Laura Hyde Crapo was born in the United States in 1967 and raised in Canada in a family immersed in art, mathematics, music, politics, and public life.
Her father, Henry Howland Crapo III, was a mathematician and art collector from Detroit, Michigan. Her mother, Elizabeth (Betsy) Grant Baldwin, from Hull, Massachusetts, was a legislative counsel for Ontario at Queen’s Park, a classical pianist, and an enthusiastic singer of show tunes in the car.
Her parents helped create Wired World, an early community radio station in Waterloo, Ontario. Her father purchased the building and equipment as an early financial supporter, while her mother hosted a program called Opposing Views. Both were politically engaged and, before Laura was ten, regularly brought her with them to marches, conferences, rallies, and political events.
Art was equally present in her childhood. Her father collected work by painters George Tooker and William Christopher. When Laura was sixteen and considering becoming an artist herself, she spent two weeks staying and painting with Tooker—an opportunity to experience firsthand what it meant to build a life around making art.
Laura began writing books, making visual art, taking photographs, and experimenting with home video while still in school. She went on to earn a BFA from NSCAD and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Music, Photography & Performance
During the 1990s, Laura became part of the independent music communities of Halifax, Chicago, and Toronto as a songwriter, performer, home-recording producer, photographer, and music-video director. During this period she worked primarily as Laura Borealis, a name her maternal grandfather had given her.
Since 1990, she has independently produced and released music through her label SNOB SHOP, recording under several names and projects, including Snob Shop, Le Look, Laura Borealis, Laura Crapo, and Very Hot Songs. Releases include Pick of the Week on 10-inch pink vinyl, Je T’Aime, Duets, Laura, Funderful, Je T’Aime Laura, Robot Song, and Unbreakable. Her recordings are distributed across streaming services and independent music platforms.
Laura was a radio programmer at CKDU for five years during the 1990s and has performed live in Montreal, New York, Chicago, Halifax, and Toronto. Her performance work has also extended beyond music: she has performed stand-up comedy at The Comedy Nest in Montreal, bringing the same observational and intuitive approach found throughout her writing and filmmaking to live comedy.
Her involvement in music has frequently crossed between the visual and performing arts. In addition to songwriting and performing, she photographed musicians and directed music videos. She later co-produced Alden Penner’s first solo album and performed as his touring drummer for Canadian and U.S. shows in 2014–15. She subsequently joined Penner and Michael Cera as drummer for their UK and European tour.
Laura has taught music and songwriting at Girls Rock Camp Toronto and has taught filmmaking through her own workshops. In Los Angeles, she led a filmmaking workshop and presented a screening of All She Wants 2 at Echo Park Film Center.
Film & Acting
Laura has lived in Montreal since 2006. Her multidisciplinary background developed into an auteur approach to filmmaking in which writing, directing, acting, editing, photography, and music can become parts of a single work.
In 2003, Laura undertook formal acting study in Toronto, completing two classes in the Meisner Technique. The method’s emphasis on listening, instinctive response, and truthful behaviour complements the intuitive, naturalistic approach she brings to both acting and directing.
She has made two independent feature-length films, All She Wants (2001) and All She Wants 2 (2015), working across multiple creative roles both behind and in front of the camera. She is currently developing further feature-film work.
Her experience as a director and editor informs her understanding of performance from both sides of the camera—the importance of presence, timing, framing, rhythm, and the small behaviours through which a character becomes believable.
Her films extend an artistic practice that began with home video, independent music, photography, and performance: personal, intuitive filmmaking made outside conventional divisions between disciplines.
Writing
Laura has self-published three books: Dames Dames, Inherit the Median Strip, published as Laura Borealis, and Read It And Weep, published simply as Laura.
Writing remains central to her work across books, songwriting, screenwriting, filmmaking, comedy, and performance.
Healing & Intuitive Practice
Alongside her artistic career, Laura has maintained a longstanding interest in intuition and healing. She became a Reiki Master in 2003 and has worked with clients since then through intuitive counsel, Reiki, and distance healing.
She also uses her YouTube channel as a public forum for exploring healing, intuition, human behaviour, and personal potential, sometimes using well-known people and situations as starting points for broader discussion.
Her study of human behaviour also includes a certificate in Statement Analysis with Peter Hyatt and independent study of handwriting analysis.
Family & Other Interests
Laura married musician Greg Tymoshenko of the Leather Uppers in 2000. They have three children together and divorced in 2008.
Her interests beyond filmmaking and music include industrial and automobile design, fashion, architecture, psychology, and the relationship between intuition and creative practice.
Laura also comes from a family with a history in American industry and public life. Her ancestor Henry Howland Crapo served as Governor of Michigan during the nineteenth century. His grandson, William Crapo Durant, went on to found General Motors.
Across film, music, photography, writing, acting, comedy, and healing, Laura's work has remained fundamentally independent. Rather than separating these pursuits into different careers, she approaches them as different expressions of the same lifelong investigation into people, perception, creativity, and the possibilities of an artist-led life.
