Sarah Polley

Sarah Polley is a Canadian writer, director, actor, and essayist whose work has moved between fiction, documentary, screen adaptation, and personal nonfiction. Born in Toronto in 1979, she first reached wide audiences as a child actor in Road to Avonlea and later appeared in films including Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter. Her subsequent work behind the camera has made her an important voice in contemporary Canadian cinema.

Polley made her feature writing-and-directing debut with Away from Her (2006), adapted from an Alice Munro story; the film brought her an Academy Award nomination for adapted screenplay. She followed it with Take This Waltz and the documentary Stories We Tell, a film about family history and the uncertainties of memory. She also wrote the television adaptation Alias Grace, based on Margaret Atwood’s novel. For Women Talking, adapted from Miriam Toews’s novel, Polley received the Academy Award for Adapted Screenplay.

Her first book, Run Towards the Danger, is a collection of six personal essays that considers memory, bodily experience, work, and recovery; it received the 2022 Toronto Book Award. Her honours also include appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada and the National Arts Centre Award at the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards. Across her writing and filmmaking, Polley has repeatedly examined how stories are constructed, revised, and shared.