Jim is a gifted performer, a dedicated director, an imaginative designer and an inspiring teacher. His twenty-one tours as a performer with Mermaid have taken him across Canada, the United States, Japan, England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and he’s participated as well in a wide range of stage, dance and television projects with other companies.

Jim studied puppetry at the Institut International de la Marionnette in Charleville-Mézières in France with the late Jim Henson. Much in demand as a teacher himself, Jim has taught master classes, residencies and workshops, in puppet manipulation and construction, throughout Canada and the world including Halifax, Fredericton, Montreal, Toronto, Whitehorse, Yellowknife, Goose Bay and Black Tickle (Labrador), Pangnirtung (Nunavut), Cleveland, Tacoma, Ho Chi Minh City, Taipei, Hong Kong and Macau.

Jim serves as Mermaid Theatre’s Artistic Director. He also serves as the company’s principal designer, puppet maker and director. Recent design and directing credits include the popular productions of A Brown Bear, a Moon, and a Caterpillar: Treasured Stories by Eric Carle, Goodnight Moon & The Runaway Bunny, Guess How Much I Love You & I Love My Little Storybook, and the award-winning productions of The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Eric Carle Favourites, and Swimmy, Frederick and Inch by Inch. He has directed most of the company’s national and international touring productions, and close to three million spectators have attended his shows. His contributions to Mermaid have played a major role in earning Export Excellence awards from both the Nova Scotia Government (in 2001) and the Government of Canada (in 2001 and 2005), as well as the Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia's Ambassador Award (in 2008). In 2005 Jim received the Portia White Award, Nova Scotia’s highest arts prize, and in 2007 received a Doctor of Humanities degree from his alma mater, Acadia University.

Jim serves as director of puppetry for Symphony Nova Scotia's production of The Nutcracker and regularly serves as special advisor in puppetry to organizations throughout Canada. He is Chair of the Artist in Residence Program at the Centre for Health Care for the Elderly at the QEII Health Science Centre in Halifax, and is an executive member of the Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council.

Jim was born in Grand Falls, Newfoundland. He makes his home in Port Williams, Nova Scotia, and is the father of four children.

Jim Morrow & Berkeley Breathed Malibu, CA March 2001

With 'Old Woman' the fusion of movement and puppetry really ignites and . . . there is no stopping the flame. With absolutely minimal but impeccably timed and directed movements, Morrow brings to living, breathing anima, the mask/puppet character of the old woman."
Christopher Majka, Arts Atlantic, Charlottetown, P.E.I.

"Jim Morrow's imaginative puppets . . . are striking plusses for 'The Nutcracker" production" - Kay and Stephen Pedersen, The Chronicle Herald, Halifax, N.S.