leslie d. bland
Leslie has produced, written, directed, and performed in over 150 professional projects in film, television, radio, and live theatre. He is an alumnus of the Trans Atlantic Partners training and networking program in international co-production.
He has produced and directed the all-female comedy series “She Kills Me” for APTN; and the award-winning feature length documentary “Gone South: How Canada Invented Hollywood” which featured Howie Mandel, Neve Campbell, David Foster, Alex Trebek, David Shore, Shannon Tweed, and many other Canadian celebrities, for theatrical release and broadcast on Super Channel. “Gone South” won Best Documentary at the Glendale International Film Festival and was an official selection to 22 film festivals in Canada, the US, and the Cayman Islands. It was also featured on Air Canada flights, specialty channel Hollywood Suite, Amazon Prime, Discovery Networks, and will soon be available on Amazon Prime and Westjet flights. Leslie was the showrunner, and produced and directed the Telus sitcom series “Ollie and Emma”, now being broadcast to millions of homes in the USA by FNX. Leslie also produced/ directed the documentary series “The Wine Guys: Grape Escapes”, which was shot in Italy and Spain, and has been sold throughout Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, and Europe. He recently completed the documentary “Dust n’ Bones” as writer/ director/ producer for Telus, APTN, FNX, and theatrical distribution. Télé Québec, Knowledge Network, TV5 Monde, New Zealand’s Maori TV, CHEK TV, Zoomer Media, and Australia’s NITV have acquired Dust n' Bones; and is currently in post-production for TV series for AMI-tv and Zoomer Media.
Leslie has a number of projects in development with a variety of Canadian broadcasters including Super Channel and Hollywood Suite, including the sitcom series “Hilary For Hire”, as well as a number of feature films in development including the Telefilm supported action dark comedy “Tattie Bogles”.
From 2001 – 2010, Leslie was the Artistic Director of Kaleidoscope Theatre in Victoria. During his time as AD, he led a renaissance of Kaleidoscope’s programming and profile in the community, developing new works, setting attendance records for local in-house productions, winning and being nominated for many awards, and touring its productions nationally and internationally.
For 12 years Leslie was the co-founder and Executive Producer of Edmonton’s Stage Polaris. During his time there, he directed, performed, and produced over 100 productions, premiering many new plays, while overseeing Polaris’ growth from an idea to becoming the second largest theatre company in Edmonton, with annual attendance in excess of 100,000. During Leslie’s last year with Stage Polaris, it won more Sterling Awards than any other Edmonton Theatre.
He is a graduate of the University of Alberta B.F.A. Conservatory Acting program, holds both his A.R.C.T. in Speech Arts and Drama with the Royal Conservatory of Music (University of Toronto), and received his M.F.A. in Directing from the University of 2 Victoria. He has taught for the University of Miami, Concordia University in Montreal, and is currently an instructor at the University of Victoria.