Emmy-nominated filmmaker Catherine Cyran, who carved out a career and home in Canada with a string of holiday movies in recent years, has died in Vancouver.

The director-writer-producer died from cancer on Dec. 24, her manager tells Playback Daily. She was 59.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Vancouver-based Cyran became a permanent resident of Canada in 2019, according to her website. She directed several movies in B.C., including Lifetime biopic The Victoria Gotti Story, A Christmas Duet for Hallmark Channel and A Homecoming for the Holidays for Hallmark Movies and Mysteries.

The Harvard graduate began her career in London as a management consultant for the Royal Shakespeare Company, followed by work in politics and at Stanford Graduate School of Business in the U.S. She then moved to Los Angeles to begin a career in filmmaking, starting with writing and producing low-budget movies for director Roger Corman (The Little Shop of Horrors).

Her first feature was 1993’s White Wolves: A Cry in the Wild II for Disney Channel, which she wrote and directed and for which she landed a Daytime Emmy nomination. She went on to write and/or direct more than 20 other films, including Dangerous Waters for Family Channel, the horror Sawbones for Showtime, action-drama True Heart and rom-com Christmas Do-Over.

Cyran’s other credits include writing Honey 3: Dare to Dance, and co-writing Werewolf: The Beast Among Us, both for Universal. She also directed three The Prince & Me franchise films.

Photo courtesy of Catherine Cyran’s website