Norman is a writer, actor, and visual artist whose work is devoted to creating opportunities for underrepresented people. Current screenwriting projects include the feature screenplay Rowds, which was workshopped at the Loughborough Lake Writer’s Retreat (Mongrel Media/Crow’s Theatre) and is currently being adapted into a series; creating and developing the series Blood Rush (The Black List’s Top List, quarterfinalist for WeScreenplay Diverse Voices); and adapting his award-winning play Theory into a feature film.
Films he has written and directed include Anne Darling, Hello Faye, Marnie Love, and Light 01, which have screened at international film festivals, on Movieola Channel, Mini Movie International Channel (Europe), and on Air Canada. 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.
His play Theory premiered at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto and had an American premiere by Mosaic Theater Company of Washington, D.C. Theory won The Voaden Prize, was nominated for the Carol Bolt Award, and is published by Playwrights Canada Press. Pu-Erh received four Dora Mavor Moore 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 is Playwright in Residence at Outside the March to write Eunuch X Pirate (winner of a Tyrone Guthrie Award at Stratford Festival) and is writing a new work under commission by Crow’s Theatre. He has been a member of playwright/creator units at Stratford Festival, Tarragon Theatre, fu-GEN Theatre Company, Tapestry Opera, and Canadian Stage.
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 1993, his urban 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. Speaking engagements include New York University about his play Theory, Central Technical School (Toronto) about urban art, Lord Byng Secondary School (Vancouver) about a career in the arts, and The Humanitas Festival (Toronto) about inclusivity in media. He received a Toronto Clean and Beautiful City Appreciation Award for his mural work. He was a playwriting mentor for the Paprika Festival (Toronto) in 2011 and 2015.
Norman was a finalist for the Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize, and has received multiple grants from Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, and Toronto Arts Council. 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 Vancouver, and is based in Toronto.
