Writer - doctor - dad

January-February, 2025 (upcoming): Heist at The Grand Theatre, London, ON.

March-April, 2025 (upcoming): Heist at Citadel Theatre, Edmonton, AB.

November 2024-June 2025: Sequence (translated by Dr. Elif Bas iyibozkurt as Dizilim), Instanbul, Turkey.

October, 2024: Sequence at Thousand Islands Playhouse, Gananoque, ON.

July, 2024:  Guest Speaker, University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine - "MediScenes: Moments, Mistakes, and Lessons Learned from a Life in Medicine and the Arts"

June, 2024: Not a Doctor at Lunchbox Theatre, Stage One Festival, Calgary, AB.

January-February, 2024: World Premiere of  Heist, Vertigo Theatre, Calgary, AB

January, 2024 - Global News Preview of Heist, Calgary, AB

January 19, 2024: Panelist, Words in Progress - High Performance Rodeo, Calgary AB.

July, 2023: Guest Speaker, University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine - "MediScenes: Moments, Mistakes, and Lessons Learned from a Life in Medicine and the Arts"

July, 2023: Dr. McDocHead: A series of silly medical humour videos

January, 2023: Winner of Blacklist x Warby Parker Writer's Vision Grant

August, 2022: Fortunato Heist - Quarterfinalist for Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, The Academy.

May, 2022: Production of Fortunato Heist, Bloomington Playwrights Project, Indiana. 

January - June 2022: Participant in Citadel Theatre Playwrights Lab, Edmonton AB.

July, 2019: Production of Sequence, Adirondack Theatre Festival, New York.

March, 2019: Production of Sequence, Western Edge Theatre, Nanaimo, BC.

November, 2018: Visiting Speaker, McMaster University, Faculty of Arts/Science.

May, 2018: Workshop of New Play, Candemic, at Lunchbox Theatre Stage One Festival of New work. 

March, 2018: Vancouver Premiere of Sequence, Real Wheels Theatre. 

May, 2017: Winner of Best Screenwriter (Drama under 30 minutes) for Probability at Alberta Film and Television Awards.

April, 2017: Nominated for Best Director and Best Screenwriter (Drama under 30 minutes) for Probability at Alberta Film and Television Awards.

January, 2017: Toronto Premiere of Sequence at Tarragon Theatre.

Arun Lakra has three jobs. Writer. Doctor. Father. He hoped one of them would be easy. 

(He was wrong.)

Writing-wise, Arun is best known as a playwright. He wrote a play called Sequence that won a few awards including the Betty Mitchell Award, the Calgary Theatre Critics Award, the Woodward Newman Drama Prize, the Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama, and the Alberta Playwriting Competition Grand Prize. Sequence was also shortlisted for the STAGE International Script Competition, where the judges included Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners.

In the world of film, Arun's supernatural thriller feature film script, Voices, was a winner of the Praxis Screenplay Competition. This script was optioned, and received development funding from Telefilm Canada and Movie Central. His short film, Probability had its World Premiere at the 2016 Montreal World Film Festival - World Competition (Canada). Arun's animated music video, Must Sell Screenplay!, won the Best Music Video Award at the 2015 Toronto Independent Film Festival. Arun was nominated for Best Director and Best Screenplay for Probability, by the 2017 Alberta Film and Television Awards - The Rosies (and won for Best Screenwriter). 

Arun has also written a book on laser eye surgery (In Search of 20/20), a music album (Tragic Romantic Mocku-fantasy) with his band, Subplot A, a song to protest the demotion of Pluto (unsuccessful), a heartfelt ballad about puke, two goofy hockey-themed youtube videos (Hey There Iginla, The Lockout Song), a line of misunderstood t-shirts, and his share of illegible prescriptions. 

In addition to his creative pursuits, Arun is an eye surgeon. He did his undergraduate studies at McGill University and the University of Calgary. He completed his medical school and ophthalmology residency program at the University of Toronto. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada.

With two kids, Arun spends a great deal of time and energy thinking about raising children. He has become an advocate of a philosophy he terms, Subplotting. Arun has become a public speaker on the subject, encouraging children, as well as adults, to "Write their Subplots". That is, to follow their passion - differently. He gave a Tedx talk entitled, "What's Your Sublpot: Rethinking the way we follow our passions".

Arun is an active member of Calgary's medical and artistic community. He is an active member of the Board of Directors of  Arts Commons. Arun lives in Calgary, Canada, with his wife and two kids. After 25 years, he recently stopped practicing ophthalmology.