Diane Flacks: Bio

Diane Flacks

Diane Flacks is an Emmy and Gemini nominated writer/performer living in Toronto. Currently she is a regular contributor to CBC radio's Definitely Not the Opera, and writes and performs a national humour-oriented parenting column for CBC radio. Since 2007, she has been a columnist for the Toronto Star writing a bi-weekly feature about ordinary people caught in the throes of extraordinary challenges. Diane has written columns for The Globe and Mail and features for NOW Magazine, More Magazine, Elle, XTRA, The Canadian Women's Journal and Today's Parent.

Her first book, "Bear With Me... What They Don’t Tell You about Pregnancy and New Motherhood," was published by McClelland and Stewart; and is available nationwide. In the fall of 2006, she adapted it for a live solo performance, which toured to London’s Grand Theatre, and the Magnetic North Theatre Festival in Ottawa. In January 2009, the premier of the stage play Bear With Me was produced by Nightwood Theatre in Toronto to rave reviews including a 4 out of 4 star review in the Toronto Star. It toured to New York City, and St John, and Diane performed an excerpt on CBC TV's Winnipeg Comedy Festival. The evening in which she performed was nominated for a Gemini award.

In winter 2010, Diane appeared in the play Yichud at Theatre Passe Murraille, scheduled to be remounted in Spring 2011.

Diane recently guest starred in Being Erica and The Ron James Show on CBC. She will be appearing in Sara Polley's latest film, Take This Waltz, starring Sarah Silverman. Diane appeared as a series regular in the comedy series Moose TV, on Showcase. She also acted in the two-episode Walter Ego opposite Peter Kelleghan for CBC. She has written and starred in numerous television series including, The Broad Side (CBC); P.R. (CBC); Behind the Scenes (CTV and The Comedy Channel); and Listen Missy (W Network) an all-female sketch comedy show. Diane has also developed series for CBC, CTV, the Oxygen Network, and the BBC. She developed a half-hour tv series, Delicious, for Global TV. And consulted on another series for CTV, entitled Plan B. Presently, she is developing other television projects, and working on a fictional novel called The Good Son. Diane hosts and performs at numerous events, literary and comedy festivals, and fundraisers across the country.

Diane has written for The Kids In The Hall show (Emmy, Gemini nominated), Dog Park (by Bruce McCulloch), and Minus Time with filmmaker Jeremy Podeswa. She developed a screenplay, The Progressive Dinner, with director Laurie Lynd. Among other writing projects, are two Jest in Time TV comedy specials, and a sketch series, Jonathan Crosses Canada, for CBC. She appeared in New York City, at the prestigious Town Hall in Outrageous Comedy; a benefit hosted by comedienne Sandra Bernhard; and she hosted a tribute night to Lily Tomlin as part of the Harbourfront World Leaders Festival.

She has created and toured three other hit solo shows: Myth Me, (which toured nationally and to HBO studios in Los Angeles), By A Thread produced at the Tarragon (which twice toured to La Mama Theatre in New York City, was adapted for CBC television, was published, and was nominated for a Dora Award), and Random Acts, produced by Nightwood Theatre, directed by Alisa Palmer. Random Acts was called "virtuosic" by the Star, Globe, and CBC. Variety Magazine called her performance in Random Acts, "seamless... she removes and adds characters like a series of second skins... Canada's answer to Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner..." Random Acts was published in an anthology by Playwrights Canada Press in 2006.

Written and Performed with Richard Greenblatt was the critically acclaimed play Sibs, produced twice by the Tarragon to sell-out crowds. It was nominated for the Chalmers Playwrighting award, and published in Spring 2002 by Playwright's Canada Press. Diane and Richard adapted Sibs for a CBC television movie that first aired in the fall of 2003. In 2006, her play, Care, written and performed with Richard Greenblatt, ran at the Tarragon Theatre. Diane starred in and collaborated on script for Smudge (also Chalmers nominated), a haunting comedy about a woman who loses her sight, by Alex Bulmer. It was voted one of the top ten shows of 2000, and Diane was named as one of the top ten actors by NOW Magazine and the Toronto Star. Her first two-act play, Gravity Calling was produced at the Tarragon and then subsequently at Yale University.

Selected acting appearances include Titania and Theseus in an all-female Midsummer Night’s Dream at Passe Murraille, a guest star on the Royal Canadian Air Farce, and a stint in The Vagina Monologues and at the CBC Winnipeg Comedy Festival.

As an actor she has appeared in films (Cake, The 391st, Dog Park, Brain Candy) & Canadian episodic TV series, and in numerous roles in Canadian Theatres including The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine for Theatre Columbus, The Theory of Relatives (which she co-created) at the Tarragon, and The Serpent Woman for Theatre Smith Gilmour. She has a longer list of accomplishments that she either left in the car or accidentally put out in recycling.