The Toronto ACTRA Women’s Committee (TAWC) presented its annual Nell Shipman Award to screenwriter and filmmaker Sherry White yesterday (May 22).

First introduced in 2014, the prize honours a female-identifying producer, writer, showrunner, mentor or programmer who has advanced gender equality in the Canadian film and TV industry. Previous recipients include Karen Walton, Jennifer Podemski, Adrienne Mitchell, Sheri Elwood, and Laurie Finstad-Knizhik. Held at an event at Toronto’s The Spoke Club, the award was presented to White by ACTRA Newfoundland VP Ruth Lawrence.

White’s credits include showrunning and directing season one and two of dark comedy Little Dog (CBC); serving as an exec producer on the drama series Ten Days in the Valley (ABC); writing and exec producing season two and three of Frontier (Discovery/Netflix) starring Jason Momoa; and working as co-exec producer on Shondaland’s The Catch. Additionally, the Newfoundland-born talent has also served as a co-exec producer on procedural Rookie Blue (ABC/Global TV), which she also worked as a writer on for six seasons, and as a writer and producer on Orphan Black (BBC America/Space) and Saving Hope (NBC/CTV).

On the film front, her accomplishments include penning the script for Canada/Ireland copro Maudie. Starring Ethan Hawke and Sally Hawkins, the film about Canadian artist Maud Lewis previously won a raft of prizes including best picture, best original screenplay and best direction at the 2018 Canadian Screen Awards. In addition, her screenwriting credits include Down to the Dirt (2008), The Breadmaker (2003), Relative Happiness (2014) and the Genie Award-nominee Crackie (2009) starring Mary Walsh, which she also directed.

Most recently, she exec produced Telefilm Talent to Watch film Little Orphans and served as a director on an episode of upcoming Canadian medical procedural Nurses (Global TV).