Dawn van de Schoot is a critically acclaimed actress living and working in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. An exceptional student, Dawn first planned to go to medical school, but fell in love with the theatre in High School and eventually left behind her acceptance into pre-med to study drama. Dawn went on to obtain a Bachelor's degree in Drama from the University of Toronto and a Masters of Fine Arts in Theatre Studies from the University of Calgary. She has continued her studies with One Yellow Rabbit, Company of Rogues, Six Degrees audio and sound, the Upstart Program through AMPIA and most recently with the ProActors Lab with coaches Glen Gaston and David Rotenberg. Dawn has been the founder of three independent theatre companies (Really Nice Insomniacs, Rogues Theatre and Theatre Utopia) where she worked as an actor, coach, writer, director and producer until 2006. She has written over 20 stage plays and 4 screenplays. Enamoured with the "Theatre of the Oppressed" by Augusto Boal, Dawn excels at new play creation with marginalized communities and continues to use performance creation techniques to develop community-based social practice art projects such as "Kitchen Feminism" - an exploration of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives of women. Dawn has performed in theatre productions since 1987, receiving critical acclaim as a dramatic actress in the production of "Three Tall women" by Edward Albee in 2001. Dawn wrote and starred in the one woman show "Put your Money where your mouth is" in 2004/2005 which was workshopped in Wageningen, the Netherlands before touring in Winnipeg as a part of FemFest and again in Calgary. Dawn is also an accomplished voice actor having narrated short stories for CBC radio as well as recording audiobooks, commercials and running a podcast for Kitchen Feminism. Dawn began working in film in 1996 and calls it "her guiding light". She is known to love the intimacy of the camera and loves the balance of technicality and immediacy that acting for camera requires. Dawn's elegance and professionalism have led her to such dynamic roles as Melanie Edwards in "Red Letter Day," (2019) Aunt Elizabeth in "Ice Blue" (2017) and "Jess" in Swift Current (2021). Dawn continues to live in Calgary, Alberta with her partner of 17 years, their two children and their French bulldog where she spends her free time practicing yoga and learning the art of Argentine tango.