Colleen Murphy is a playwright, librettist and filmmaker. She was born in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, and raised in Northern Ontario.

Her play Pig Girl won the 2016 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama and the 2014 Carol Bolt Award. The December Man/L'homme de décembre won the 2007 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama, the CAA/Carol Bolt Award, and the Enbridge Playwrights Award. Other plays include The Society For The Destitute Presents Titus Bouffonius (winner of six Jessie Richardson Awards including Outstanding Production, and three Elizabeth Sterling Awards including Outstanding Production), The Breathing Hole (shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, U.S., and the Carol Bolt Award), I Hope My Heart Burns First (formerly Bright Burning), Armstrong's War, The Goodnight Bird, Beating Heart Cadaver (shortlisted for the 1999 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama), and The Piper. Libretti include Oksana G., composed by Aaron Gervais, for Tapestry Opera (nominated for seven Dora Mavor Moore Awards); Bring Me The Head Of The President and My Mouth On Your Heart, composed by August Murphy-King, for Toy Piano Composers and Bicycle Opera; and the upcoming Fantasma, composed by Ian Cusson, for the Canadian Opera Company. Colleen twice won prizes in the CBC Literary Competition. She is also an award-winning filmmaker and her distinct films have played in festivals around the world. They include Girl with Dog, Shoemaker and The Feeler.

In 2010 and 2011, Colleen was Canadian Playwright-in-Residence at Finborough Theatre in London, U.K. She has been Playwright-in-Residence at Necessary Angel Theatre and Factory Theatre in Toronto; Playwright-in-Residence at the University of Regina in 2006/7; Mabel Pugh Taylor Writer-in-Residence at McMaster University in 2010; Writer-in-Residence at the University of Guelph in 2011; Edna Staebler Laurier Writer-in-Residence at Wilfrid Laurier University in 2014; Lee Playwright-in-Residence at the University of Alberta from 2014-2017, and Writer-in-Residence at the University of New Brunswick in 2018.