As Executive Director of Scripted Content at CBC since 2019, Trish Williams has creative oversight of the public broadcaster’s distinctive slate of original dramas, comedies, and feature films, which include the recently released Nunavut-set Arctic Comedy North of North, CSA Audience Choice winner Son of a Critch and the longtime audience favorites Murdoch Mysteries and Heartland.

Working with the best Canadian talent, both established and emerging, Williams strives to create entertaining and culturally relevant programming. Shortly after joining CBC, she was pivotal in the development and oversight of the Peabody and CSA award-winning comedy Sort Of, which landed on best-of lists from The New York Times to Vanity Fair. She also had creative oversight of the buzzy hybrid film/TV series BlackBerry by Matt Johnson, which premiered as a feature film at Berlinale 2023 to rave reviews before sweeping the CSA awards in 2024. In 2023-2024, the Scripted team developed and launched the delightful, odd-couple detective series Wild Cards, and the morally complex police drama Allegiance, set among a powerful Sikh family in Surrey, BC. In February 2025 Small Achievable Goals launched, a hilariously bold two-hander by Jenn Whalen and Meredith MacNeill, which speaks directly about the menopause transition in a powerful way.

Before joining CBC, Williams held key senior creative roles in independent production and broadcasting for over 15 years. She served as Vice President, Scripted Programming, at Boat Rocker (formerly Temple Street), as well as a tenure as Director of Drama at Bell Media where she led a team handling the development and production of original drama series and movies across the family of channels CTV, Space, Bravo, TMN/HBO Canada, and MUCH. While at Bell Media, she was pivotal in greenlighting and overseeing the Emmy-award winning international hit Orphan Black, as well as overseeing many other internationally successful series across a broad range of genres and styles, including multi-season audience-pleasers Saving Hope, Flashpoint and Degrassi: The Next Generation.

Williams has a Master of Arts in Communication and Culture from the Joint Program at York/TMU Universities. She volunteers as a conflict mediator and has completed Transformative Mediation through Community Justice Initiatives at the University of Waterloo. You are most likely to run into her at wine bars and dog parks.