Kat Sandler

Kat Sandler
Sandler in 2026
Born
Katherine Sandler

Toronto, Ontario, Canada
EducationQueen's University at Kingston
Occupationplaywright
Years active2008–present
Notable work
  • Mustard
  • Yaga
AwardsDora Mavor Moore Award

Katherine Sandler is a Canadian playwright and theatre director. She is the co-founder and artistic director of Theatre Brouhaha in Toronto, where she staged a number of her plays. Her notable works include the Dora Mavor Moore Award-winning play Mustard (2016) and the television series Yaga (2026), which she adapted from her 2019 play of the same name.

Early life and education

Sandler was born in Toronto and grew up in the Cabbagetown neighbourhood. Her mother, Ann MacNaughton, was a screenwriter for Canadian television shows including Traders and E.N.G., and her father, Jerry Sandler, had also worked in the film industry. She attended secondary school at the University of Toronto Schools in the class of 2004. She wrote and directed her own musical as her final school project. She then studied theatre at the Dan School of Drama and Music at Queen's University, graduating in 2008.

Career

After university, Sandler worked with Theatre Gargantua in Toronto and acted in their productions of Fibber (2008) and Imprints (2011). She considers herself to be primarily a playwright and director, and she has directed many of her own plays. In 2010, Sandler and her Queens University classmate Tom McGee founded Theatre Brouhaha, which she described as "theatre for a younger generation", with "slick, fast-paced plays that are marketed like television". The company's first production was her play Lovesexmoney in 2011.

Sandler won the New Play Contest at the Toronto Fringe Festival with Help Yourself in 2012. In 2016, she was awarded the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play for Mustard. She had developed the play, about a troubled teenager's imaginary friend, at the Tarragon Theatre's Playwrights Unit.

Late Night, originally written by Sandler for the 24-hour playwriting contest at the Toronto Fringe, was produced in 2016 by Moses Znaimer of ZoomerMedia. The play was staged in a television studio to resemble the taping of a late-night talk show in front of a live audience. It was recorded and later broadcast on VisionTV.

Sandler was commissioned to write a pair of plays for the Citadel in Edmonton, Alberta, by the theatre's artistic director, Daryl Cloran. In 2019, the two political farces, The Party and The Candidate, were performed simultaneously by the same cast on different stages in the theatre complex.

Yaga, a reimagining of the myth of Baba Yaga, debuted at the Tarragon Theatre in 2019, starring Seana McKenna in multiple roles, including a university professor with "a taste for younger men". The story blends folklore with a whodunit, following a detective investigating the disappearance of a student who interviewed the professor about Baba Yaga. Sandler adapted the play into a television series of the same name for the Canadian streaming service Crave, and she was also the showrunner for production in 2026.

Sandler premiered Wildwoman, a play inspired by the origin story of Beauty and the Beast, at the Soulpepper Theatre in 2023. She adapted the classic children's novel Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery into a play for the Stratford Festival's 2025 season.

Works

Theatre

Year Title Writer Director Notes Ref.
2011 Lovesexmoney Yes Yes
2012 Help Yourself Yes Yes
Delicacy Yes Yes
2013 Rock Yes Yes
The Unseen Hand No Yes Play by Sam Shepard (1969)
We Are the Bomb Yes Yes
Will Yes No Part of You Can Sleep When You're Dead; directed by Michael Orlando
Sucker Yes Yes
2014 Cockfight Yes Yes
Punch Up Yes Yes
Retreat Yes Yes
Avaricious Yes No Contributing writer; directed by Jacquie P.A. Thomas
2015 Liver Yes Yes
Big Plans No Yes Play by Jeremy Taylor
2016 Late Night Yes Yes
Mustard Yes No Directed by Ashlie Corcoran
Bright Lights Yes Yes
2017 The End of the World Club Yes Yes Collaboration with Dan School of Drama and Music students
2018 Bang Bang Yes Yes
2019 The Party
The Candidate		 Yes Yes Simultaneous double bill; co-directed with Daryl Cloran
Yaga Yes Yes
2020 Morro and Jasp: Save the Date No Yes Created by Amy Lee and Heather Marie Annis; co-directed with Byron Laviolette
2023 Wildwoman Yes Yes
2024 Interior Design No Yes Play by Rosa Labordé
Big Stuff Yes Yes Co-written with Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus
2025 Anne of Green Gables Yes Yes Based on the novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Television

Year Title Credits Notes Ref.
2017 Kim's Convenience Writer Season 2, episode 5: "Date Night"
Story editor Season 2, 4 episodes
2020 Late Night
  • Writer
  • Director
 Hybrid play and TV production
2023 Less Than Kosher Story editor 7-episode TV series
2026 Yaga
  • Creator
  • Writer
  • Showrunner
 8-episode TV series

Podcasts

Year Title Credits Notes Ref.
2016 How to Build a Fire Writer 6-episode radio play for the Koffler Centre of the Arts
2018 Limetown Writer Season 2, episode 4: "The Bridge"
2020 Blue Rare Writer Part of The Quarantine Chronicles from CBC's PlayMe
2022 You Can't Get There From Here
  • Writer
  • Director
 Volume 2, episode 5: "The Artists"; a Factory Theatre production

References

  1. ↑ "'We want to have something to fight for'". The Globe and Mail, July 13, 2013.
  2. ↑ Nothof, Anne. "Sandler, Kat". Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia. Alberta, Canada: Athabasca University. Retrieved February 18, 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Lavoie, Joanna (February 17, 2016). "East-end playwright adds 'Mustard' to Tarragon's lineup". Toronto.com. Retrieved March 28, 2026.
  4. 1 2 Tracy, Andrew (September 18, 2025). "10 to Watch 2025: Kat Sandler". Playback. Toronto. Retrieved March 28, 2026.
  5. ↑ "Notable Alumni: Katherine (Kat) Sandler". University of Toronto Schools. Toronto. Retrieved February 19, 2026.
  6. 1 2 3 Streitenfeld, Darcy (February 2, 2018). "Award-winning playwright Kat Sandler on her latest production, Bang Bang". Post City. Toronto. Retrieved March 28, 2026.
  7. ↑ "Playwright explores new ground in return to Queen's". Queen's Gazette. Kingston, Ontario: Queen's University. February 8, 2017. Retrieved February 19, 2026.
  8. ↑ "Fibber". Theatre Gargantua. Toronto. 2008. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  9. ↑ "Imprints". Theatre Gargantua. Toronto. 2011. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  10. ↑ Bedard, Kelly (June 2, 2013). "Nominees Interview Series: Kat Sandler (2012)". My Entertainment World. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  11. 1 2 Bimm, Jordan (June 28, 2012). "Interview: Kat Sandler". Now Toronto. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  12. ↑ Maga, Carly (June 27, 2016). "2016 Dora Awards spread the wealth". Toronto Star. Retrieved February 19, 2026.
  13. 1 2 Bedard, Kelly (October 14, 2016). "Late Night via ZoomerLive". My Entertainment World. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
  14. 1 2 Crisolago, Mike (June 15, 2020). ""Late Night" Playwright Kat Sandler on Ageism, Theatre and ZoomerLive". VisionTV. Toronto. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
  15. 1 2 Faulder, Liane (April 5, 2019). "The Party pairs politics and puns in new Citadel farce". Edmonton Journal. Alberta, Canada. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
  16. 1 2 "Yaga". Tarragon Theatre. Toronto. 2019. Retrieved March 29, 2026.
  17. ↑ Fricker, Karen (September 26, 2019). "Yaga is a hilarious, ambitious vehicle for great actors to strut their stuff". Toronto Star. Retrieved March 29, 2026.
  18. 1 2 Schneider, Michael (February 18, 2026). "'Heated Rivalry' Star Hudson Williams Joins Crave Mystery Thriller Series 'Yaga' With Carrie-Anne Moss and Noah Reid". Variety. Retrieved February 18, 2026.
  19. 1 2 Perez, Andrea (October 16, 2023). "Review: Wildwoman at Soulpepper is a magnificent beast". Intermission. Toronto. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
  20. 1 2 "Stratford Festival Visitors Guide" (PDF). stratfordfestival.ca. Stratford, Ontario. 2025. p. 23. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 "Kat Sandler". Toronto Theatre Database. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  22. ↑ "Love, sex, death and laughs on stage". Toronto Star, January 5, 2012.
  23. ↑ "Art of darkness". The Globe and Mail, August 13, 2013.
  24. ↑ Hoile, Christopher (May 2, 2013). "Review – The Unseen Hand". Stage Door. Ontario, Canada. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
  25. ↑ Ouzounian, Richard (June 28, 2013). "Toronto Fringe festival gives women a chance to shine". Toronto Star. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
  26. ↑ "In search of spooky thrills". The Globe and Mail, October 31, 2013.
  27. ↑ Bimm, Jordan (October 31, 2013). "Sucker". Now Toronto. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
  28. ↑ "An entertaining rumble". The Globe and Mail, June 28, 2014.
  29. ↑ Kappler, Maija (February 20, 2017). "Hot Off the Press: Punch Up". Intermission. Toronto. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
  30. ↑ Ouzounian, Richard (September 22, 2014). "Retreat's comedy reveals what makes Generation Y click". Toronto Star. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
  31. ↑ Ouzounian, Richard (May 1, 2015). "Liver terribly funny and wonderfully thought-provoking: review". Toronto Star. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
  32. ↑ Hoile, Christopher (September 4, 2015). "Review – Big Plans". Stage Door. Ontario, Canada. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
  33. ↑ Wheeler, Brad (June 30, 2016). "What playwright Kat Sandler is watching and reading". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
  34. ↑ Tomlinson, Clayton (February 16, 2017). "It's the end of the world as we know it". Queen's University Journal. Kingston, Ontario. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  35. ↑ McKeown, Lisa (January 10, 2020). "Next Stage review: Morro and Jasp: Save the Date". Now Toronto. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
  36. ↑ Wild, Stephi (October 10, 2024). "Interior Design Makes World Premiere Next Week". Broadway World. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
  37. ↑ Donovan, Liam (November 24, 2024). "Review: Baram and Snieckus' Big Stuff uses improv to explore the materiality of grief". Intermission. Toronto. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
  38. ↑ "Kim's Convenience full cast & crew". IMDB. 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2026.
  39. ↑ Lacey, Liam (June 1, 2023). "Original-Cin Q&A: Toronto Musical Less than Kosher Drawn from Real Life". Original Cin. Retrieved April 4, 2026.
  40. ↑ "Less Than Kosher full cast & crew". IMDB. 2023. Retrieved April 4, 2026.
  41. ↑ "How to Build a Fire: The Finale". Now Toronto. March 3, 2016. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
  42. 1 2 "The Artists". Factory Theatre. Toronto. 2022. Retrieved April 4, 2026.
  43. ↑ "Limetown S2.E4 The Bridge". IMDB. 2018. Retrieved April 4, 2026.
  44. ↑ "The Quarantine Chronicles are like bedtime stories for bizarre times". CBC. July 21, 2020. Retrieved April 5, 2026.