Jillian Keiley

Keiley was born in 1970 and raised in Goulds,[2] a community just south of St. John's, in Newfoundland, Canada. She attended St. Kevin's High School and York University, completing the theatre directing program in 1994.

While attending York University, Keiley founded the Splash Cabaret Series in St. John's with support from Lois Brown (then artistic animateur of Resource Centre for The Arts Theatre Company (RCAT)). After graduating college, she moved permanently back to St. John's and began the play In Your Dreams, Freud (1994). The play had a cast of 45. Freud was first performed in St. John's as fundraiser for RCAT and was again performed three months later. Keiley and the production crew of the show founded Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland as a company to facilitate the production.[3] Keiley served as the artistic director of Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland for 18 years.

For Artistic Fraud, Keiley has directed The Cheat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Burial Practices, Under Wraps, Salvage: The Story of a House, Icycle, Oil and Water, In Your Dreams, Freud, Afterimage, Fear of Flight, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams and Between Breaths. In 2002, Keiley directed Tempting Providence, Chafe's play which was commissioned and premiered by Theatre Newfoundland Labrador (TNL). The show was created for TNL's Gros Morne Theatre Festival, and it toured consistently from 2003–2014. During this period, Keiley was an annual instructor of chorus with the National Theatre School of Canada, and directed theatre and opera productions in Australia, Ireland, and across Canada.

Keiley became the artistic director of the National Arts Centre English Theatre in 2012. There, she directed Metamorphoses, Alice Through the Looking-Glass (with Stratford Festival), Tartuffe (adapted by Andy Jones) and Twelfth Night (January 2016). Keiley left the National Arts Centre in 2022 after introduction of a co-curation company in residence reduced the scope of her role.[4][5]

For the Stratford Festival, she directed Alice through the Looking Glass (2014), The Diary of Anne Frank (2015),[6] and As You Like It (2016),[7] and The Neverending Story (2019).[8]

She is married to music producer Don Ellis, with whom she has one daughter.[9]

• Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council's Emerging Artist Award - 1996
• Canada Council’s John Hirsch Prize - 1998
• Siminovitch Prize for Directing - 2004[10]
• Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding Direction - 2006 [11]
• Memorial University of Newfoundland Honorary Doctorate of Letters - 2009