Tomas Mureika

Tomas Mureika has known he wanted to tell stories since he wrote, directed, produced and starred in his first dramatic work at the age of 11. Twenty plays, twenty films and a host of published writings later, he is still working as a multi-threat storyteller, crossing into numerous art forms and media. During his teen years, Mureika established himself in the theatre scene, winning awards for Best Original Play and Best Director for "Foley Mansion Murder" and "The Boys of Autumn" at the New Brunswick Provincial Drama Festival. He proceeded to sweep the top awards for Best Director, Best Original Play, Best Actor and Best Production with "Seniors", which was also named Best Canadian Play by the Writers' Federation of New Brunswick and Best New Play by the National Young Playwright's Competition, chosen by famed author and dramatist Paul Zindel. Mureika wrote, directed, co-produced and starred in "Easter", which received the Special Adjudicator's Award at the Quebec Drama Festival. "Easter" was successfully launched at the McGill Players' Theatre (MPT) and then remounted five years later in Los Angeles for a sold out, extended run. While serving as the Artistic Director for the MPT, Mureika also wrote and directed the hit drama, "Cathedral", which was the centerpiece of the company's 1987-88 season. In the 1990s, Mureika began his MFA in Filmmaking at the prestigious University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he wrote and directed a collection of over a dozen films, including the multi-festival award-winning "Light at the End" and his darkly post-apocalyptic adaptation of "The Handmaid's Tale". He followed his graduate work at USC by independently producing the Western feature, "Driftwood", which Mureika also wrote, directed, edited and sound designed. "Driftwood" was chosen as the Gala Closing Night Screening at the First Look Film Festival at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Mureika has worked on writing feature film projects for Bruce Willis, Robert Downey Jr. and Viggo Mortensen, as well as serving as Editor-in-Chief and writing extensively about film and music for three acclaimed international pop culture periodicals. He has also edited a series of books comprising the "Everything U Need to Know..." volumes for McGraw-Hill, worked as publicist for the Tupac Shakur Foundation and made a cameo alongside Owen Wilson in 2011's "The Big Year". Mureika has given workshops on playwrighting, directing and filmmaking throughout the United States and Canada. After a temporary hiatus from filmmaking, Mureika is preparing to return to his true childhood passion with his next film venture, "The X Generation", which he calls his most personal project to date and a story whose ideal time has come to be told.