It’s humbling sitting across the table from a writer – a real writer – rapping about the nuances of writing as I ask questions to get inside the head of this talented woman who is two years my senior, but at least 10 years ahead of me in the game. Part of my line of questioning is designed to help me write this column, but even more of it is of personal interest because, well, like most writers, I’m fascinated by how other writers do it.

But unlike Morwyn Brebner, co-creator, executive producer and writer for the yet-to-be-televised but recently wrapped Copper series, I am not a playwright-turned-top-rank-TV scribe with a major network show under my belt. (I just write about this stuff.)

Brebner’s first notable turn at TV was as a co-writer on Ken Finkleman’s At the Hotel (CBC) – all six episodes written in conjunction with the Fink and Ellen Vanstone, with whom she shared a Gemini nom for best writing in a dramatic series. But her first signature show is Copper, which started with a conversation between her and Vanstone and quickly evolved into a 13 x 60 ‘rookie cop’ series produced by Ilana Frank’s Thump Inc. and E1 Entertainment.

‘You understand when you start researching [the cop world] how rich it is with stories,’ says Brebner, who had no prior experience with cops, but relates oh too well to the challenges of being a rookie. That’s where the show departs from the glut of cop series in the TV universe. ‘It’s very character-driven,’ says the Annex area resident, who moved to Toronto in 1996 to be a writer-in-residence at the Tarragon Theatre.

Welsh-born, Brebner, who recently wed fellow playwright Michael Healey, was raised in Ottawa and later schooled in Montreal at the National Theatre School of Canada. But she’s much more forthright in talking about her career than her personal life.

She’s hesitant to say what her charity of choice is (although I finally discover it’s the Daily Bread Food Bank). She’s a voracious reader, naming Chekhov as her favorite writer, and subscribes to The New York Review of Books (although she seems embarrassed to admit both for what I think is fear of looking cliché or pretentious).

Like her name, there’s nothing cliché or pretentious about Brebner. She plays up her luck and learning experiences, and is quick to play down her talent and accolades.

‘Being a rookie isn’t a slick experience, there’s nothing gimmicky,’ she says in describing the look and tone of Copper, but she could just as easily be describing herself. She’s unmistakably down to earth, though her personality hints of irony – contrite yet confident, eloquent yet modest, vintage yet modern.

For Brebner, the departure from theater to TV – initially inspired by Frank, who discovered her after watching her debut play, Music for Contortionist (coproduced by the Shaw Festival and Tarragon) – is all about the writing and process.

‘Playwriting is all about talk. I’ve never written a play with a narrative,’ she says. Nor had she ever written 56 pages in four days or created characters she could follow over 13 episodes. And most importantly, she says, she’d never worked so collaboratively with a team. ‘Playwriting is a solitary existence… I’ve gone from being a cloistered monk to a big dinner party where everyone seems smarter than you.’

Copper, like Flashpoint and The Bridge, is part of a fairly new onslaught of locally grown cop series that brings the interest of Canadian and American broadcasters together. In this case it’s Global and ABC, both of which bought in without so much as a pilot only a year ago.

But this coup or trend or whatever it is is only part of what’s got Brebner feeling so lucky. After all, her first show has placed her among the upper echelons of Canadian TV talent, not the least of which includes Copper co-creator/showrunner Tassie Cameron (Flashpoint) and director David Wellington (Would Be Kings). She’s also well into development on several other high-profile projects, including a feature adaptation of Barbara Gowdy’s Helpless for Foundry Films and a mystery series pilot (based on Mary Jane Maffini’s Camilla McPhee book series) with Four Seasons for CTV.

Not bad for a rookie.

Agency: Harrison Artist Management