TJ Dawe's Biography

TJ Dawe was born and raised in Vancouver, BC. In the 90s he earned a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree in Theatre from the University of Victoria. He toured the Canadian Fringe Circuit while still a student, and did his first solo show shortly thereafter. He’s been writing, performing and touring ever since. Directing and dramaturging came into the picture somewhere along the way. Later came podcasting and blogging.

Here are a few career highlights:

1998 - TJ joins Canadian Actors’ Equity Association
1999 - TJ’s solo show Tired Cliches wins a Jessie Richardson Award for Best New Play or Musical - Festival Category
2001 - TJ’s solo show The Slipknot plays the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival
2004 - TJ’s plays Labrador and The Slipknot are published by Brindle and Glass
2004 - Bravo Canada broadcasts TJ’s show A Canadian Bartender at Butlin’s
2004 - Sheep Noir Productions buys the film option for Toothpaste & Cigars (co-written by TJ and Mike Rinaldi)
2005 - The One Man Star Wars Trilogy (TJ directed and dramaturged) plays off-Broadway in New York at the Lamb’s Theatre for five months
2005 - The BC and Alberta Touring Council names TJ their touring artist of the year for regional performances of The Slipknot
2006 - Brindle and Glass publishes the script for The Power of Ignorance and a companion piece humour book (both co-written by TJ and Chris Gibbs, based on a character and concept by Sam Reynolds and Jeff Sumerel)
2007 - Sheep Noir Productions gets a development deal for Toothpaste & Cigars (now titled The F Word) with Fox Searchlight Pictures
2009 - TJ launches the Totem Figures Podcast Project
2010 - Canadian Theatre Review magazine publishes the play script for TJ’s solo show Totem Figures in its Winter issue, along with a scholarly article about him and autobiographical theatre which refers to TJ as “Canada’s most prolific writer of autobiographical monologues”
2010 - Launch of Beams and Struts: An Integral Inquiry into a Post-Postmodern Age - an online journal TJ co-edits and writes for