Photographer: LV Imagery

A native of the South Shore of Montréal, François is a five-time Dora Mavor Moore-nominated actor and writer. Fluently bilingual, he is a graduate of George Brown Theatre School and also has an MA in Art History from McGill University.

As an actor, he has appeared onscreen in THE EXPANSE (Amazon Prime), LETTERKENNY (Crave), MAYDAY (Discovery), CANADA: THE STORY OF US (CBC) as well as in several short films and commercials. He has also appeared onstage in numerous productions, including EVERY DAY SHE ROSE (Black Theatre Workshop), THE WAGER (Theatre Gargantua), EAST OF BERLIN (Essential Collective Theatre), LE MENTEUR (Théâtre français de Toronto), OUR TOWN (Buddies in Bad Times/Rusticle) and LES ZINSPIRÉS PUISSANCE 4 (TfT).

As a writer, François presented his first play AQUARIUS, a solo show in which he also performs, as part of Queer Pride in Toronto and the Queer Acts Festival in Halifax. He is currently working on a new project.

François has also worked as a dramaturge and workshop facilitator with the Théâtre français de Toronto (TfT). He has toured high schools in the Greater Toronto Area to give creative writing workshops in the context of LES ZINSPIRÉS, a yearly short story writing initiative for youth organized by TfT since 2012. He has also worked individually with contest winners to prepare their work for inclusion in the annual theatre production of LES ZINSPIRÉS.

Originaire de la Rive-Sud de Montréal, François est comédien et auteur nommé cinq fois aux prix théâtraux Dora Mavor Moore de Toronto. Parfaitement bilingue, il est diplômé du conservatoire de théâtre de George Brown College à Toronto et détient aussi une maîtrise en histoire de l’art de l’Université McGill.

Comme comédien, on a pu le voir au petit écran dans THE EXPANSE (Amazon Prime), LETTERKENNY (Crave), MAYDAY (Canal D), CANADA: THE STORY OF US (CBC) ainsi que dans plusieurs court-métrages et publicités. On a également pu le voir dans de nombreuses productions théâtrales dont LE MENTEUR (Théâtre français de Toronto), LES ZINSPIRÉS PUISSANCE 4 (TfT), EVERY DAY SHE ROSE (Black Theatre Workshop), THE WAGER (Theatre Gargantua), EAST OF BERLIN (Essential Collective Theatre) et OUR TOWN (Buddies in Bad Times/Rusticle).

Comme auteur, François a présenté sa première pièce AQUARIUS, un show solo où il est également interprète, à la Queer Pride de Toronto et ensuite au Festival Queer Acts de Halifax. Il travaille présentement sur un nouveau projet.

François a aussi travaillé comme conseiller dramaturgique et conférencier avec le Théâtre français de Toronto (TfT). Il a visité plusieurs écoles secondaires à travers le grand Toronto pour donner des ateliers sur l’écriture scénique et la dramaturgie dans le contexte des ZINSPIRÉS, un concours annuel d’écriture de conte urbain organisé par le TfT depuis 2012. Il a également travaillé avec les auteurs lauréats du concours pour préparer l’inclusion de leurs textes à la production théâtrale annuelle des ZINSPIRÉS.

Photographer: LV Imagery

EAST OF BERLIN

All three actors give compelling performances. […] Macdonald has the challenging job of keeping the audience’s attention throughout the ninety-minute drama – he serves as a narrator for a good portion of the story, and never leaves the stage. He skillfully manoeuvres his way from portraying a high school student innocently discovering his father’s dark past for the first time to playing a young man seven years later, hardened by the realities of his life that have led him to the darkest of places.

- Alexandra Chubaty Boychuk, DARTcritics, 10 Oct 2019, Link

LE MENTEUR

François Macdonald is well cast as Dorante’s valet Cliton, a young man who is a plain-speaker as much as his master is not.  Macdonald lends Cliton a charming naïveté showing that even he can still be taken in by Dorante’s lies.  One is tempted to see the Dorante-Cliton relationship as a precursor of the Dom Juan-Sganarelle relationship in Molière’s Dom Juan, except that Macdonald suggests that Cliton remains with Dorante not because Dorante still owes him money but because they are much more friends than master and servant and Cliton seeks, in vain, to protect Dorante from the effects of Dorante’s mendaciousness.

-Christopher Hoile, Stage Door, 15 April 2018, Link

LE MENTEUR

Entrevue avec Aminata Yade de CHOQ-FM 105.1 // Interview with Aminata Yade from CHOQ-FM 105.1

-CHOQ-FM 105.1, Toronto, 11 April 2018, Link

AQUARIUS

Aquarius has some beautiful visual moments, and a charming performance from François Macdonald. [...] Aquarius is an earnest tribute to the past struggles of the queer community, highlighting how many things have and haven’t changed in the past 40 years.

-Michael Lake, The Coast (Halifax), 15 July 2017, Link

OUR TOWN

The strong acting ensemble not only give a physical life to their characters but also become milk-cart and horse, doors and various other inanimate objects. [...] The show’s success is bolstered by [...] François Macdonald as the town choirmaster and drunk.

-Jon Kaplan, NOW Magazine, 31 March 2017, Link

AQUARIUS

“Meet the emerging creators from Canada’s longest-running festival of new work”

-Peter Knegt, CBC Arts, 16 February 2017,  Link

TIRE SWING

“The performers are all strong, [...] François Macdonald as the de facto protagonist is both wry and affecting as he negotiates his character’s gradual coming out in tandem with a growing need to understand what happened to Kevin.”

-Duncan Derry, My Entertainment World, 17 October 2016, Link

THE 10/10/10 PROJECT

“The cast members are all more than adequate coryphées but there are a few standouts… François Macdonald [...] contributes that intangible something extra in [his] performance.”

-Terry Gaisin, Ontario Arts Review, 3 July 2015, Link

LE MENTEUR

[Cliton] is played by François Macdonald, whose gift for physical comedy serves him well as he reacts ever more incredulously to the lies of his boss. [...] In one scene, the passion between [Inka Malovic's character] and Macdonald’s reaches a distracting but wordless fever pitch behind the main action and provides one of the night’s biggest laughs.

-Katherine Janice, dobbernationLOVES, 17 April 2018, Link

LE MENTEUR

I imagine hiding anything with such a larger-than-life cast would be hard. [Nico] Racicot as Dorante seemed determined to eat the scenery, flouncing across the stage, oozing charm and confidence. Set against the straight man Cliton, played by an earnest–but just as charmingly corrupt–François Macdonald, you have a great comedy duo.

-Madeleine Copp, Mooney on Theatre, 14 April 2018, Link

AQUARIUS

Entrevue avec Line Boily de Radio-Canada // Interview with Line Boily of the CBC

-L’Heure de Pointe (Radio-Canada), Toronto, 13 June 2017, Link

AQUARIUS

Featurette about the 2016/17 Emerging Creators Unit

-Daily Xtra, 20 February 2017, Link

'TIL DEATH DO US PART

“The ensemble [...] and François Macdonald as a literal “every man” has crafted an insightful examination of what it means to be “loveable” and what we’ll give up in pursuit of that perfection.”

-Kelly Bedard, My Entertainment World, 16 November 2016, Link

ROWING

“The company smartly sends out an actor to escort the audience down the sketchy path to the hidden space (but don’t be fooled by this gentlemanly introduction, François Macdonald transforms mid-evening into an effectively hateable villain; you should be more careful about who you let walk you down dark alleys).”

-Kelly Bedard, My Entertainment World, 10 October 2015, Link

ANNA KARENINA

“There was strong work by the principals as well as [...] François Macdonald as Anna's formal, older husband, determined to keep their marriage together even when he discovers her adultery.”

-Jon Kaplan, NOW Magazine, 22 April 2015, Link

Photographer: LV Imagery