Joseph Edward Schur

Joseph Edward Schur was born on April 16, 1957 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to Patricia (Daly) and Joseph Schur, a successful business executive. His father was of German ancestry, while his maternal grandparents were Irish immigrants from Dublin, Ireland. Although Schur had the acting bug from a young age, he joined the Canadian Armed Forces to study medicine, before switching his ambitions to writing. With a determined sense of adventure, he embarked on a journey that would take him to the Florida Keys, working as a treasure diver, then as a cowboy on a Texas ranch, finally making his way to Hollywood. After a brief time working as a background performer on various television shows, he was introduced to Buddy Ebsen who took him under his wing as a mentor. His career was interrupted however, following a serious accident that left him temporarily in a wheelchair. He departed Los Angeles to recover in Toronto, and married Terry McLennan. Within a year he was back on his feet, pursuing his career as a screenwriter, studying at VFS in Vancouver, Canada. With the help of his fellow film school graduates, he formed Big Ship Productions and served as the President and CEO. During this time, Joseph wrote several screenplays including Slain, Nerd Girls, The Dragon Prince and Safari Club. Stepping down from Big Ship, he co-founded and chaired the Zeus Entertainment Group, an organization with over 1,200 film and television industry veterans, and moderated a series of televised panels/conferences. He also taught creative writing seminars within the organization. Catching the eye of a publisher, he accepted a position as Editor-in-Chief of the highly acclaimed magazine Luxury. Soon after Joseph launched his own magazine Showbiz Weekly Canada. He went on to create and curate the Wall of Fame, a massive painting (8' x 50') featuring 120 of Canada's most influential people from the entertainment industry, presented at the CNE with over 1.5 million viewers. Soon his interest shifted back to screenwriting. He studied intellectual property valuations, earning the designation of CPPA, focusing his attention as a valuation specialist and script doctor. In the summer of 2016, he met fellow actor Dave Martineau on the set of the television series Reign, where Dave shared a story regarding a charitable event he had been part of, raising money for a food bank in Niagara Falls, Canada. Joseph was intrigued and suggested that the event would make a great movie. They agreed to partner on the feature film that would become 10 Men in a Tent, an inspirational family drama, with Joseph as the writer and director.