Helen Carscallen

Helen Carscallen was born in Chengtu, Szechuan, West China in 1916. Her parents were educational missionaries. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto in 1938, and decided early on to change careers about every ten years. Her first jobs were with the Big Sisters Association as a social worker, and Toronto Children's Aid in public relations. In 1956, she joined the staff of CBC's Public Affairs Department as a Program Organizer (the title was later changed to Executive Producer). She organized and edited a one-hour daily radio program called 'Trans-Canada Matinée'. In 1961-62, along with Helen James, she organized a conference on the status of women in Canada, called 'The Real World of Women' held at the University of Toronto in September 1962. Subsequently she was asked to initiate and organize a daily national half-hour television program called Take Thirty (1962). In 1965, she returned to the University of Toronto for post graduate studies. Her M.A. Thesis, called 'Social Control in a Broadcasting System', was a study of the clash between CBC Management and the producers and staff of a weekly hour-long program called This Hour Has Seven Days (1964). Upon completing her dissertation, she worked for ten years as a Professor of Communications at Ryerson University. Carscallen had always maintained an interest in theatre, performing in amateur theatre companies and taking acting lessons. Accordingly, her last move was to pursue a professional acting career in film and theatre. She auditioned for Robin Phillips at the Stratford Festival, and gained a spot in the 1978 acting company. She later performed with professional theatre companies in Toronto and in a number of film & television productions, and received a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the 1986 ACTRA Awards for her role in the CBC-TV drama The Other Kingdom (1984).