Stephanie Morgenstern is an award-winning multi-hyphenate, whose unique approach as a director is shaped by having worked over 30 years in the Canadian TV and film industry. Currently directing hour-long television in a broad range of genres, she began her career in Montreal as a bilingual actor (Maelström, Denis Villeneuve; The Sweet Hereafter, Atom Egoyan). She later branched into filmmaking, screenwriting, directing and showrunning, beginning with her two Genie-nominated short films, Curtains and Remembrance. Morgenstern’s background as a performer and her years as a showrunner bring her both an intuitive connection with actors and a big-picture insight into the mechanics of storytelling on screen, from inception to final mix. She and her partner Mark Ellis were co-creators, writers, and executive producers of Flashpoint (CBS/CTV), which earned the Academy Board of Directors Tribute for Outstanding and Enduring Contribution to Canadian Television, and earned them the WGC’s Award for Showrunner of the Year. The two were also co-creators, writers, EPs and showrunners of the WWII espionage drama X Company (CBC/Sony Television), shot in Budapest over three seasons, where Morgenstern directed the two-part series finale. Since that time she has been working as a freelance director, on series such as Burden of Truth (CBC/CW), Nurses (Global/NBC), Hudson & Rex (CityTV), and Killjoys (Space Channel/Syfy).
Awards & Nominations
X Company (series)
2017 Best Writing in Television Drama, Writers’ Guild of Canada (with Mark Ellis)
Flashpoint (series)
2014 Nomination, Best Dramatic Series, Canadian Screen Awards
2013 Best Dramatic Series, Canadian Screen awards
2013 Academy Board of Directors’ Tribute for Outstanding and Enduring Contribution to Canadian Television, Canadian Screen Awards (Win, with Mark Ellis, Bill Mustos, Anne Marie la Traverse)
2011 Best Writing in a Dramatic Series, Gemini Awards (with Mark Ellis)
2011 Best Writing in a Drama, Writers’ Guild of Canada (with Mark Ellis)
2010 Best Writing in a Drama, Writers’ Guild of Canada (with Mark Ellis and James Hurst)
2009 Nomination, Best Writing in a Dramatic Series, Gemini Awards (with Mark Ellis)
Remembrance (short)
2003 Nomination, Best Live Action Short Drama, Genie Awards
2002 Best Short Film, Jutra Awards (Prix Iris)
2002 Certificate of Merit, Short Narrative, San Francisco Int’l Short Film Festival
2002 Best Canadian Short, Toronto Worldwide Film Festival
The Sweet Hereafter (feature film, as actor)
1992 Best Acting by an Ensemble, National Board of Review (NYC)
Curtains (short)
1996 Nomination, Best Short Film, Genie Awards