Hi. My name’s Jesse.

I’m a screenwriter, playwright
and occasional actor based in Toronto.

Reading this should take less than a minute.

I co-wrote with Ahmed Moneka the book for the new stage musical It’s a Good Life if You Don’t Weaken with the catalogue of the Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip, directed by Mary-Francis Moore and produced by Michael Rubinoff (Come From Away). It premiered in May 2026 at Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton, and it will run October 22 – November 8, 2026 The Grand Theatre in Kingston, and then May 9 - 30, 2027 at The Segal Centre in Montreal.

I wrote on the feature films Float (Lionsgate) and Code 8: Part ll (Netflix), and I created and starred in the theatre production King Gilgamesh (again with Ahmed Moneka, Seth Bockley and Ahmed’s Juno-nominated Arabic jazz band) which sold out runs in Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, Halifax and Toronto—where it won a Dora Award for Best Music and received four other nominations including Best New Play and Best Director.

As an actor, I won the Toronto ACTRA Award and received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for the horror film Violation (Sundance, TIFF, NYTimes Critics’ Pick) and spent four seasons on Murdoch Mysteries. I’ve also performed in new plays across the U.S. and Canada by writers including Sarah Ruhl and Hannah Moscovitch.

Fun story: in my early 20s I lived, sailed and performed Hacked—an electric-rock opera / circus show—on a 98 ft. tall ship with a crew of singers, aerialists and European vagabonds. We sailed from Florida to New York, using the ship’s deck as a stage, with the audience watching from the dock or shore. Once we were kicked out of Portsmouth, Virginia by the mayor for, “bringing the devil into his town.” That’s me in the photo below, behind the large mask, under the word “horror.”

Let me know if you’d like to connect.

Or if you’d like me to bring the devil into your town.