Karen Hines

Karen Hines is a Canadian actress, writer and director. She is the artistic director and producer of "Keep Frozen: Pochsy Productions." Born in Chicago, raised in Toronto, she now lives in Calgary where she was playwright in Residence at Alberta Theatre Projects from 2009 to 2012.
Hines has written several plays, including Drama: Pilot Episode, Hello...Hello (A Romantic Satire), Crawlspace and the Pochsy Plays, a trilogy of black comedies. Her plays have toured internationally and have won numerous awards and nominations. The Pochsy Plays were short-listed for the 2004 Governor General's Awards for drama, and Drama was short-listed in 2012.
She has appeared in several television series, including many of Ken Finkleman's satires such as The Newsroom, Foreign Objects, and Married Life for which she was nominated for Gemini and CableACE awards.
Hines has also appeared on stage in Canadian productions of Angels in America and with Douglas Coupland in his September 10th (Royal Shakespeare Company), as well as in her own plays. She also had roles in the film version of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Barry Levinson's Man of the Year.
Hines has worked extensively with Canadian horror clown duo Mump and Smoot, directing all of their productions from their early Fringe days to productions Off-Broadway, at the Yale Repertory Theatre and at the La Jolla Playhouse. She has directed and collaborated on the work of other Canadian artists such as Darren O'Donnell (Over) and Linda Griffiths (Age of Arousal). She is an associate of One Yellow Rabbit where she performed Citizen Pochsy and directed Mump and Smoot in the High Performance Rodeo.
Hines is a Second City alumna (Toronto), but her comedy has a darker component she honed through her work with Philippe Gaulier. She is considered a Canadian authority on Bouffon. Hines was also a student of Richard Pochinko.
In recent years Hines has begun writing television and film projects including three short films for Bravo!FACT, featuring the character Pochsy.