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Richardo Keens-Douglas
Richardo Keens-Douglas is a
playwright, national radio and television host, and actor. He is a masterful
narrator of the African-Caribbean experience.
His first children’s book
was The Nutmeg Princess. His second book, La Diablesse and
the Baby, grew out of the rich Caribbean oral tradition, and earned
a Storytelling World Honor Award. Freedom Child of the Sea is
an honest while hopeful story of the human spirit, set against a backdrop
of slavery. Richardo’s latest release, Tales from the Isle of Spice
(2004) is a retelling of these three critically acclaimed and award-winning
stories.
As the youngest of seven children,
Richardo has fond memories of growing up on the Isle of Spice. Hedeveloped
a love for literature, entertaining friends and playing the role of
comedian. At age 17, he moved to Montreal to attend the Dawson Theatre
School.
Since then, Richardo has appeared
in films and in stage, radio and television productions across the country,
including with the Stratford Festival. He was in the smash hit Playboy
of the West Indies and performed his famous creation story Mama
God, Papa God for Princess Diana aboard H.M.Y. Britannia
during the 1991 royal visit. He hosted CBC Radio’s “Cloud Nine,”
an anthology of folk tales, musical performances and poetry, and has
written many radio plays, including Tell Me a
Tale, Once Upon an Island and Caribbean Cindy. In
1985, Richardo won a Dora Mavor Moore nomination for best actor in the
musical The Obeah Man, which he also wrote. His musical adaptation
of The Nutmeg Princess, which celebrated its world premiere at
Young People’s Theatre (now LKTYP) in Toronto in 1999, won the 2000
Dora Mavor Moore award for outstanding new musical. Richardo’s new
play, Full Moon, was recently produced.
In 2002, Richardo was inducted
into the Caribbean Hall of Fame for Excellence.
Richardo currently divides
his time between his home in Toronto and Grenada. He is the host of
the Caribbean version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”
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