TEACHING

Norm MacQueen (OCT) is an educator, actor/comedian, writer, cartoon animator, and communications specialist with a proven track record of experience over many years.

While still in his teens, Norm was a writer-performer with Ottawa’s popular Skit Row Comedy Troupe from 1986-1989 – performing improv and sketch comedy at the Penguin Nightclub, on radio stations CHEZ-106, W-1310, and personal appearances across Ontario and Quebec. His written comedy sketches were featured in Skit Row’s TV comedy series on the New ‘RO and a 1989 run at the National Arts Centre. Later Norm starred in a Stratford production of the madcap farce Nurse Jane Goes To Hawaii and the musical-comedy Pal Joey at the National Arts Centre, directed by Martha Henry.

In the 1990’s Norm turned his efforts to animation. A gifted cartoonist, Hollywood beckoned when he was hired by legendary Warner Bros. director Chuck Jones to work on the Roadrunner theatrical cartoon Chariots of Fur. Heading up the coastline to San Francisco, he later entered multimedia, animating children’s computer games for Brøderbund Software - including the popular kids' classic, Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?

Returning home to Ottawa, Norm was hired as a staff animator-writer by Artech Studios to work on a variety of multimedia titles for children and adults alike including My Little Pony, Jeopardy, Trivial Pursuit, and Guess Who? Here he wrote text and comedy for such notables as John Cleese, Whoopi Goldberg, Bill Nye, Brooke Burke, Terry Bradshaw, Alex Trebek, and others. In 2006 he saw two of his short stories published in the literary magazine Blank Page.

Norm’s a professional actor and member of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television, and Radio Artists. In 2004 SWAT Films and Atari featured him in Act of War. In 2005 he provided cartoon voices for the Kevin Spencer series on CTV, and by 2006 joined Colin Mochrie’s comedy series Getting Along Famously on CBC. From 2010-2014 he starred in the award-winning children’s edutainment series Prime Radicals from TV Ontario. In 2019 Norm was cast in a national TV ad campaign for the Egg Producers of Canada. 2021 saw him cast in the Lifetime movie An Unperfect Christmas Wish. In 2022 he narrated the documentary film Open Doors for the Presbyterian Church of Canada. In 2023 he joined the cast of the comedy series They Came At Night from Mexico’s 3PAS Studios, written and directed by Eugenio Derbez. In 2025 he starred in the US feature comedy Love & Chaos from Triad Filmworks and Drew Derry.

Norm has done corporate communications for such diverse clients as the Council for Exceptional Children, the RCMP, the Canadian Aviation Museum, Veterans Affairs Canada, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association, CUPE, and the Canadian Society for Yad Vashem (CSYV).

In 2008 Norm added education to his repertoire. He is a qualified, certified, experienced secondary school English and Visual Arts teacher. He holds a B.A. in Film Studies from Carleton University and a Diploma in Classical Animation from Sheridan College. He graduated magna cum laude with a B.Ed. from the University of Ottawa in 2008. In 2010 he earned an M.Ed. from the University of Ottawa with a specialization in Cultural Literacies. In 2018 he was awarded a scholarship by the CSYV to study at the Yad Vashem Holocaust/Genocide Educators' Centre in Jerusalem, Israel.

Norm is currently a high school English teacher on full contract with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) - currently assigned to Ottawa's prestigious Canterbury High School of the Arts. In years past he taught at a number of adolescent high schools in Canada's Capital including Glebe Collegiate, John McCrae, Adult High School, Hillcrest, Brookfield, Merivale, South Carleton, and Colonel By. He also taught ESL for Toronto's Red Leaf Private School.

In 2017, Norm participated in the OCDSB's response to Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission on First Nations issues; particularly as regards educating students about the legacy of Canada's Residential School System. Specifically, he developed and taught the first Grade 11 College-Level First Nations Literacy/English course offered at the school to which he was then assigned (Adult High School). The course, NBE3C, was well-received by students and served as a guide and template for colleagues who subsequently taught the class.

Norm's professional/educational associations include membership in good standing in the Ontario College of Teachers, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation and the US Council of English Teachers.

Further info. may be found on Norm's profile on Apply to Education and the Ontario College of Teachers' website.

Contact: norman.macqueen@ocdsb.ca or nmacqueen@myyahoo.com