About - Ophira Calof

Ophira, sliding down their glasses with both hands on the frame handles. Eyebrow raised with a smirk. Sitting in their power wheelchair with short curly dark hair. Ophira wears a neck brace and teal long sleeved shirt. Photo by Dahlia Katz.

Imagining worlds where all bodies and minds can thrive.

Ophira Calof is a multidisciplinary artist and facilitator who works to “crip the script,” questioning defaults and centring disability knowledge and experience in both narrative and process.

As a writer and performer, Ophira is particularly drawn to stories that wrestle with contradictions, leading with humour and heart . Their credits include One More Time (CBC), Rubble and Crew (Treehouse TV), Shelved (CTV), Dino Dex (Amazon Prime), Wordsville (TVOKids), The 52 (Museum of Toronto) and their solo show Literally Titanium, which has been featured in both academic and performance spaces as a case study in accessible production.

Ophira also utilizes their word building and development skills in program design and sector innovation. They are currently a co-lead and creator of the Disabled Producers Lab, worked as the inaugural creative director for the Accessible Writers’ Lab, and supported the design and facilitation of several other programs including AccessCBC and the ReelAbilities Film Festival Toronto.

Additionally, Ophira has devised a number of community driven disability arts projects including the series Making Space: Stories of Disabled Youth Past and Present (Myseum Toronto/RAFFTO) and Dis/Play, a public arts project that projected the stories of over 50 Deaf and Disabled creatives onto exterior building walls across the city (MNJCC/RAFFTO/ArtWorxTO: Toronto’s Year of Public Art 2021-2022). They have taught workshops and provided mentorship internationally on writing, accessibility and disability narratives.

Ophira is a graduate of Second City’s Writing and Sketch Conservatory programs along with the Buddies in Bad Times Theatre Emerging Creator’s Unit. They were featured in the Second City 2018 Toronto Diversity Fellowship Showcase, are the 2018 recipient of the Tim Sims Encouragement Award and received the 2021 Cahoots Theatre Promising Pen Prize. They were also named a TV writing fellow for the 2022 RespectAbility Lab for Entertainment Professionals with Disabilities and took part in the 2023 Warner Brothers Discovery Access X Canadian Academy Writers Program.

Weeds and foliage line art divider with stars. Background blobs in yellow, pink, and teal.

Favourite feelings include: unlocking a story or production tangle; champagne bubbling – the generative excitement of great collaboration/brainstorming.

Favourite words include: collective accessibility; stories; agency; intention; process.