Martha Burns is an award-winning Canadian actress known for her stage work and youth outreach in Ontario and her leading role as Ellen Fanshaw in the TV dramedy series Slings and Arrows

Slings and Arrows

Slings and Arrows is a Canadian TV series set at the fictional New Burbage Festival, a Shakespearean festival similar to the real-world Stratford Festival...

.

Burns was born 1958 in Winnipeg

Winnipeg

Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...

, Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

. She was nominated three times for a Gemini Award

Gemini Award

The Gemini Awards are annual television broadcasting industry awards in Canada.First awarded in 1986, the Geminis celebrate the achievements of TV members of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Essentially, it presents awards for the best television productions in Canada. Awards are...

 for her performance as Shakespearean diva Ellen Fanshaw in Slings and Arrows, and won twice: in 2006 and 2007. She has also won the Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

The Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is awarded by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best supporting Canadian actress.-1st Genie Awards:* Geneviève Bujold, Murder by Decree...

 twice, for Long Day's Journey Into Night

Long Day's Journey Into Night

Long Day's Journey Into Night is a 1956 drama in four acts written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. The play is widely considered to be his masterwork...

in 1996 and for Love & Savagery in 2010.

Burns is a founding member and a former associate director of Toronto's Soulpepper Theatre Company

Soulpepper Theatre Company

Soulpepper Theatre Company is a Toronto, Ontario-based theatre company dedicated to presenting classic plays.-History:Soulpepper was founded in 1998 by twelve Toronto artists who dreamed of a company that would produce lesser known theatrical classics. Soulpepper has since become an important part...

, a company that includes a number of theatre veterans from the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. She has also performed leading roles at Stratford, the Shaw Festival

Shaw Festival

The Shaw Festival is a major Canadian theatre festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, the second largest repertory theatre company in North America...

, the National Arts Centre

National Arts Centre

The National Arts Centre is a centre for the performing arts located in Ottawa, Ontario, between Elgin Street and the Rideau Canal...

 and the Tarragon Theatre

Tarragon Theatre

The Tarragon Theatre is a theatre in Toronto, Canada, and one of the main centers for contemporary playwriting in the country. Located near Casa Loma, the theatre was founded by Bill and Jane Glassco in 1970. Bill was the Artistic Director from 1971 to 1982. In 1982, Urjo Kareda took over as...

, to name just a few. She was nominated five times for a Dora Mavor Moore Award

Dora Mavor Moore Award

The Dora Mavor Moore Award is an award presented annually by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts which honours theatre, dance, and opera productions in Toronto. Named after Dora Mavor Moore, who helped establish Canadian professional theatre, the award was established on December 13, 1978...

 and won twice: in 1986 for The Miracle Worker

The Miracle Worker

The Miracle Worker is a cycle of 20th century dramatic works derived from Helen Keller's autobiography The Story of My Life. Each of the various dramas describes the relationship between Keller—a deafblind and initially almost feral child—and Anne Sullivan, the teacher who introduced her to...

and in 1984 for Trafford Tanzi.

As associate artistic director at Soulpepper, Burns headed up its extensive youth outreach program. Earlier in her career, she founded the Toronto Arts for Youth Association and was a co-founder of another youth theatre project in Toronto, Masterclass Theatre. She has also worked as an instructor for the theatre programs at George Brown College

George Brown College

George Brown College is a public, fully accredited college of applied arts and technology with three full campuses in downtown Toronto, Ontario...

 and Ryerson University

Ryerson University

Ryerson University is a public research university located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its urban campus is adjacent to Yonge-Dundas Square located at the busiest intersection in Downtown Toronto. The majority of its buildings are in the blocks northeast of the square in Toronto's Garden...

. In 2005 she was honored for her career in the theatre with the Barbara Hamilton Award.

Burns lives in Toronto with her husband, director and actor Paul Gross

Paul Gross

Paul Michael Gross is a Canadian actor, producer, director, singer and writer born in Calgary, Alberta. He is known for his lead role as Constable Benton Fraser in the television series Due South as well as his 2008 war film Passchendaele, which he wrote, produced, directed, and starred in...

, and their two children, Hannah and Jack.

Her recent show is called The Foundation

The Foundation (TV series)

The Foundation is a Canadian television sitcom, airing on Showcase in the 2009-10 television season.Created and produced by Michael Dowse, the show stars Mike Wilmot as Michael Valmont-Selkirk, the crooked and corrupt director of a philanthropic foundation. The cast also includes Martin Sims,...

which airs on Showcase in Canada. Her character is named Selena Selkirk. She will also appear in the Canadian television sitcom Michael, Tuesdays and Thursdays, scheduled to debut on CBC Television

CBC Television

CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...

 in fall 2011.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Passage of the Heart	Kate Ward
1994	Paint Cans	Melda
1995	Never Talk to Strangers Never Talk to Strangers Never Talk to Strangers is a 1995 American thriller film directed by Peter Hall and starring Antonio Banderas and Rebecca De Mornay.-Plot:...	Maura
1999		Gwen Maclean
2000	Hindsight	Trina	Short film
2004	Siblings	Miss Bradford
2004			Short film
2006	Screening	Helen Thompson	Short film
2007	Silk	Mme. Joncour
2008	Rewind	Heather Beckett	Short film
2008	Blindness Blindness (film) Blindness is a 2008 English-language film that is an adaptation of the 1995 novel of the same name by the Portuguese writer José Saramago about a society suffering an epidemic of blindness. The film is written by Don McKellar and directed by Fernando Meirelles with Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo...	Woman with Insomnia
2009	You Might as Well Live You Might as Well Live You Might as Well Live is a Canadian 2009 film directed by Simon Ennis and co-written with Joshua Peace.-Plot:On the advice of his childhood hero, Robert R...	Dr. Elizabeth
2009	Love & Savagery	Mother Superior
2009		Sabina
2010		Debra	Short film
2011	French Immersion	Cathy
2012		Gretchen	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	Backstretch	Kelly	TV series
1987	Street Legal Street Legal (TV series) Street Legal is a Canadian television series, which aired on CBC Television from 1987 to 1994.-Synopsis:A spinoff from the 1985 television movie Shellgame, Street Legal focused on the professional and private lives of the partners in a small Toronto, Ontario law firm, Barr, Robinovitch and Tchobanian...	Margaret	Episode: "Take My Jokes, Please"
1989			TV movie
1990		Sally	TV movie
1991	E.N.G. E.N.G. E.N.G. is a Canadian television drama, following the staff of a fictional Toronto television news station . The show aired on CTV from 1988 to 1994...	Joanna Miles	Episode: "Tyger, Tyger"
1991		Jane's Mother	Episode: "A Friend in Need"
1996	Side Effects Side Effects (TV series) Side Effects was a Canadian television series, which aired from February, 1994 to January, 1996 on CBC Television.A hospital-themed drama created by Brenda Greenberg and Guy Mullally, the cast included Elizabeth Shepherd, Albert Schultz, Joseph Ziegler, Jovanni Sy and Arsinée Khanjian....	Andrea Burrows	Episode: "Sex, Death and Rock 'N Roll"
1996	Traders Traders (TV series) Traders is a Canadian television drama series, which was broadcast on Global Television Network from 1995 to 2000.-Overview:Although Global had locked up most of NBC's "Must See Thursday" situation comedies for their Thursday night broadcasts, they lost the rights to broadcast the medical drama ER...	Rita Hutchison	Episode: "Two Steps Forward"
1996			TV movie
1996	Great Performances Great Performances Great Performances, a television series devoted to the performing arts, has been telecast on Public Broadcasting Service public television since 1972...	Cathleen	Episode: "Long Day's Journey Into Night"
1997	Marie Curie: More Than Meets the Eye	Lisette Boudreau	TV movie
1997	Due South Due South Due South is a Canadian crime drama series with elements of comedy. The series was created by Paul Haggis, produced by Alliance Communications, and stars Paul Gross, David Marciano, and latterly Callum Keith Rennie...	Nadia	Episode: "Spy vs. Spy"
1998	Witness to Yesterday	Amelia Earhart	Episode: "Amelia Earhart"
1998	Thanks of a Grateful Nation	Dr. Rosemary Dove	TV movie
1998	Traces of Insanity		TV movie
1999	Justice		TV movie
1999	Storm of the Century Storm of the Century Storm of the Century, alternatively known as Stephen King's Storm of the Century, is a 1999 horror TV miniseries written by Stephen King and directed by Craig R. Baxley. Unlike many other King mini-series, Storm of the Century was not based upon a Stephen King novel - King wrote it as a screenplay...	Counselor	TV miniseries
1999	Due South Due South Due South is a Canadian crime drama series with elements of comedy. The series was created by Paul Haggis, produced by Alliance Communications, and stars Paul Gross, David Marciano, and latterly Callum Keith Rennie...	Caroline Fraser	Episode: "Call of the Wild: Part 2"
1999	Emily of New Moon Emily of New Moon (TV series) Emily of New Moon was a Canadian television series, which aired on CBC Television from 1998 to 2000. The series originally aired in the United States on the Cookie Jar Toons block on This TV and it's currently seen in Canada on the Viva, Bravo! and Vision TV cable channels...	Eve Kinch	Episode: "Under the Wishing Moon: Part 1" Episode: "Bridge of Dreams: Part 2"
1999	Murder Most Likely	Alice Malinson	TV movie
2000	Harry's Case		TV movie
2003	Profoundly Normal	Dr. Maswell	TV movie
2003-2006	Slings and Arrows Slings and Arrows Slings and Arrows is a Canadian TV series set at the fictional New Burbage Festival, a Shakespearean festival similar to the real-world Stratford Festival...	Ellen Fanshaw	18 episodes
2004		Swim Coach	Video
2004	What Katy Did What Katy Did What Katy Did is a children's book written by Susan Coolidge, the pen name of Sarah Chauncey Woolsey, which was published in 1872. It follows the adventures of a twelve-year-old American girl, Katy Carr, and her family who live in the fictional lakeside Ohio town of Burnet in the 1860s...	Aunt Izzie	TV movie
2006	I Am an Apartment Building	Mother	TV short
2008		Mary Miller	Episode: "Part One"
2009	Murdoch Mysteries Murdoch Mysteries Murdoch Mysteries is a Canadian drama television series that airs on Citytv, featuring Yannick Bisson as William Murdoch, a police detective working in Toronto, Ontario in the 1890s. The television series is based on the Detective Murdoch series of novels by Maureen Jennings. The fifth season was...	Mrs. Burgess	Episode: "Convalescence"
2009		Selena Selkirk	3 episodes
2010	Hot Water	Woman	Video short
2011	Republic of Doyle Republic of Doyle Republic of Doyle is a Canadian comedy-drama television series, which debuted 6 January 2010 on CBC Television.The show stars Seán McGinley and Allan Hawco as Malachy and Jake Doyle, a father and son who partner as private investigators in St...	Joyce	Episode: "Something Old, Something New"
2011	Michael: Tuesdays & Thursdays	Jasmina Hart	Episode: "Small Talk"

External links