Jan Derbyshire

Jan "JD" Derbyshire is a Canadian theatre artist, comedian, and writer. She has performed her one-woman show, Certified, across Canada, including in Vancouver where it won two Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards.

Early life and education
Derbyshire was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta. She completed master's degree from the Ontario College of Art and Design in Inclusive Design in 2014.

Career
Derbyshire's play, Funny in the Head, about their experiences with bipolar disorder, was commissioned by Stage Left Productions, and it premiered at the Balancing Acts Disability Arts Festival in Alberta, Canada in 2008. In 2010, alongside the Paralympic Games, Derbyshire performed her one-woman show Funny in the Head at the Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture Festival, and it was the only show performed at Kickstart.

Derbyshire developed another one-woman show, Certified, in 2018. She has performed Certified for Handsome Alice Theatre (Calgary) in 2018, Touchstone Theatre (Vancouver) in 2019, at One Yellow Rabbit's High Performance Rodeo (Calgary) in 2020, and at the Progress Festival (Toronto) in 2020.

In 2020, Derbyshire was writer-in-residence at Mount Royal University.

Personal life
Derbyshire and her ex-husband, TV director Michael Rohl, have a daughter, actress Kacey Rohl.

Plays

 * Labour Unions, the Brotherhood of Mothers
 * Freaky Jane Fine Takes on the Serious World
 * Bearded Circus Ladies
 * Ingenius Speculations — co-written with Kim Selody, Rita Bozi, and Roy Surette
 * Joke You
 * Maharani and the Maple Leaf
 * Under the Big Top
 * All In
 * Funny in the Head
 * Turkey in the Woods
 * Sorry Toronto, Really I Am
 * Certified