such as his award-winning short film, ''The Green Film'', and his feature-length movie, ''The Green Chain'', which stars

Tricia Helfer Tricia Janine Helfer (born April 11, 1974) is a Canadian-American actress and former model. She played the enigmatic Cylon model Number Six in the re-imagined ''Battlestar Galactica'' series (2004–2009). She also voiced Sarah Kerrigan in ''S ...

. As half of the comedy duo, "Local Anxiety" with Kevin Crofton, Leiren-Young wrote and co-starred in the EarthVision award-winning TV special, ''Greenpieces: The World's First Eco-Comedy''. He released the 2009 CD ''Greenpieces'', and cuts from the satirical album are often featured on

. He also coauthored ''This Crazy Time: Living our Environmental Challenge'' (Knopf Canada, 2012) with controversial Canadian environmentalist, Tzeporah Berman. In 2012, Leiren-Young debuted ''Greener Than Thou'', a comic, autobiographical monologue detailing the journey of "going green".

Moby Doll

In October 2014, Leiren-Young wrote the article
Moby Doll
for ''

The Walrus ''The Walrus'' is an independent, non-profit Canadian media organization. It is multi-platform and produces an 8-issue-per-year magazine and online editorial content that includes current affairs, fiction, poetry, and podcasts, a national s ...

''. The Walrus feature tells the story of the first killer whale displayed in captivity,

Moby Doll Moby Doll was the first orca (killer whale) to survive in captivity for more than two days, and the second to be displayed in a public aquarium exhibit. The availability, for the first time, of a killer whale that could be studied at close quarte ...

, who was harpooned in the summer of 1964 off the coast of

Saturna Island Saturna Island is a mountainous island, about in size, in the Southern Gulf Islands chain of British Columbia, Canada. It is situated approximately midway between the Lower Mainland of B.C. and Vancouver Island, and is the most easterly of the ...

survived just eighty-seven days in a waterfront pen but, during that time, changed the world's attitude towards orcas.

article was a finalist for the 2015

National Magazine Awards The National Magazine Awards, also known as the Ellie Awards, honor print and digital publications that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative techniques, noteworthy enterprise and imaginative design. Or ...

. Leiren-Young wrote ''Moby Doll: The Whale that Changed the World'', which aired as a radio broadcast November 7, 2014 on

's ''

Ideas In common usage and in philosophy, ideas are the results of thought. Also in philosophy, ideas can also be mental representational images of some object. Many philosophers have considered ideas to be a fundamental ontological category of being. ...

'' with

Paul Kennedy Paul Michael Kennedy (born 17 June 1945) is a British historian specialising in the history of international relations, economic power and grand strategy. He has published prominent books on the history of British foreign policy and great pow ...

. The documentary won the 2014 Jack Webster Award for Best Feature Story in radio for the broadcast. In 2016, the book ''The Killer Whale Who Changed the World'' was published. It spent four weeks on the

bestseller list and was long-listed for the 2017 RBC Taylor Prize, and short-listed for the Hubert Evans Prize. It was the winner of the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada award for the best "general interest" book. A feature-length film documentary of ''The Killer Whale Who Changed the World'' is currently in post-production (2020). The movie is set to be distributed by Kinosmith (the Canadian distributors of ''Blackfish'').

Awards

Leiren-Young won the 2017 Writers Guild of Canada Award for Best Documentary for his movie
"The Hundred-Year-Old Whale."
He has received three other

Writers Guild of Canada The Writers Guild of Canada is an organization representing more than 2,500 professional writers working in film, television, radio, and digital media production in Canada. Members of the Guild write dramatic TV series, feature films, Movies o ...

nominations for his work in radio and film. He received the 2017 Bron Iris Award in 2017 for his "commitment to the promotion of female creators" in film and television. He won the 2009

Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, also known as the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour or just the Leacock Medal, is an annual literary award presented for the best book of humour written in English by a Canadian writer, published or self ...

for his comic memoir, "Never Shoot a Stampede Queen." Leiren-Young was the 1993 recipient of a National Magazine award for his ''Theatrum'' column and has received two Western Magazine Awards, the latest presented in 2013."Mark Leiren-Young Biography"
The

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

, 1990-2015.

Credits

Books by Mark Leiren-Young

*''Never Shoot A Stampede Queen'' - 2009 *''The Green Chain: Nothing is Ever Clear Cut'' - 2009 * "This Crazy Time: Living our environmental challenge." - 2011 *''Free Magic Secrets Revealed'' - 2013 *''The Killer Whale Who Changed the World'' - 2016 *''Orcas Everywhere'' - 2019

Film

*''The Green Chain'' (2007, feature) - Writer/Director/Producer * "The Hundred-Year-Old Whale" (2017, short) - Writer/Director/Producer *"The Green Film" (short) – writer, (2008)

Television

* ReBoot: The Guardian Code (TV series) - writer, * RollBots (TV series) – writer, (200 * Blood Ties (Lifetime series) - Story editor and writer, (2007) *Pucca (TV series) – writer, (2007) *

Class of the Titans ''Class of the Titans'' is a Canadian animated television series produced by Studio B Productions and Nelvana Limited. It premiered on December 31, 2005, at 5 pm ET/PT on Teletoon with a special 90-minute presentation of the first three ep ...

(TV series) – writer, (2007) * The Collector (TV series) - writer, (2006) *

Ace Lightning ''Ace Lightning'' is a children's television series co-produced by the BBC and Alliance Atlantis. The series was originally broadcast in the United Kingdom but was also aired in other countries, including the United States, Australia, New Zealan ...

(TV series) – writer, (2002-2004) *The Great Canadian Music Dream (CBC miniseries) - writer, (2003) *Mentors (TV series) - writer, (2001) *

Psi Factor ''Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal'' is a Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all ...

- writer, (2000) *Life and Times: The Brian Orser Story - writer, (2000) *Greenpieces (TV special short), (2000) *Grand Illusions: The Story of Magic (TV series), (1998) *The 27th Annual Juno Awards – (1998) * Transformers: Beast Wars (TV series) – writer, (1997) *

- writer, (1996) * Jonovision (CBC) - writer, (1996)

Theatre

* "Bar Mitzvah Boy" - 2017 *''Never Shoot a Stampede Queen'' - 2013 *''Articles of Faith'' - 2001 *''Easy Money'' – 1999 *''If You Really Love Me...'' - 2000 *'' Shylock'' - 1996 *''Basically Good Kids'' - 1993 *''Blueprints From Space'' - 1993 *''Dim Sum Diaries'' – 1991 *''Jim'' - 1990 *''Escape from Fantasy Gardens'' - 1989 *''Watchin`'' - 1986

Music

*''Greenpieces'' - Local Anxiety - 2009 *''Hockey Nut in Canada'' - Local Anxiety - 2007 *''Forgive Us - We're Canadian'' - Local Anxiety - 2003 *''Is Nothing Sacred?'' Local Anxiety - 1992

References

External links

* *
Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia entry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leiren-Young, Mark 1962 births Living people Stephen Leacock Award winners Canadian male dramatists and playwrights Writers from Vancouver Writers from Victoria, British Columbia 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male writers Jack Webster award recipients