Zoe Leigh Hopkins is Heiltsuk from Bella Bella, BC, and Mohawk from Six Nations, Ontario. Hopkins began her work in the film industry as an actor when she fell in love with filmmaking on the set of Black Robe, her first role, at the age of 15. Since then, Hopkins went on to study film at Ryerson and graduated with a BAA in Film in 1997.

Discovering a talent and a passion for writing led to a career as an independent filmmaker, working as a writer and director and occasional producer. Hopkins’s first short film, Prayer for a Good Day, premiered worldwide at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Her short film, One-Eyed Dogs Are Free, premiered at the Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto. In development is Vancouver Special, a television comedy series - a co-production between her company Blanket Dance Productions and Violator Films, which Hopkins is writing for APTN.

A member of the Embargo Collective, her short film The Garden premiered with the collective at the 2010 Berlinale Film Festival. Five of her short films, including Button Blanket, a short NFB documentary, screened at the 2011 Native American Film Festival in New York City, put on by the Smithsonian Institute and the National Museum of the American Indian.

Now making the transition from short films to features, Hopkins was the first Canadian to go through the prestigious Sundance Institute’s Filmmaker’s Lab with her feature script, Cherry Blossoms, which is now in development with a Vancouver-based production company. Now living in Six Nations, Hopkins is currently in development with a feature film, entitled Running Home with Big Soul Productions through Telefilm.
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Artist Code: 719