2015 - Stuart Gillard

Stuart Gillard

A multi-award-winning director, writer, producer and actor, STUART GILLARD is a three time nominee for the prestigious DGA (Directors Guild of America) Award, winning for "Going to the Mat", a movie he directed for the Walt Disney Company. Mr. Gillard is a man of many talents whose career spans three decades. After graduating from the University of Alberta, Gillard was one of twelve candidates selected to study acting at the National Theatre School in Montreal, Canada. He then was invited to Seattle, Washington where he was a founding member of the University of Washington Professional Acting Troupe. He returned to Canada where he won the country's top acting awards.

This led to many job offers in Los Angeles where, in addition to acting, he began his directing and writing career. Mr. Gillard has written and directed several feature films including If You Could See What I Hear, Indigo Autumn, Paradise, A Man Called Sarge and Kart Racer. He also wrote and directed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III for New Line Cinema , one of the top-selling movies of all time. In addition Mr. Gillard has directed twelve movies for the Walt Disney Company, including "RocketMan" and "Twitches", the latter being the Number One Cable Movie of the Year.

Gillard has directed for all the major television networks including multiple episodes of the popular series, Beauty and the Beast, 90210, Ringer, Emily Owens, Charmed, Lonesome Dove, One Tree Hill and "All Souls", a series he also co-created and co-wrote for Paramount and Spelling Television. He has directed many successful Television Dramatic Pilots, including "Poltergeist", "Bordertown", "Legacy" and the two-hour movie, "Sandkings", the pilot of Outer Limits, which earned him an ACE award for Best Director and which ran for 150 episodes.

Mr. Gillard is currently the Executive Producer/Director for CBS Studios "Beauty and the Beast". He resides in Montecito, California with his wife, producer/columnist Marilyn Majerczyk and their children.

Born and raised on the family ranch outside of Throne, Mr. Gillard attended school first in a small schoolhouse in Throne and later in Coronation. His mother Mary, a schoolteacher for over 65 years, encouraged Gillard to become an avid reader which fueled his imagination and informed his screenwriting. Living on the open prairies under the huge vaulted sky and the endless ocean of grass had a profound effect on Mr. Gillard. "I used to go the movies in Coronation on Saturday night with my brothers and sister and watch the Westerns and dream of galloping up to rob a train with Kirk Douglas and the other big stars of the day. Little did I realize that years later I would actually be acting with Kirk Douglas in a Western - which goes to prove what I have always believed: Dream big. Don't limit yourself. Because anything is achievable with a little luck and lots of hard work."

Mr. Gillard is extremely grateful to be honoured with this award.