Norman Yeung

Bio

Norman is currently writing Aging Youth Gang under commission by Crow’s Theatre, and Eunuch X Pirate (Tyrone Guthrie Award at Stratford Festival) as Playwright in Residence at Outside the March. His play Theory premiered at Tarragon Theatre and had an American premiere by Mosaic Theater Company of Washington, D.C. Theory received The Voaden Prize, was nominated for the Carol Bolt Award, and is published by Playwrights Canada Press. Pu-Erh received four Dora Award nominations, including Outstanding New Play, and was a finalist for The Voaden Prize. Other plays and performance pieces include The Zoonotic Story (Stratford Festival/National Arts Centre), I Know I’m Supposed to Love You (Touchstone Theatre), Deirdre Dear (LaBute New Theater Festival, St. Louis), In this moment. (Scotiabank Nuit Blanche), and Black Blood (Tapestry New Opera Showcase, with composer Christiaan Venter). Theory and Ms. Desjardins were recorded as audio dramas for PlayME/CBC Podcasts. He has been a member of playwright/creator units at Stratford Festival, Tarragon Theatre, fu-GEN Theatre Company, Tapestry Opera, and Canadian Stage. 

Films he has written and directed include Anne Darling, Hello Faye, Marnie Love, and Light 01, which have screened internationally at film festivals and on television. He was Second Unit Director on The Tracey Fragments, a feature film directed by Bruce McDonald and starring Elliot Page. Awards for his filmmaking include the Norman Jewison Filmmaker Award and Jack Kuper Award for Filmmaking.

As an actor he has performed at Stratford Festival, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Canadian Stage, Theatre Calgary, Citadel Theatre, Touchstone Theatre, Theatre Orangeville, Drayton Entertainment, Thousand Islands Playhouse, LA Opera, Theatre Conspiracy, Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre, Firehall Arts Centre, Gateway Theatre, and more. Among many roles in film and TV, favourites include a supporting role in Resident Evil: Afterlife and a series regular role in Todd and the Book of Pure Evil. 

A graffiti writer since the 1990s, his street art could be found under bridges, on freight trains, behind warehouses, in transit tunnels, and on living room walls, from New York City to Brisbane. He has exhibited his paintings and drawings in such venues as FRCP/Galerie Youn (Montreal), Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), Art Gallery of Mississauga, Board of Directors (Toronto), and curcioprojects (New York City). Painting and illustration clients include LVMH, Bruce Mau Design, National Film Board of Canada, MTV, CBC, Eye Weekly, Rice Paper Magazine, and many more. He was featured on CBC Radio 3’s “MAKE: Next Generation Canadian Creators”, CBC’s ZeD TV, MuchMusic, MTV, and in numerous publications and documentaries.

Norman’s work as an actor and writer is featured in the books Reading Wide Awake: Politics, Pedagogies, and Possibilities by Patrick Shannon, and Voices Rising: Asian Canadian Cultural Activism by Xiaoping Li. He was a finalist for the Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize. He holds an Honours BFA in Film from Toronto Metropolitan University, and a BFA in Acting/Theatre from University of British Columbia. Norman was born in Guangzhou, grew up in East Vancouver, and is based in Toronto.