Susin Nielsen

SUSIN NIELSEN got her start feeding cast and crew on the international hit TV series, Degrassi Junior High. She was only 22 and a terrible cook, but she loved working on a film set. Between first and second season she wrote a spec script; the head writer did not like it, but he saw a spark in her writing and decided to give her a shot. Nielsen went on to pen sixteen episodes of the show.

Little known fact: she also played the janitor, Louella Hawkins, in a handful of episodes and got to utter the words, “Good guess, goofball” to Joey Jeremiah.

The Degrassi series launched her TV-writing career. She went on to write for close to thirty Canadian TV series. In 2004 she co-created and produced the surprise sleeper Canadian hit, Robson Arms, which ran for three seasons and had an impressive string of guest stars including Leslie Nielsen, Margot Kidder, Joe Flaherty, and Mark McKinney and Dave Foley of Kids in the Hall fame.

Her most recent TV creation is Family Law, starring Jewel Staite and Victor Garber. Nielsen acted as showrunner and executive producer on four seasons of the award-winning show. It has quickly become an audience favorite, airing on Global in Canada and on The CW in the States. It also airs around the world and has found fans in places as far reaching as Australia, Belgium, South Africa, Italy, Iceland and Brazil. In 2023 she received the Writers Guild of Canada Showrunner Award in recognition of her unique vision, writing excellence, collaborative nature and outstanding leadership. Nielsen’s full list of credits can be found on IMBD.

Nielsen is also the multiple-award winning author of seven young adult novels and two picture books. Her first novel, Word Nerd, was published in 2008. It gained momentum and a following as it landed on Young Readers’ Choice Awards across the country (and swept those categories). Her books have won the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Award, the UKLA award and over a dozen young readers’ choice awards. A number of her titles have been nominated for the prestigious Carnegie Medal. In 2019, she was awarded the Writers’ Trust Vicki Metcalf Award for a body of work. Her books have been translated into at least 15 languages, from French to Japanese to Ukrainian.

Whether it be her TV creations or her novels, Nielsen is adept at writing about flawed but relatable human beings, whose heartaches, foibles and experiences are recognizable and universal.