Tanisha Taitt is a director, actor, playwright, educator, activist and accidental essayist who has worked with companies including Obsidian, Nightwood, NAC, Workman Arts, Buddies in Bad Times, and Soulpepper, and spent three seasons as a Resident Artist-Educator with Young People’s Theatre. She was Artistic Mentor for the Paprika Festival Creators’ Unit and Program Director for both The Toronto Fringe Festival’s TENT program and The Musical Stage Company’s youth training initiative One Song Glory.  From 2013-2019, she was been a Dramatic Arts mentor with the Toronto District School Board.  Also a singer/songsmith for over 30 years, Tanisha is a recipient of the Canadian Music Publishers Association Songwriters Award for outstanding achievement in songwriting, and is currently writing two musical theatrical works.

For a decade, Tanisha was an artist and director with the award-winning Children’s Peace Theatre, an organization that uses the arts to teach children and youth about the creation of peace through justice.  As a longtime anti-VAW activist, Tanisha spent seven years as Producer of V-Day Toronto/One Billion Rising Canada — part of the global movement to end violence against women and girls, during which time she directed 11 of its productions.  Known by her peers for her fierce commitment to inclusion and racial/cultural representation in the performing arts, she is also an anti-oppression educator and facilitator who has written over 30 essays about race, power and equity both within and outside of the theatre industry.

Tanisha has served on arts council and playwriting juries, as well as advisory committees. She was ‘Harolded’ in 2013 and in 2015, critic Lynn Slotkin bestowed upon her an inaugural “Tootsie” Award in the “They Can Do Anything” category.  Tanisha’s play Keeper was published by Scirocco Drama in late 2016.  In addition to directing for theatre, she is an audiobook director for Penguin Random House Canada.  Tanisha was nominated as a director for the Pauline McGibbon Award for Unique Talents and Potential for Excellence, and teaches 1st Year Contemporary Scene Study at George Brown Theatre School.  She is a two-time YWCA Woman of Distinction nominee for her commitment to artistic excellence and social justice.