Tony Nardi

A multi-award winner for his work in film, television and theatre, Tony Nardi, born in Calabria, Italy, is a Canadian actor, playwright, director and producer. He’s a five-time Canadian screen awards Nominee, including four Genie Awards nominations, winning twice for Best Actor for his roles in La Sarrasine (1992) and My Father’s Angel (2001), and one Canadian Screen Awards nomination for his role in Corbo (2016). He was the recipient of the Prix Guy-L’Écuyer for Best Actor at the 16^th Rendez-vous du cinéma Québécois for his role in La Déroute (1998) and was nominated twice for the Quebec Cinema Awards (Le Gala Québec Cinema - Prix Iris) for Best Supporting Actor for his roles in Corbo (2016) and Embrasse-moi comme tu m'aimes (Kiss Me Like a Lover) (2017). He co-authored the screenplays for La Sarrasine and La Déroute and was the dramaturg for Café Italia/Montréal. He has performed in theatres across Canada ranging from classics to more experimental and collective-driven works. His first play, La Storia dell’Emigrante – written in Calabrian – in collaboration with Vincent Ierfino, played in Montreal in 1979 and 1980, and in Toronto in 1982, winning the 1st James Buller Award for Best Original Canadian play at the Ontario Multicultural Theatre Festival at Harbourfront. Parts were filmed for Paul Tana's docudrama Caffè Italia/Montréal. A Modo Suo (A Fable), written and presented entirely in Calabrian, received a Dora Award nomination (Outstanding New Play) in 1990. An English translation in collaboration with poet/author Antonino Mazza was published in its entirety in the Fall 2000 issue of the Canadian Theatre Review. In 2007, Two Letters, his two theatrical (part documentary) monologues on the state of contemporary theatre, film and television (and stereotypes), based on and developed from actual correspondence sent to “middlemen” of the Canadian cultural scene – a film/television producer and two theatre critics – were nominated for a Dora Award (Outstanding New Play). “...And Counting!” (his third Letter), a post-mortem of the first two and exploration/critique of funding, partly based on his phone communication with an officer at the Ontario Arts Council, was first performed in 2008.  He received a Siminovitch Prize in Theatre nomination (long list) for playwriting (2008).  The three Letters were filmed as three separate films in front of a live audience at UQAM (2009). Two Letters…And Counting! was published by Guernica Editions (2013), and received a nomination for the Patrick O’Neill Scholarly Award - given by the Canadian Association for Theatre Research to the best edited collection published in either English or French on a Canadian theatre and performance topic.