Margaret Atwood

Born in Ottawa and raised in Toronto, Margaret Atwood graduated from the University of Toronto’s Victoria College in 1961 and pursued a master's at Harvard in 1963. Her teaching stint at the University of British Columbia marked her start, but it was her poetry collection, "The Circle Game," in 1964 that brought her initial literary acclaim. Her debut novel, "The Edible Woman" (1969), resonated with early feminist movements, followed by "Surfacing" in 1972, a Canadian literature mainstay. The '70s saw her prolific output: six poetry volumes, three short-story collections, and bestsellers like "Lady Oracle," "Life Before Man," and "Bodily Harm." In 1985, "The Handmaid's Tale" propelled her to global fame, showcasing her futuristic, dystopian storytelling. Subsequent novels like "Cat's Eye," "The Robber Bride," and "Alias Grace" solidified her international acclaim. Her impact extends beyond literature; as the first novelist and poet on Canada’s Walk of Fame, Atwood embodies Canadian humility, stating, "We don’t put up with people who get too high and mighty." Her work continues to resonate, cementing her status as a treasured Canadian storyteller.

Works

Stone Mattress

Physiotherapist Verna embarks on a luxurious cruise into the magnificent and silently thawing Arctic Northwest Passage. On the ship, Verna meets the friendly and charming Grace, and the seemingly ordinary Bob, who tries to seduce her. As wounds and humiliations from her past resurface, the smooth atmosphere of the cruise will be disturbed by Verna’s quiet, yet shocking act of vengeance.

Department:Writing

Job:Short Story

Stronger Together, Tous Ensemble

Join iconic Canadian artists, activists, actors, and athletes as they share their stories of hope and inspiration in this national salute to our frontline workers and in support of Food Banks Canada’s COVID-19 relief efforts.

Release Date:2020-04-26

Character:Self

Vote Count:2

BookTube

Personalities in YouTube's literary space join renowned authors like Margaret Atwood and Malcolm Gladwell in a conversation about books.

Release Date:2019-12-19

Character:Self

Episode Count:1

Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word After a Word Is Power

The views and thoughts of Canadian writer Margaret Atwood have never been more relevant than today. Readers turn to her work for answers as they confront the rise of authoritarian leaders, deal with increasingly intrusive technologies, and discuss climate change. Her books are useful as survival tools for hard times. But few know her private life. Who is the woman behind the stories? How does she always seem to know what is coming?

Release Date:2019-11-07

Character:Self - Writer

Vote Count:12

Angela Carter: Of Wolves & Women

A dark and delicious foray into Angela Carter's extraordinary life with animation by Peepshow Collective, rare archive and family photos, and contributions from Angela's friends, family, students and admirers.

Release Date:2018-08-04

Character:Herself - Contributor

Firing Line with Margaret Hoover

Join author, activist and commentator Margaret Hoover for a public affairs talk show that delivers a civil and engaging contest of ideas among the brightest minds and voices from across the ideological spectrum.

Release Date:2018-06-22

Episode Count:1

Vote Count:2

Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin

The extraordinary life story of science fiction and fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) who, in spite of remaining for many years on the sidelines of the mainstream literature, managed to be recognized as one of the most remarkable US writers of all time, due to the relevance of her work and her commitment to the human condition.

Release Date:2018-06-11

Character:Self - Writer

Vote Count:12

Alias Grace

Based on the true story of Grace Marks, a housemaid and immigrant from Ireland who was imprisoned in 1843, perhaps wrongly, for the murder of her employer Thomas Kinnear. Grace claims to have no memory of the murder yet the facts are irrefutable. A decade after, Dr. Simon Jordan tries to help Grace recall her past.

Release Date:2017-09-25

Department:Production

Job:Supervising Producer

Episode Count:6

Vote Count:293

Margaret Atwood: You Have Been Warned

For decades, Margaret Atwood has been universally acclaimed as Canada's greatest living writer. Fearlessly outspoken in life and in her work, Atwood has always been an unrelenting provocateur. Now at the age of 77, her star shines brighter and bolder than ever with an explosive television adaptation of her best-known work The Handmaid's Tale, which was first published in 1985. It is a dystopian work of speculative fiction set in the future, which has drawn comparison with aspects of Donald Trump's leadership, in particular the charges of misogyny which have inflamed anti-Trump campaigners across America. Alan Yentob meets Margaret Atwood in Toronto and discovers how a childhood spent between the Canadian wilderness and the city helped shape her vision of herself and the world, set alight her imagination and set her forth on a path to literary success.

Release Date:2017-08-28

Character:Self

The Handmaid's Tale

Set in a dystopian future, a woman is forced to live as a concubine under a fundamentalist theocratic dictatorship. A TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood's novel.

Release Date:2017-04-26

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Character:Aunt

Episode Count:10

Vote Count:2799

Wandering Wenda

The fantastic adventures of a plucky literary girl and her friends.

Release Date:2017-01-01

Department:Writing

Job:Book

Character:

Episode Count:26

Al Purdy Was Here

The story of Canada's leading poet and the A-Frame cabin he built. Now Canada's leading musicians and artists come together to tell the tale of Al Purdy.

Release Date:2015-10-09

Vote Count:3

Frankenstein and the Vampyre: A Dark and Stormy Night

A drama-documentary telling the story of the celebrated gathering in Geneva, 1816 which led to the creation of both Frankenstein and the first modern vampire story.

Release Date:2014-11-01

Character:Self

Vote Count:7

Trailblazer Honors

One-hour annual event that celebrates leaders at the forefront of LGBTQ equality.

Release Date:2014-06-27

Character:Self - Honoree (archive footage)

Episode Count:1

Vote Count:2

Late Night with Seth Meyers

Seth Meyers, who is "Saturday Night Live’s" longest serving anchor on the show’s wildly popular "Weekend Update," takes over as host of NBC’s "Late Night" — home to A-list celebrity guests, memorable comedy and the best in musical talent. As the Emmy Award-winning head writer for "SNL," Meyers has established a reputation for sharp wit and perfectly timed comedy, and has gained fame for his spot-on jokes and satire. Meyers takes his departure from "SNL" to his new post at "Late Night," as Jimmy Fallon moves to "The Tonight Show".

Release Date:2014-02-25

Character:Self

Episode Count:1

Vote Count:98

Awaiting Atwood

Two washed-up, middle-aged adventuresses are under the delusion literary icon Margaret Atwood has invited them to stay with her in downtown Toronto. Having nothing better to do for the summer, they turn this into a full-on adventure traveling by bike and canoe from Sudbury to Ms. Atwood's front lawn. En route, they experience a series of misadventures, encountering themes and images from some of Atwood's best-loved novels.

Release Date:2013-11-14

Character:Margaret Atwood

Payback

An adaptation of Margaret Atwood's book examining the metaphor of indebtedness.

Release Date:2012-03-16

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Vote Count:4

In the Wake of the Flood

On the eve of her 70th birthday, Canadian writer Margaret Atwood set out on an international tour criss-crossing the British Isles and North America to celebrate the publication of her new dystopian novel, The Year of the Flood. Rather than mount a traditional tour to promote a book's publication, Atwood conceived and executed something far more ambitious and revelatory--a theatrical version of her novel. Along the way she reinvented what a book tour could (and maybe should) be. But Atwood wasn't selling books as much as advocating an idea: how humanity must respond to the consequences of an environmentally compromised planet before her work of speculative fiction transforms into prophesy.

Release Date:2010-08-02

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Character:Margaret Atwood

Yesno

Based on a book of poetry by Dennis Lee, YESNO is a playful view of a planet on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Humphrey Bogart meets Werner Herzog in the heart of darkness. Leonard Cohen, Michael Ondaatje and Margaret Atwood voice Lee's poetry over flood of images that mix live action and animation, calligraphy and DNA.

Release Date:2010-01-01

Character:(voice)

The Robber Bride

Journalist Zenia Arden has disappeared. When her finger turns up on the shores of Lake Ontario next to her blood-soaked car, the police believe they've uncovered a homicide.

Release Date:2007-03-03

Department:Writing

Job:Novel

Vote Count:8

Reading Alistair MacLeod

This feature doc profiles acclaimed writer Alistair MacLeod. Hailed internationally as a master of the short story, MacLeod also wrote a novel, No Great Mischief, which was celebrated around the world. Depicting men and women living out their lives against the haunting landscape that surrounds them, most of MacLeod's work is firmly based in Cape Breton even if his characters stray elsewhere. Focusing on the complexities and abiding mysteries at the heart of human relationships, MacLeod maps the close bonds and impassable chasms that lie between people and invokes memory and myth to celebrate the continuity of the generations. This film portrait explores the life and work of this giant of literature.

Release Date:2005-01-01

Character:Self

Vote Count:1

Tout le monde en parle

Host Guy A. Lepage brings together six to eight personalities from different milieus—sports, politics, stage productions and more—that are the subject of everyone’s conversations and/or are important figures in recent events. Participants are invited to speak freely, voicing their opinions on headline news or on a subject that is near and dear to them.

Release Date:2004-09-12

Character:Self

Episode Count:1

Vote Count:9

imagine…

The biggest names from the world of art, film, music, literature and dance. Alan Yentob gets close up with those shaping today's cultural world.

Release Date:2003-06-11

Character:Self

Episode Count:1

Vote Count:7

Shadow Maker: Gwendolyn MacEwen, Poet

"Michael Ondaatje called Gwendolyn MacEwen 'the last of the bardic poets'. In the early 60s, she astonished the nascent beat scene at Toronto's Bohemian Embassy with her exotic looks and her accomplished writing style. During her lifetime MacEwen travelled to Greece and Egpyt, married twice, wrote novels, translated Greek verse, took lovers and wrote radio scripts. Above all, she wrote luminous poetry, some of which is sensitively visualized in this thoughtful, pensive work which features insights from Margaret Atwood, Judith Merrill and Rosemary Sullivan." -- Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival

Release Date:1999-05-05

Character:Herself

The View

ABC Daytime's morning chatfest, currently featuring Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines, Alyssa Farah Griffin, and Ana Navarro discussing the most exciting events of the day. Hot topics in the news, the best experts in their field, celebrity interviews and general entertainment are all part of The View.

Release Date:1997-08-11

Character:Self

Episode Count:1

Vote Count:96

The Handmaid's Tale

In a dystopian, polluted right-wing religious tyranny, a young woman is put in sexual slavery on account of her now rare fertility.

Release Date:1990-02-15

Department:Writing

Job:Novel

Vote Count:229

Heaven On Earth

An armful of destitute orphans transported to the New World at the turn of the century. This is the turbulent and moving story of four British 'bricks for Empire building' - based on the memoirs of some of the 100,000 'home children' who helped build the new Canada.

Release Date:1987-03-01

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Margaret Atwood: Once in August

In Margaret Atwood: Once in August, filmmaker Michael Rubbo attempts to discover what shapes the celebrated writer's fiction and what motivates her characters. As one of Canada's most distinguished poets and novelists, Atwood is also one of this country's most elusive literary figures.

Release Date:1984-01-01

Character:Herself

Vote Count:1

Surfacing

Following her father's puzzling disappearance, Kate and her city-bred companions brave the untamed backwoods in a desperate search for him. However, the harsh environment becomes a dangerous catalyst for their explosive mix of personalities, propelling them into a world of raw emotion and unbridled passion.

Release Date:1981-07-25

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Vote Count:5

For The Record

For The Record, a series of one-hour and ninety-minute film dramas, started on the series, Performance, as a subseries called Camera ’76. Aired Sundays 9:00-10:00 p.m., January 1977 to 1986. A collection of docudrama-style short stories on diverse but socially relevant (and very Canadian) topics such as unemployment, euthanasia, spousal abuse, televangelists, aboriginal issues, and anglophone-francophone relations. This series attracted most of the 'big name' Canadian actors and directors of the time.

Release Date:1977-01-01

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Episode Count:1