Canadian Karen Walton is a critically acclaimed screen and television writer-producer who specializes in elevated original stories and adaptations that celebrate outsiders and outliers. Her most recent work as Writer-CoExecutive Producer on fellow Canadian, creator-showrunner Jesse McKeown’s six-part horror series, BELOW debuts October 8th, 2026 on Netflix, starring Josh Hartnett, Mackenzie Davis, Charlie Heaton, Willow Kean, Ruby Stokes, Kaleb Horn, Rohan Campbell, Natasha Henstridge, and Mary Walsh.

Karen’s previous credits include her debut feature film screenplay, beloved independent cult horror classic, GINGER SNAPS (2000). Karen has also written for a variety of ground-breaking, award-winning television series and TV movies, including QUEER AS FOLK (Showtime), ORPHAN BLACK starring Tatiana Maslany (Bell Media/BBC America), THE MANY TRIALS OF ONE JANE DOE starring Wendy Crewson (CBC Television) — for which Karen won a Gemini Award for Best Writing in a Television Movie or Miniseries.

In addition to her ongoing work as a screenwriter-hyphenate, Karen is an accomplished feature film Story Editor, Script Consultant, industry mentor and Canadian screenwriting community leader. She is the founder and online admin of the highly-regarded online professional screenwriting community, inkcanada.

Karen was born and raised in Nova Scotia to parents who hailed from small towns in British Columbia and Alberta. She spent her high school and university years in and around Edmonton, Alberta. Since 1994, she has lived and worked out of Toronto, Ontario — and sometimes Montreal.

Karen’s work has been recognized with the Writers Guild of Canada Writers Block Award, The WGC’s Special Canadian Academy Award, The Margaret Collier Award, for Contributions to the Canadian Screenwriting Profession, The Canadian Comedy Award for Pretty Funny Feature Screenplay, a Toronto International Film Festival Jury Citation for the Screenplay of GINGER SNAPS, and Canadian Screen Awards for Best Dramatic Series (ORPHAN BLACK).

Karen is a film writing graduate of the Canadian Film Centre (founded by Norman Jewison), the University of Alberta (Drama Honours), and a former EP-Showrunner in Residence at the CFC Television Lab (2016).

For further information, contact Karen’s representatives at The Jennifer Hollyer Agency in Toronto, and/or Robert Lazar at Marathon Management in L.A.

This bio is current as of July 2026

Request Karen’s current CV & Bio via The Jennifer Hollyer Agency, here

Please request Karen’s current CV & Bio from the Jennifer Hollyer Agency here.

Karen is an active member of the Writers Guild of Canada. She is a member emerita of SARTEC and the Writers Guild of America West. She is also a member of the Canadian Screen and Television Academy, Women in Film and Television+ Toronto. and currently serves on the board of the human rights organization dedicated to writers in exile, in peril and literary matters of free expression, PEN Canada.

• Please do not forward unsolicited scripts, pitches, concepts of any kind to Karen or her company, Inkling Entertainment Inc. directly. Those should go only to her official representation (see below). Thank you for this consideration. Email Karen here.

• Questions regarding Karen’s availability, interest in projects, booking appearances, and media inquiries should be sent to The Jennifer Hollyer Agency and/or Robert Lazar at Marathon Management here

coming soon…