Michael Greyeyes

Michael Greyeyes

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Toronto, Ontario

Award-winning Actor, Educator, and Leader - Intercultural and Transdisciplinary Performance Expert

Michael Greyeyes is a multi-faceted, award-winning artist, educator, and leader. He is a proud Nehiyawe -Plains Cree from Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada. Michael Greyeyes is known for his roles in Fear The Walking Dead and seminal films like Dance Me Outside. He recently landed a role on Peacock's Rutherford Falls. Michael Greyeyes is the founding Artistic Director of Signal Theatre, a Canadian theatre company that creates intercultural and transdisciplinary performance work. Michael Greyeyes believes we've arrived at a landmark moment for Indigenous people on the screen and behind the scenes.

MICHAEL GREYEYES BIOGRAPHY

Michael Greyeyes is a multi-faceted, award-winning artist, educator, and leader. He is a proud Nehiyawe Plains Cree from Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada. Michael Greyeyes is the founding Artistic Director of Signal Theatre, a Canadian theatre company that creates intercultural and transdisciplinary performance work.

He is most well-known for his work as an actor, with a twenty-five-year career in film and television, including the feature film Woman Walks Ahead, co-starring Golden Globe winner and Oscar-nominated actress Jessica Chastain, in which he plays the iconic Hunkpapa spiritual leader, Sitting Bull.

Michael Greyeyes has shattered boundaries wherever he has encountered them. Before joining The National Ballet of Canada, Canada’s leading professional dance company, he was the first Indigenous boy to graduate from Canada’s National Ballet School, a world-renowned classical ballet training academy.

Michael Greyeyes choreographed and directed the first Cree-language opera, “Pimooteewin,” with libretto by legendary Cree author Tomson Highway and was the first Indigenous professor in the Department of Theatre at York University. After dancing with The National Ballet of Canada and Eliot Feld company in New York City, Michael Greyeyes began working as an actor.

He has created an incredibly diverse body of work on stage and extensively in film and television for nearly 30 years. Selected credits include his landmark performance as Hunkpapa Chief Sitting Bull in Woman Walks Ahead, co-starring with Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning actress Jessica Chastain, which premiered as a gala presentation at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, Saints and Strangers (National Geographic), Klondike (Discovery), Terence Malick’s The New World, Skinwalkers and We Shall Remain (PBS), and Passchendaele, Paul Gross’ World War I feature that opened the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.

Most recently, he was seen as Qaletaqa Walker, a recurring character on season 3 of AMC’s hit show Fear the Walking Dead. His work as a theatre director is ground-breaking. In 2009, he directed Daniel David Moses’ play Almighty Voice and His Wife at Theatre Passe Muraille for Native Earth Performing Arts. This seminal production was also invited to Origins, the inaugural theatre festival for First Nations in London, England and has subsequently toured across Canada in 2010, most recently at the PuSh Festival in Vancouver in 2012.

In other mediums, Michael Greyeyes created performance artwork in collaboration with visual artist Rebecca Belmore (“Gone Indian”) for Scotiabank’s Nuit Blanche in Toronto and “Dance to the Berdashe” with long-time collaborator & visual artist Kent Monkman. He also wrote and directed “Seven Seconds,” a short film that premiered at the 2010 imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.

In that same year, he created “Winter Home,” an installation and solo performance work examining his family’s wintering history, that was subsequently performed at the Prismatic Festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

For Signal Theatre, Michael Greyeyes has directed and choreographed several full-length dance theatre works, including A Soldier’s Tale, which delves into the intense aftermath of war on soldiers and their families.

In 2015, he wrote and developed Nôhkom, directed by Yvette Nolan, at the Banff Centre’s Playwrights Colony, exploring the life of his paternal grandmother, Margaret Greyeyes. In June of 2017, Signal premiered its most ambitious work yet, “Bearing,” a searing examination of Canada’s Indian residential school legacy at Luminato, Toronto’s internationally acclaimed theatre and music festival.

Michael Greyeyes is an Associate Professor at York University and was the Graduate Program Director of the MFA Performance Stream in the Department of Theatre from 2014 to 2017. His scholarly work includes publications, keynote addresses, and performative manifestos, such as Inside the Machine (London, UK) and Staging Ethnicity (PuSH Festival, Vancouver).

He is married to his wife of 22 years, Nancy Greyeyes, a former dancer and current dance teacher. They live in Toronto, Canada, with their two daughters.

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The event with Michael Greyeyes went amazingly. His presentation was one of my favourites in a long time. The performance aspects he wove through it along with the way in which he spoke about his experiences and his stories was a real treat. I do not think I have seen anything like that before. And I was not the only one to think so.

Articles & Media

Michael Greyeyes champions Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel on Canada Reads 2023

CBC

The actor, dancer, director and choreographer will add 'Canada Reads panellist' to his resume March 27-30 Actor Michael Greyeyes is championing the novel Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. (CBC) Actor, dancer, director and choreographer Michael Greyeyes is championing the novel Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel on Canada Reads 2023! The great Canadian book debate will take place on March 27-30. This year, we are looking for one book to shift your perspective. Meet the Canada Reads 2023 contenders The debates will be hosted by Ali Hassan and will be broadcast on CBC Radio One, CBC TV, CBC Gem and on CBC Books. An eerily prescient novel Station Eleven is a dystopian novel that...
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‘Firestarter’: Michael Greyeyes Saw His Performance as Way to ‘Take the Role Back’

Indie Wire

When the original "Firestarter" was released to theaters in 1984, the character of Rainbird was played by non-indigenous performer George C. Scott. Actor Michael Greyeyes has long been a fan of Stephen King, so when he was offered the role of Rainbird, a tracker meant to find a young girl with the ability to spontaneously start fires, in the remake of “Firestarter” he was eager. But the character comes with a lot of baggage. When the original “Firestarter” was released to theaters in 1984, the character was played by non-indigenous performer George C. Scott. But for Greyeyes, who has been working in Hollywood for going on 30 years now, it was an opportunity to give the character...
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AWARD-WINNING ACTOR MICHAEL GREYEYES JOINS DIRECTING TEAM FOR CTV COMEDY CHANNEL’S ORIGINAL SERIES, ACTING GOOD

TV eh

From a media release: CTV Comedy Channel announced today that award-winning actor, director, and choreographer Michael Greyeyes is tapped to direct five episodes of the brand-new original series, ACTING GOOD. Loosely based on the life of Anishinaabe stand-up comedian and series co-creator, Paul Rabliauskas, production on the half-hour scripted comedy is currently underway in Winnipeg and surrounding areas, and is set to premiere later this year. Joining Greyeyes as directors for the debut season of ACTING GOOD are writer, director, and video artist Darlene Naponse (Anishinaabe), as well as series co-showrunners Amber-Sekowan Daniels (Anishininew) and Eric Toth. ACTING GOOD stars...
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Michael Greyeyes is an expert professional key note speaker with a lot of experience speaking and delivering engaging talks to organizations and audiences in Canada. Each of Speaker Bureau Canada's talent have different ways to assess their fees, and Michael Greyeyes speaker fee ranges depending on the size of the audience, event format (in person or virtual), event location, and if the organization booking them is a non profit, association, government department/government agency or business/corporation. The speakers we work with are flexible with their fees, and it is important for us to learn more about your event before we approach them, as it is our role to work for you, and to help you find a speaker within budget. 

Please contact Speakers Bureau of Canada and provide us with your event details so that we can contact Michael Greyeyes to check availability or confirm the pricing and associated costs to hire a great speaker like Michael Greyeyes for your event. As Michael Greyeyes's agent and as a Canadian top speaker bureau and talent agency for speakers, we are able to propose each event opportunity from each host organization's behalf to try to help you get in touch with Michael Greyeyes and confirm them for your in person or online meeting/event. We can also provide and advise on the booking process and potentially negotiate their fee. Speakers Canada is a client focused speaker agency, and we work for you in finding good speakers for your team meetings and booking processes.

Michael Greyeyes Disclaimer

Speakers Bureau Canada assists companies and event planning teams seeking to hire talent like Michael Greyeyes for speaking engagements, virtual meetings, conference appearances, training sessions and workshops facilitations. Our Canadian speakers bureau does not claim to exclusively represent Michael Greyeyes, however they are represented by Speakers Canada, and we work with them closely for their Canadian speaking opportunities and bookings. As Canada's top speaker bureau, we represent Canadian motivational keynote speakers and professional guest speakers that will be available on your upcoming events date and location that are withing the budget. Our talented bureau speaker booking agency can help find business speakers or celebrity speakers that aligns with each organization, audience, event theme and the topic themes you hope for the speaker to address in their presentation. 

When SBC receives a request to book Michael Greyeyes we provide you with their speaker fees, travel costs and check their schedules. We work closely with the host organization's event planning team and the speaker to handle the logistics and to relay or negotiate associated costs. Our talented team members then will work with our talent directly or their agent/manager/assistant to confirm the Canadian speaker fee and travel expenses, so that event planning teams can receive an official quote for the speaker appearing at the event. Speaker fees and travel costs vary per speaker and our role is to contact Michael Greyeyes about your event, after we have connected with the event organizers to learn all the event details and/or conference program. Each booking request is unique since session durations and audience sizes can vary which may affect the speaker's fees. If you are looking to hire Michael Greyeyes, we recommend filling out the booking request form so a booking agent from Speakers Bureau Canada can get in touch with our talent to help you coordinate with your team to engage the speaker for a successful event.