AJ Simmons is a Toronto-based Dora-nominated queer mestiza actor, director, producer, writer, and dancer. The daughter of a transracial adoptee and a refugee, she is grateful to be living, breathing and working on the unceded, ancestral, and occupied, traditional lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Watuth), and Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) Nations.
A graduate of the Windsor BFA acting program, Factory Theatre's Mechanical program and the ReelWorld Emerging Filmmaker Training program, AJ has also trained under Anne Bogart at the SITI Company and with Sophie Ann Rooney at Raw Studios. For the stage, she has collaborated with Electric Company, Pacific, Factory, Pleiades, Young People's Theatre, Roseneath, Aluna, and Alameda Theatre.
AJ also explores her intersectionality through Flamenco and is a member of Flamenco Rosario's Professional Training Program 2019/20. She trains concurrently with Oscar Nieto and Kasandra "La China" of Mozaico Flamenco.
As a filmmaker, AJ has written, produced and directed several short films which have screened at festivals across Canada and the United States. Most recently her short film Yasmina was awarded a Storyhive grant, and was released and broadcast in cooperation with Telus and NSICanada.
