Hannah Moscovitch (born June 5, 1978) is a Canadian playwright, screenwriter, and executive producer who rose to national prominence in the 2000s. She is best known for her plays East of Berlin, This Is War, "Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story", and Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes, for which she received the 2021 Governor General's Award for English-language drama.
Early life and education Born in Ottawa, Moscovitch is currently based in Toronto and Halifax. Her father, Allan Moscovitch, is a social policy professor at Carleton University. Her mother, Julie White, is a labour researcher. Both have long been active in left wing politics. Moscovitch's father is Jewish, of Romanian and Ukrainian background, while her mother is from a Christian background (of English and Irish ancestry). Moscovitch was "raised as an atheist", and has said that there is "implicitly Jewish sensibility" to her plays. She studied at the National Theatre School in the acting stream.
Career Playwright
Moscovitch gained considerable notice for two short plays written for Toronto's SummerWorks. In 2005, she presented Essay, a play about gender politics in modern academia. The next year at the festival The Russian Play premiered, a romance set in Stalinist Russia. Both were well received by critics and audiences. In 2007, her first full-length play, East of Berlin, premiered at the Tarragon Theatre. The play focuses on the legacy of the Holocaust on the children of those involved. The main character is the son of a Nazi war criminal who grows up in Paraguay. He eventually travels to Berlin and meets the daughter of an Auschwitz survivor. The play was acclaimed for its complex subject, humour, and characters and was also a popular success, returning to Tarragon in winter 2009 and 2010.
2013 saw the premiere of This Is War, a play depicting the lives of Canadian troops in Afghanistan. This Is War won multiple awards with one reviewer writing "Moscovitch shines a light on massive issues like sexual harassment within the military without making her play a morality tale or exposé. It’s a story about four good people in a bad place and all the gray area that that produces." In 2015, Moscovitch wrote the play Infinity about a physicist who becomes involved in a love story while contemplating the nature of time. She collaborated with Lee Smolin to lend verisimilitude to some of the theoretical ideas.
Moscovitch's plays have been widely produced across Canada, including at the Magnetic North Theatre Festival, Ottawa's Great Canadian Theatre Company, The National Arts Centre, Toronto's Factory Theatre, Edmonton's Theatre Network, the Manitoba Theatre Centre, Vancouver's Firehall Arts Centre, the Alberta Theatre Projects, and Montreal's Imago Theatre. Moscovitch is currently playwright-in-residence at Tarragon Theatre and was previously a contributing writer to the CBC radio drama series Afghanada (2006-2011).
She has been dubbed "an indie sensation" by Toronto Life Magazine; "the wunderkind of Canadian theatre" by CBC Radio; "irritatingly talented" by the now defunct Eye Weekly; and the "dark angel of Toronto theatre" by Toronto Star. The National Post, The Globe and Mail, and Now Magazine have all hailed Moscovitch as "Canada's Hottest Young Playwright".
Screenwriter
In 2021, Moscovitch and Jennifer Podemski created the drama series Little Bird for Crave.Victoria Ahearn, "‘The Amazing Race Canada,’ ‘Letterkenny’ spinoff join upcoming Bell Media lineup" . Toronto Star, June 10, 2021.
Since 2021, Moscovitch has been a writer for the AMC series Interview with the Vampire and was an executive producer for its third season, The Vampire Lestat. On 24 July 2026, AMC announced the renewal of the show for a fourth season titled Queen of the Damned, for which Moscovitch will serve as showrunner.
Works
Plays Essay – 2005 The Russian Play – 2006 East of Berlin – 2007 In This World – 2008 The Children's Republic – 2009 Little One – 2011 Other People's Children – 2012 This Is War – 2012 I Have no Stories to Tell You – 2013 Infinity – 2014 What a Young Wife Ought To Know – 2015 The Kaufman Cabaret - 2016 - Commissioned by the University of Alberta Bunny – 2016 Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story - 2017 Secret Life of a Mother - 2018 Sky on Swings - 2019 Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes - 2020 Post-Democracy - 2021 Fall On Your Knees (adaptation) - 2023
Television +YearTitleCreatorWriterExecutiveproducerNetworkNotesRef.2013PlayedCTV2015–2016X CompanyCBC TelevisionAlso executive story editor2022–presentInterview with the VampireAMCShowrunner (Season 4-)2023Little BirdCrave, APTN lumi
Awards and honours Moscovitch won Dora Mavor Moore Awards for In This World (2010) and "Infinity" (2015). She won both the Trillium Book Award and Toronto Critic's Awards in 2014 for This Is War. She has won the Nova Scotia Masterworks Award for "Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story", and the SummerWorks Prize for Best Production for The Russian Play.
She received the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize (2016) in the Drama category, becoming the first Canadian woman to win the prize.
She was the winner of the Governor General's Award for English-language drama at the 2021 Governor General's Awards for her play Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes."Inuk author Norma Dunning wins $25K Governor General's fiction prize" . Coast Reporter, November 17, 2021.
Award nominations received by Moscovitch include the Siminovitch Prize, the Governor General's Award, the Carol Bolt Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the KM Hunter Award and the Toronto Arts Council Foundation Emerging Artist Award. +YearAwardCategoryWorkResultRef.2005SummerWorks Contra Guys AwardBest New ScriptEssay 2006SummerWorks Jury PrizeOutstanding New ProductionThe Russian Play 2007Toronto Arts Council Foundation Emerging Artist Award 2008 Dora Mavor Moore AwardBest New PlayEssay Dora Mavor Moore AwardBest New PlayEast of Berlin The K.M Hunter Artist Award 2009The K.M Hunter Artist Award Carol Bolt AwardEast of Berlin Governor General’s Literary AwardDramaEast of Berlin 2010Susan Smith Blackburn PrizeEast of Berlin Dora Mavor Moore AwardBest New Play for Young AudiencesIn this World Dora Mavor Moore AwardBest New ProductionThe Huron Bride Dora Mavor Moore AwardBest New PlayThe Huron Bride 2013Dora Mavor Moore AwardBest New PlayLittle One Carol Bolt AwardThis is War Toronto Theatre Critics’ AwardBest Canadian PlayThis is War 2014Trillium Book AwardOutstanding work of literature in OntarioThis is War 2015Siminovitch PrizeDora Mavor Moore AwardBest New PlayInfinity New York Fringe Festival Overall Excellence AwardLittle One Gascon-Thomas AwardAward for Revitalizing Canadian Theatre2016Donald Windham-Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes (Beinecke Library, Yale University)DramaEast of Berlin 2016Nova Scotia MasterWorks Arts AwardWhat a Young Wife Ought to Know2017Fringe First at the Edinburgh Fringe FestivalOld Stock: A Refugee Love Story Herald Angel at the Edinburgh Fringe FestivalOld Stock: A Refugee Love Story Siminovitch Prize2018Drama Desk AwardOutstanding Book of a MusicalOld Stock: A Refugee Love Story Dora Mavor Moore AwardBest Touring ProductionWhat a Young Wife Ought to Know Toronto Theatre Critics’ AwardBest Canadian PlayBunny Nova Scotia MasterWorks Arts AwardLieutenant GovernorOld Stock: A Refugee Love Story 2019International Opera AwardsWorld Premiere CategorySky on Swings Toronto Theatre Critics’ AwardBest New Canadian MusicalOld Stock: A Refugee Love Story Governor General's Literary AwardsWhat a Young Wife Ought to Know Dora Mavor Moore AwardBest New PlaySecret Life of a Mother2021Governor General’s Literary AwardDramaSexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes 2022Jim Connors Dartmouth Book AwardFictionSexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes2024Canadian Screen AwardsBest Drama SeriesLittle Bird
References
External links
"Moscovitch is already famous" Toronto Star October 20, 2007 "Hannah Moscovitch: Playwright revisits the production that set her career in motion" NOW Magazine January 16, 2008 "Hannah Moscovitch: Hit factory The Globe and Mail. January 13, 2009