David James Brock is a screenwriter, playwright, poet, and opera librettist with national and international production history. He won the 2011 Herman Voaden Canadian National Playwriting Award for his play Wet, which was nominated for three Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards in 2019. Brock is the author of two poetry collections, Everyone is CO2 & Ten-Headed Alien, both released by Wolsak & Wynn. His play-opera hybrid a million billion pieces premiered as part of Young People's Theatre 2019/2020 season, was nominated for five Dora Mavor Moore Awards, and was released in book form by Playwrights Canada Press.
He has created opera text and song lyrics with Noise Opera, Tapestry New Opera, Young People's Theatre, the Canadian Art Song Project, Write off The Keyboard, FAWN Chamber Creative, Tankcrimes Records, and the Paul Dresher Ensemble. For Scottish Opera, Brock co-created Breath Cycle with Gareth Williams, a multimedia operatic song cycle developed with cystic fibrosis patients, nominated for a 2014 Royal Philharmonic Society Award.
With Mike Haliechuk, Brock co-wrote Year of the Horse, an opera with Canadian hardcore legends and Polaris Award-winning band Fucked Up. Pitchfork Magazine calls the Year of the Horse album "epic...intricate... dramatic..." and XYZ Films has optioned the pair's screenplay for the project which will begin filming in 2023. He also co-wrote the screenplay and songs for Mother of All Shows (with Melissa D’Agostino) which will be released in 2023 through Goldstrike Films.
Brock lives in Toronto and has taught screen and playwriting courses for the University of Guelph, University of Victoria, Humber College, Young People's Theatre, and TIFF's Communities Create initiative.