Brown Girl Begins

Sharon Lewis’ talent successfully criss-crosses the genre of television, film, digital, print and theatre in a variety of roles as an award winning director, actor producer and writer.

Sharon began working in the arts as an actor. She landed the title role in the Cannes nominated film, RUDE, the first all-Black above-the-line Canadian feature film. She continued to work in film and television as an actor but also moved into directing theatre. She co-wrote, directed and produced the 1994 smash hit play, Sistahs. Sharon married her political activist background with her on camera experience and garnered the highest rating for hosting the CBC live political talk show, CounterSpin in the history of that show. She is the first woman of colour in Canada to host a national prime time talk show. She is a Leo and Gemini nominated television host for ZeD, an interactive television and web CBC show.

In 2005 Sharon decided to hone her skills behind the camera as a director and went on to win the best Sci-Fi short for Chains at the Eugene International Film Festival. Chains, which she directed, produced and wrote was then bought by HBO USA, CBC Reflections and then played at the prestigious Chicago International Film Festival in 2010. Sharon continues her work with Caribbean-Canadian heroines with her first feature film, Brown Girl Begins. Sharon leads the way as a hybrid artist in this ever changing landscape of collapsing barriers between the artistic genres.