Dorothy A. Atabong

Dorothy A. Atabong was born and raised in Cameroon, West Africa and educated in the USA and Canada. She obtained a BSc. in Biochemistry from Michigan before changing coats and moving on to graduate from the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre in New York with a degree in Dramatic arts. At 19 she published her novel The Princess of Kaya which she later adapted into a screenplay. She is a multiple award winning Actress, Writer-Director, Producer based in Toronto. Selected Actor screen credits - TV series Mayday (Discovery Channel), Coping (Theatrical release), The Line (TMN & Movie Central), and Degrassi: The Next Generation; Canon Camera commercial for the Newsweek Magazine, and PSAs for Stephen Lewis Foundation - help fight AIDS in Africa. Selected Theatre Credits: August Wilson Plays in New York Theatre in the Park, Volcano Theatre's, "Africa Trilogy" at the Toronto Luminato Arts Festival, The Overwhelming at The Canadian Stage Company. Her short film Sound Of Tears, screened at over 40 film festivals worldwide. It garnered multiple awards and nominations including The Africa Movie Academy Award, Court-métrage de fiction, Burundi, Best Film and Best Director Nominations for the Golden Sheaf Award, Ousmane Sembene Award - Zanzibar International Film Festival and Best Film at The Pan African Film Festival in LA and Cannes. She's an alumna of the Women In the Director's Chair (WIDC) and member of WIFT-Toronto. She directed CBC's critically acclaimed 21 Black Futures - Season 3 - YEn Ara Asaase Ni/This Is Our Own Native Land. Winner of the 2020 Cayle Chernin Award, and her feature script, Zenzile's Journey is in development in partnership with Telefilm Canada. Dorothy is mentored by two-time Oscar nominated Director Atom Egoyan, and is passionate about creating accurate and clear representations of the experiences of three-dimensional BIPOC women in stories both tragic and glorifying. - @dorothyatabong