Romy Shiller
Life
Romy Shiller is considered a medical mystery. In 2003, she had a brain tumour removed and went into a five-month coma. Afterwards, she had akinetic mutism and did not speak until March 2004. She is currently disabled.
Romy Shiller was the Communications Director for Max the Mutt Animation School. She has written articles for various magazines, including FAB and Canadian Theatre Review.
Works
As of April 15, 2024, Shiller's 1999 PhD thesis has been downloaded from the National Library of Canada over 15,000 times.
Her first book, You Never Know: A Memoir, not only tells the story of her brain surgery, lengthy coma, and Akinetic Mutism, but she also muses about reality, death, time, popular culture, psychic phenomena, and dreams.
Her other book is Again. It combines an academic exploration of reincarnation with real-life experiences. Using the altered reality of quantum physics as a basis, Shiller extrapolates. It is for everyone. More than anything, it is an insightful philosophy of life.
A third book is Who Knew? It continues Romy's book, You Never Know: A Memoir. Because of her ongoing recovery, this is less of a sequel and more of a continuation.
In the early mid-2000s, Shiller wrote articles and commentaries for Lipsik Indie and Live for Films.
Romy recently wrote an article about the pandemic for the Quebec Writers Federation. It is now in an anthology called 'Chronicling the Days: Dispatches from a Pandemic.'
An article of hers on the television show 'Queer as Folk' is used to teach a University course on Communications. A response article was generated in the San Francisco Chronicle. A separate article about the Toronto Drag Kings was taught at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta. It has been chosen for inclusion in several books.
She is in Third Wave Feminism and Television. Romy Shiller is a 3rd Wave Feminist, according to the book. An entire chapter is devoted to her article on 'Queer as Folk.
Romy Shiller has been on the same course syllabus as Simone de Beauvoir.
Most of her articles can be read here.
Education
Romy Shiller holds a PhD from the Graduate Centre for the Study of Drama, the University of Toronto, where she wrote a doctoral dissertation entitled 'A Critical Exploration of Cross-Dressing and Drag in Gender Performance and Camp in Contemporary North American Drama and Film.'
In addition to her PhD from the University of Toronto, she has a Master's degree in Drama from there. Her Bachelor of Arts degree is from McGill University, where she studied English. She attended Vanier College for her CEGEP and Mount Royal High School for her secondary studies.
Romy Shiller studied voice at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto, Canada, with William Perry and with Carmen Mehta, a private coach in Montreal, from the ages of 13 to 21.
Romy Shiller attended Berkshire Centre for the Performing Arts (USA) and The Hampton Playhouse (USA), where she studied Musical Theatre. She went to The Ashton Dance Academy for Ballet (Montreal) and The Dance Factory for Jazz Dance and Modern Dance (Montreal).
Media Appearances and Performances
Romy Shiller appeared in a YTV/CORUS Entertainment television series called 'System Crash.'
In 1997, Romy Shiller appeared in the film An Innocent Kiss, directed by Tina Hahn under Cottage Creative Productions. She also played Wendy in Chris Philpott's The Eternal Husband. In Daniel David Moses's play Kyotopolis, she played Barbara Buck/Jo/Beaver Puppet at The Robert Gill Theatre in Toronto under the direction of Colin Taylor.
She would often substitute for Host/Arts Critic Melinda Best on Café Express, CHIN 101.3 FM.
Romy Shiller was a Special Guest with The Bitch Diva at Pimbletts. She performed with the bands Mystic Muse and Forever Changing.
As part of her performance research, Romy Shiller was in The Greater Toronto Drag King Society, where she played Marie Osmond, Lola from the song "Copacabana," and Slash from the band Guns N’ Roses.
Romy Shiller is in an issue (Fall '08) of U of T Magazine. (MA 1992, PH.D. 1999)
Romy Shiller is featured as the "feature artist" in Lipstik Indie for You Never Know: A Memoir, and appears there for her book, "Again."