John Mighton, OC born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada on October 2, 1957, is a Canadian mathematician, playwright and best-selling author, who is known for his work supporting children's math. [1] Mighton founded JUMP Math as a charity in 2002 and developed the JUMP Math program to address student underachievement in math. Mighton has won national and international awards for his contributions to both Canadian theatre and math education. [2]
Mighton earned a BA (Philosophy) at the University of Toronto (1978) and a MA (Philosophy) at McMaster University (1984). [3] He completed a PhD (Mathematics) at the University of Toronto and was awarded an NSERC fellowship for postdoctoral research in knot and graph theory. [4] He is a Fellow of the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences and has taught mathematics and math education at the University of Toronto. Mighton has also lectured in philosophy at McMaster University. [5]
Mighton's plays have been honoured with the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre, two Governor General’s Literary Awards for Drama, three Dora Awards, and the Chalmers Award. [6] His plays include Possible Worlds, The Little Years, Body & Soul, Scientific Americans, A Short History of Night, and Half Life. [7]
In 1997, Mighton played the role of “Tom”, an assistant to the math professor, in the critically acclaimed film, Good Will Hunting . [8]
In 1998, Mighton started a small-scale tutoring group to assist children experiencing challenges in math, though he had abandoned the subject himself for years after struggling with math in school and nearly failing first-year calculus in university.
In 2002 Mighton founded JUMP (Junior Undiscovered Math Prodigies) Math, a Canadian charitable organization. [9]
John has written a book based on his experiences with JUMP. He has written three books on math, including the national best-seller, All Things Being Equal: Why Math is the Key to a Better World (2020). He has also written The Myth of Ability: Nurturing Mathematical Talent in Every Child (2003), which describes his approach and successes with JUMP Math. As a further exploration of his philosophy and methods, he released, The End of Ignorance: Multiplying Our Human Potential (2007).
Tomson Highway is an Indigenous Canadian playwright, novelist, children's author and musician. He is best known for his plays The Rez Sisters and Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, both of which won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play and the Floyd S. Chalmers Award.
David Benson French, OC was a Canadian playwright, most noted for his "Mercer Plays" series of Leaving Home, Of the Fields, Lately, Salt-Water Moon, 1949 and Soldier's Heart.
Lister Sheddon Sinclair, OC was a Canadian broadcaster, playwright and polymath.
Eric Neal Peterson is a Canadian stage, television, and film actor, known for his roles in three major Canadian television series – Street Legal (1987–1994), Corner Gas, and This is Wonderland (2004–2006).
James Mavor Moore was a Canadian writer, producer, actor, public servant, critic, and educator. He notably appeared as Nero Wolfe in the CBC radio production in 1982.
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Judith Clare Thompson, OC is a Canadian playwright. She has twice been awarded the Governor General's Award for drama, and is the recipient of many other awards including the Order of Canada, the Walter Carsen Performing Arts Award, the Toronto Arts Award, The Epilepsy Ontario Award, The B'nai B'rith Award, the Dora, the Chalmers, the Susan Smith Blackburn Award and the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award, both for Palace of the End, which premiered at Canadian Stage, and has been produced all over the world in many languages. She has received honorary doctorates from Thorneloe University and, in November 2016, Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.
Neil Munro was a Scottish-born Canadian director, actor and playwright.
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The Dora Mavor Moore Awards are awards presented annually by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA), honouring theatre, dance and opera productions in Toronto. Named after Dora Mavor Moore, who helped establish Canadian professional theatre, the awards program was established on December 13, 1978, with the first awards held in 1980. Each winner receives a bronze statue made from the original by John Romano.
Dave Carley is a Canadian playwright who has written for stage, radio and television. His plays have had over 450 productions across Canada and the United States, and in other countries. They have won, or been nominated for, a number of awards, including the Governor General's Award, The Chalmers Award, The Dora Award, The Arthur Miller Award and the New York International Radio Festival Award. He was a founder of Friends of Freddy, an association for the appreciation of the Freddy the Pig series of books of Walter Brooks. He was an editor of The Kawartha Sun, the founding editor of the Playwrights Guild of Canada magazine, CanPlay, and also editor of Scirocco Drama in the late 1990s.
Luke Farrell Kirby is an American-Canadian actor. He is best known for his role as Lenny Bruce in the Amazon Prime Video comedy-drama series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series.
Daniel Brooks was a Canadian theatre director, actor, and playwright. He was well known in the Toronto theatre scene for his innovative productions and script-writing collaborations.
Insub "Ins" Choi is a Korean Canadian actor and playwright best known for his Dora Mavor Moore Award-nominated 2011 play Kim's Convenience and its subsequent TV adaptation.
Brendan Gall is a Canadian writer, actor and producer living in Toronto, Ontario.
Tawiah Ben M'Carthy is a Ghanaian-born Canadian actor and playwright. He is best known for his 2012 play Obaaberima, a one-man play about growing up gay in Ghana.
Gord Rand is a Canadian actor and playwright. He is most noted for his recurring role as Det. Marty Duko in the television series Orphan Black, for which he was a Canadian Screen Award nominee for Best Performance in a Guest Role in a Dramatic Series at the 5th Canadian Screen Awards in 2017.
Andrew Moodie is a Canadian actor and playwright. He is most noted for his plays Riot, which was a winner of the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award in 1996, and Toronto the Good, which was a Dora Mavor Moore Award nominee for Best Original Play in 2009.