Indigenous Artist

Justin Neal is a dramatic writer of offbeat narratives that weave comedy with high-stakes drama, creating uplifting tales of personal transformation. Neal’s projects have received funding from BC Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, First Peoples’ Cultural Council, and the City of Vancouver. As founder of Holy Crow Arts, the fledgling theatre company has premiered his play So Damn Proud (2021) and will premiere Keepers of the Salish Sea in November 2024. Neal’s screenplays have received development funding from Telefilm, the Indigenous Screen Office, and Creative BC.

Neal juggled day jobs in marketing and editorial production in San Francisco and New York with amateur theatre at night before relocating to his family’s traditional Squamish territory to earn a Joint MFA in Creative Writing and Theatre from UBC in 2015. Neal is an alumnus of the Toronto-based Canadian Film Centre’s Norman Jewison Film Program Writers’ Lab (2022).

INDIGENOUS ANCESTRY

First Nations

SELF-IDENTIFICATION

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