Proudly Canadian, obsessively Toronto. Subscribe to Toronto Life!

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #42, Sarah Polley

By Toronto Life

| November 28, 2016

Copy link

Sarah Polley

Actor and Screenwriter

42Polley made the leap from child star to beloved actor with grace. Now, she has morphed into Toronto’s most promising young filmmaker. After Take This Waltz and Stories We Tell, Polley burst back onto the scene with the TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace, for which she is a writer and producer. The series follows a doctor who falls for a maid wrongfully accused of a double murder in mid-19th-century Toronto. Polley landed American Psycho director Mary Harron and actors Sarah Gadon, Anna Paquin and David Cronenberg.

Up next:

Her screenplay for Kolma becomes a J.J. Abrams thriller starring Daisy Ridley.

Sarah Polley

Actor and Screenwriter

Up next:

Toronto's Most Influential People of 2016

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #1, Justin Trudeau

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #2, Drake

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #3, John Tory

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #4, Kathleen Wynne

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #5, Gerald Butts

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #6, Bill Morneau

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #7, George Cope

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #8, Katie Telford

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #9, Jennifer Keesmaat

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #10, Masai Ujiri

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #11, Ratna Omidvar

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #12, David Thomson

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #13, Tracey Cook

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #14, Cameron Bailey and Piers Handling

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #15, Marie Henein

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #16, Larry Tanenbaum

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #17, Deb Matthews

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #18, The Weeknd

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #19, Josh Donaldson

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #20, Doug Murphy

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #21, Charles Khabouth

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #22, Eric Hoskins

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #23, Gord Downie

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #24, Mark Shapiro

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #25, Patrick Brown

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #26, Kevin O’Leary

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #27, John Zerucelli

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #28, Ted Livingston

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #29, Tatiana Maslany

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #30, Ian Black

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #31, Sandy Hudson and Janaya Khan

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #32, Rachel McAdams

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #33, Heather Reisman

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #34, Cory Joseph, Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #35, Karen Kain

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #36, Stephan Jost

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #37, Joshua Basseches

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #38, Michael Katchen

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #39, Kristin Cochrane

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #40, John Ruffolo

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #41, Mitzie Hunter

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #43, Iain Klugman

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #44, Maureen Taylor

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #45, Mary Ann Turcke

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #46, Mohamad Fakih

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #47, Matt Galloway

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #48, Penny Oleksiak

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #49, Carolyn Bennett

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #50, Michael Ford

Big Stories

Inside the rise and fall of the Vaulter Bandit, the 21st century’s most notorious bank robber

Trump’s Loss, Toronto’s Gain: Meet the artists, professors, scientists and other luminaries ditching the US and moving north

Dancing Queens: Patrons, staff and performers share their wildest memories of Crews and Tangos, Toronto’s most storied drag bar

Edward the Conqueror: The unlikely ascent of Canada’s telecom king

Lady Parts: Inside Meredith MacNeill and Jennifer Whalen’s new show, Small Achievable Goals

Dark Horse: Inside the fall of Eric Lamaze, Canada’s most famous equestrian