Tassie Cameron

Tassie Cameron returns as often as she can to the University of Toronto campus. She brings with her cops, criminals and their guns – all fake, of course.

Cameron returns to her alma mater from time to time as executive producer, co-creator and head writer of Rookie Blue, the Toronto-based television show about the lives of young policemen and women. She likes setting some of the scenes for her drama in and around the U of T campus.

Since earning her degree in English at U of T’s Trinity College, Cameron has become one of Canada’s top television writers. Her credits include The Eleventh Hour, the TV movie The Robber Bride and the first successful season of the CTV/CBS series Flashpoint.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Cameron, the daughter of author Stevie Cameron, said:

"I always get nervous… I guess the butterflies happen because no matter how hard you work, how well you cast, how well you write the scripts, this business is always lightning in a bottle. It’s impossible to predict what is going to happen, no matter how hard you pray and put into it."

Yet despite the vagaries of the entertainment business, Cameron takes assurance from the quality of her education. “I was in the last group of students to study under Northrop Frye at the U of T. Those classes were unbelievable for me. The skills I learned have been invaluable for what I do.”

Cameron won a Gemini award for best writing (along with Semi Chellas) while working as an executive story editor and writer for CTV’s prime-time drama The Eleventh Hour.

Published Nov. 28, 2013.