Biography

John Stead is a Canadian director and stunt coordinator.

His directorial work has received several awards and nominations including, an Award of Excellence (Canadian International Film Festival), a Genre Award for Best Suspense (BNFF), a Derek F. Mitchell Artistic Director's Award (Stratford Festival), a Judges' Choice Award (15 Minutes of Fame International Film Festival), a Tyrone Guthrie Award (Stratford Festival), Best Short 1st Runner-Up (Ticket to Hollywood International Film and Screenplay Festival) and nominations for Best Short Award, and Outstanding Achievement in a Comedy Series (Directors Guild of Canada). As a stunt coordinator, he is the winner of two Canadian Screen Awards for Best Stunt Coordination, and winner of the ACTRA Toronto Stunt Ensemble Award.

He has directed the feature films Cyborg Soldier for Nu Image/Peace Arch Entertainment, Troubled Waters for Genius Productions/Peace Arch Entertainment, and Good Morning Tomorrow for Southern Ice Films. His short films include the multiple award-winning thriller, The Waking for Boomerang Films, The Hot Flash for Wishing Field Entertainment, End Game for Wake Up Fast Productions, and Charon's Obal for Right Side Up Entertainment. He has directed on several television series including SkyMed, Pretty Hard Cases, Designated Survivor, Dark Matter, Bitten, The Bobby Buck Show, XIII, Lost Girl, Mutant X, Aaron Stone, The Dresden Files, Tracker, Earth: Final Conflict, and The Adventures of Sinbad.

He has stunt coordinated the action sequences for more than 700 film and television episodes in Canada and abroad, and stunt performed on over 300 TV episodes and films.

John is a Master Instructor-Emeritus with the Academy of Dramatic Combat, and Stage Combat Coordinator for The National Theatre School of Canada. Over the course of 30 years he has been the fight director on over 600 professional theatre productions including Head of Stage Combat for the Stratford Festival of Canada for 25 seasons where he was fight director on over 200 productions. As well, he served as the Fight Director with the Shaw Festival, also for 25 seasons, directing the action on over 100 productions to date. He has worked across Canada and the U.S. with numerous companies including Soulpepper Theatre, Canadian Stage Company, the National Ballet, Mirvish Productions, Necessary Angel Theatre Company, Crow’s Theatre, Theatre Passé Muraille, Opera Ontario, Tarragon Theatre, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Factory Theatre, the National Arts Centre, Studio Arena Theatre in Buffalo, the Geva Theatre in Rochester, the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C., Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Los Angeles Ahmanson Theatre and the Lincoln Centre on Broadway.

John has taught at the National Theatre School, the Birmingham Conservatory, and the Universities of Toronto, Waterloo, Humber, Saskatchewan and Wilfred Laurier.
- IMDb mini biography by: Caldwell and Jeffery