Dave Carley is a Canadian playwright whose works have been produced across Canada and the United States, as well as in many countries around the world. His stage plays include Writing with our Feet, Taking Liberties, After You, The Last Liberal, and an adaptation of Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman. His drama Orchidelirium premiered at Toronto's Factory Theatre in 2004 and received three Dora Nominations, including one for Best New Play. CBC TV recently aired Dave's homage to poet Al Purdy, Yours, Al (written with Bill Spahic) starring Gordon Pinsent; Dave's stage version of the show has been performed in Toronto, Picton and at the Westben Festival. Most recently, Dave authored the sold-out hit of the 2007 Toronto Fringe, Conservatives in Love.

Dave has been playwright in residence at the Stratford Festival, Massachusetts' Barrington Stage Company and, in the fall of 2007, Dave will be at the Shaw Festival, where he will be completing work on a play about the last hours of Danish playwright and martyr Kaj Munk.

Dave was born and raised in Peterborough, Ontario, and currently lives in Toronto.

Dave Carley was born in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada in 1955, the son of Margaret and Bob Carley. He grew up in that city, attending Queen Alexandra public school and Adam Scott Collegiate, before going to the University of Toronto (University College). He graduated from U of T with a General B.A., having studied mostly History, Geography, Political Science and English - ironically, just about everything but drama. On the strength of a surprisingly noble LSAT score, Dave trundled off to Law School at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario.

While at Queens, Dave began a life-long involvement with civil libertarian and human rights concerns via Amnesty International. In the early 1980s he would live for a period in New Zealand and, while there, he worked for that country's national office of Amnesty International, travelling the country starting up AI chapters. He is also a longtime member of the Canadian Civil Liberties Union.

After graduating from Queens Law in 1979, Dave articled in Peterborough. There was much about the practice of law that he found enjoyable - the logic, the give and take, the constant interraction with people from all walks of life. However, he didn't enjoy courtroom nor was he much good at it (invariably discovering his most cogent arguments in the hours immediately following the trial). On the other hand, he was hugely fascinated by property law and, in particular, the process of searching land titles. Every Deed tells a story, and writs, statements of claim, judgments and wills - they are the beginning, middle and ends of others. Dave's fascination with those stories was the clue to his eventual choice of profession.

In Ontario, it is necessary to follow the articling year (a kind of applied apprenticeship) with six months of exams called the Bar Admission Course. Upon successful completion of the Bar Ads, students are called to the bar - unless, of course, they get waylaid… In between his articles and the Bar Ads, Dave had a few months to kill, and a friend asked him to work for that time as a reporter at the Kawartha Sun, a regional weekly. Dave needed the money and agreed. He had always written. As a child he published a newspaper modestly entitled The Carley Gazette, and he was the editor of his high school yearbook (where he first ran afoul of the forces of censorship). While in Law School he also penned an amateur musical for the Peterborough Theatre Guild (a somewhat irreverent take on the life of Susanna Moodie.)