Rick Whelan

Rick Whelan is an award-winning playwright and journalist. He began his professional life as an actor, appearing as Charlie Brown in the U.S. national company of You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown. He also spent four seasons as a member of the acting company at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Canada.
His plays have been produced in theatres all across the U.S. and Canada, including the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, the Barter Theatre (Virginia), the Actors’ Theatre of Louisville and Ottawa’s National Art Centre.
His play Heaven Sent was a winner at Barter Theatre’s Appalachian Plays and Playwrights Festival. His adaptation of Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame has been widely produced at theatres and campuses across North America.
He has co-written two documentaries for Ballinran Entertainment. Death in Canada was nominated for four Gemini Awards (Canada) and an Irish Film and Television Academy Award. He also wrote New Dawn in the Desert, a film detailing the Canadian footprint on the economic miracle of Dubai.
Mr. Whelan, originally from Connecticut, received his BA degree from Columbia University. He is a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen currently residing in Stratford, Ontario.