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Kate Lynch (born June 29, 1959) is a Canadian film, television and stage actress, drama teacher, theatre director and playwright.

In 1980 she won theGenie Award forBest Actress forMeatballs.^[1] She was notably adept at improvisation against the formidableBill Murray, with directorIvan Reitman commenting,

I ... chose her because I felt she could perform the strength that was required. And she was attractive without being overly beautiful, and I thought in a strange way that was going to be good. If you look at my other films with Bill, I'm really proud of the male/female pairings. They're always with very strong women. Kate was very strong inMeatballs. CertainlyP.J. Soles stands up to him in a different way inStripes. And certainlySigourney Weaver in the twoGhostbuster films. But you still feel the romance in each one of those.^[2]

In her acceptance speech, however, she communicated the belief that she had won the award more for the fact of being a Canadian actress in a popular hit film, at a time when Canadian films still predominantly cast bigger-name stars from the United States, than for her actual performance.^[3] She was nominated for the same award in 1988 for her role inTaking Care; although she did not win on that occasion, she told the press that being nominated for that film meant more to her than winning forMeatballs, as by this time the quality of Canadian film had significantly improved and the controversial division of the Genie acting categories into separate awards for Canadian and foreign actors had been discontinued.^[4]

Her other film credits includeLie with Me,Soup for One,Def-Con 4,God Bless the Child andThe Guardian, while her television credits includeCustard Pie,Anne of Avonlea and guest roles inAdderly,Danger Bay,Seeing Things,Queer as Folk,This Is Wonderland,Lost Girl andDegrassi.^[5]

As a playwright, her plays includeNewcomer,Ten Minute Play: The Musical,The Road to Hell (cowritten withMichael Healey),Tales of the Blonde Assassin andEarly August.^[6]

As a director, she has directed plays for the Shaw Festival, theBlyth Festival andTheatre Passe Muraille, including productions ofWilliam Shakespeare'sHenry V,A Midsummer Night's Dream,Pericles andCymbeline,Samuel Beckett'sWaiting for Godot,Terence Rattigan'sFrench Without Tears,Noël Coward'sStar Chamber,Eve Ensler'sThe Vagina Monologues^[7] andMichael Healey'sThe Nuttalls. She has taught forUniversity College Drama Program, theStratford Festival, theShaw Festival,George Brown College^[8] andRyerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University).

• Kate Lynch atIMDb

• Canadian film actresses
• Canadian television actresses
• Canadian stage actresses
• Canadian women dramatists and playwrights
• Canadian theatre directors
• Canadian women theatre directors
• Best Actress Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners
• Living people
• 1959 births
• 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights
• 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights
• 20th-century Canadian women writers
• 21st-century Canadian women writers

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