Alison Sealy-Smith

Born in Barbados, Alison is an accomplished award-winning actor, director and producer whose professional career began in 1981 when she performed with the Pelican Players, Canada’s ‘first multicultural community theatre company’. Since then she has worked with theatre companies across Canada and in Barbados including the Green Room Players, Stage One Productions, Theatre Calgary, Young Peoples Theatre, Canadian Stage and the Stratford Festival. Her most recent theatre credits include “TheItSo Happen Suite” (Diasporic Arts Productions), “Alleluia Pork Chops!” (The Gap Theatre) “Cast Iron” (Nightwood Theatre), “The Polished Hoe” (Obsidian Theatre, Canada and the Frank Collymore Hall, Barbados) and her award-winning performance as Lena Younger in Soulpepper Theatre’s production of “A Raisin in the Sun”.

Alison is also proud to have been a part of Obsidian Theatre Company’s ground-breaking series 21 Black Futures and, most recently, their live audio version of Cast Iron, co-produced with Factory Theatre.

She has directed theatre productions for the Company of Sirens, LKTYP, the Saidye Bronfman Centre, the National Theatre School of Canada, Neptune Theatre, Black Theatre Workshop, Obsidian Theatre Company and the National Cultural Foundation of Barbados.

Alison has a long and diverse list of film and television credits which run the gamut from feature films to made for TV movies to recurring principal roles on long running episodics. Just a few of those titles include “An Accidental Friendship”,“Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures”, “This is Wonderland”, “Da Kink in My Hair”, “Dark Water”, “Honey”, “Talk to Me”, “How She Move”, “Hit for Six”, “You Kill Me”,“Naturally Sadie”, the web series “Valemont” and “Vigilante – The Crossing”.

An acclaimed voice actor, Alison was the voice of Storm on the animated series “The X-Men” and the voice of Scarlett on “Delilah and Julius”.

Alison has received five Dora Award nominations for acting and has won two. She is also the proud recipient of a Harry Jerome Award and a Salute to the City Award for her contribution to the Arts in Toronto, a George Luscombe Award for Mentorship and an Award of Excellence from the Caribbean Tales Film Festival.

She is a Founding Member of the Obsidian Theatre Company (Toronto) and served as Artistic Director from 2000 – 2006. 

Alison is Founding Artistic Director of Diasporic Arts Productions (Barbados) and a Producer with The Gap Theatre (Barbados).