Ivana Shein

Ivana Shein is a second generation Canadian playwright and actor with a classical education in drama.  She moved to Los Angeles with a focus on an acting career where she made connections with the producing, directing and writing insider community. As a result of those relationships, people started to ask her to read their work, which led to coaching and being recruited to get writers to start the work, rewrite the work and complete the work. Her students have been incredibly successful, and she holds their relationship to a classical standard, with Aristotle’s Poetics being her North Star.

Ivana has acted in numerous television and web series, and short and feature films. She had a recurring role on Shonda Rhimes’ ABC series, Station 19, and was featured in the life changing role of Receptionist Number Two in Richard J Lewis’s Barney’s Version. That role led to the creation of an online fantasy life that Ivana was more famous than she actually was, ‘starring’ alongside Dustin Hoffman and Paul Giamatti. This life saving lie led to the creation of her one-woman play Faking It which Emmy nominated producer of Westworld Richard J Lewis directed at The Comedy Central stage, and which was later performed at Just For Laughs, and Upright Citizen Brigade.

She is now developing several full length plays, including The Kiss, inspired by Chagall’s portrait; Borderline, about tensions at the U.S.-Canadian border;  and Canadian Book of The Dead, which concerns itself with the riddle of Canadian identity and was recently workshopped with LA-based Circle X Theatre Co. and San Francisco’s Shotgun Players.  NYT bestselling author Maria Bamford called Canadian Book of The Dead ‘’a sharp, joke-filled delight, relatable and hilarious!’

Her play Single now re-titled A Leonard Cohen Afterworld, was performed at LA’s IAMA Theatre Company and directed by The Blacklist’sAmir Arison. June Diane Raphael’s Jane Club produced a subsequent reading, with The Bear’s Adam Shapiro as Leonard Cohen, The Pitt’s Emmy winner Katherine LaNasa, The Lowdown’s Siena East and Moxie’s Sydney Park.  ‘Ultimately, the content of the work is wholly engrossing in its brilliance.” – The Blacklist.

Ivana is a graduate of The National Theatre School of Canada, where she completed the School’s playwriting program, and has also served on the faculty.