Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...
'', March 26, 2010. is a Canadian actress known for her stage work and youth outreach in Ontario and her leading role as Ellen Fanshaw in the TV
dramedy
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...
,
Manitoba
, image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg
, map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada
, Label_map = yes
, coordinates =
, capital = Win ...
, Canada. She studied at the
University of Alberta
The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Ruth ...
and the Vancouver Playhouse's Acting School.
Career
Burns has had a long career as a character and supporting actress. Her most notable television roles being Shakespearean diva Ellen Fanshaw in '' Slings and Arrows'', for which she won two Gemini Awards, Jasmina Hart on ''
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 ...
Burns is a founding member and a former associate director of Toronto's
Soulpepper Theatre Company
Soulpepper is a theater company based in Toronto, Ontario. It is the largest non-profit theater in the city.
History
Soulpepper was founded in 1998 by twelve Toronto artists aiming to produce lesser-known theatrical classics. Soulpepper has si ...
., Burns headed up Soulpepper's extensive youth outreach program. She founded the Toronto Arts for Youth Award, and has worked as an instructor for the theatre program at George Brown College.
She has performed leading roles at Stratford, the Shaw Festival, the National Arts Centre and The Company Theatre. She was nominated five times for a Dora Award and won twice: in 1986 for '' The Miracle Worker'' and in 1984 for ''Trafford Tanzi''.
In 2005 she was honoured for her career in the theatre with the Barbara Hamilton Award.
In 2016 Burns was awarded
ACTRA
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) is a Canadian trade union representing performers in English-language media. It has 25,000 members working in film, television, radio, and all other recorded media. The org ...
’s Leslie Yeo Award, an award honouring actors for their volunteer work. She donated her cash prize to the Qaggiq Performing Arts Teacher Training Workshop, a program that works on developing Inuit-specific performing arts programming for children and youth.
Personal life
Burns is married to director and actor Paul Gross. They have two children, Hannah Gross and Jack.