Stephanie Morgenstern and Mark Ellis are a screenwriting and showrunning team. Their most recent project is Allegiance (CBC/NBCUniversal), created by Anar Ali, set to premiere on CBC February 7th.
Before teaming up with Ellis, she wrote her first short film, Curtains (also released in French as Rideau). It was a loosely autobiographical story of heartbreak and shattered dreams, set backstage during a long-running play. Curtains premiered at TIFF, traveled the international festivals both mainstream and LGBTQ, and was nominated for a Genie Award for Best Live Action Short Film. This was the beginning of Morgenstern’s path as a screenwriter.
Morgenstern’s next screenplay was Remembrance, was co-written with Ellis. A wartime espionage drama set in 1942, it follows a fragile man with perfect memory who is approached one night by a stranger with a life-changing offer. This short also premiered at TIFF, travelled the festivals and was a Genie Award nominee. Ellis & Morgenstern cut a trailer from the short and used it to win TIFF’s national Pitch This! competition, planning to develop it into a feature.
Then a shocking hostage incident took place in front of Toronto’s Union Station, ending with a SWAT sniper taking a lethal shot on the gunman. This became the unexpected inspiration for their first TV project, leading them to eventually become co-creators, writers, and executive producers of Flashpoint (CBS/CTV/Ion). They co-wrote twenty of Flashpoint’s seventy-five episodes. The show went on to win Gemini, Canadian Screen and WGC Awards, including nods for Best Writing and Best Dramatic Series. When they wrapped the show after five seasons, the Writers’ Guild designated them Showrunners of the Year, and the Canadian Academy awarded Flashpoint its Board of Directors Tribute for Outstanding and Enduring Contribution to Canadian Television.
Eager to return to their Remembrance story, Ellis & Morgenstern pitched the TV series version to CBC and became co-creators, writers, executive producers and showrunners of X Company. Shot in Hungary, X Company drew acclaim and awards as well, joining Flashpoint in being aired all around the world.
Having recently Executive Produced on CTV/NBS’s hit medical series Transplant and co-written the Season Two premiere, Ellis & Morgenstern are currently adapting a much-loved Canadian play into a feature film.
