Grant Paterson is a teacher, actor, musician, director, and adjudicator specializing in speech arts. Paterson began his teaching career in 1994, giving private lessons in drama and speech arts with his colleague Jim Dobbin. Paterson started teaching at the Mount Royal College Conservatory in 1995 in Speech, Theatre, and Communication Studies, and later served as the Coordinator of the Speech Arts department. Paterson continues to teach as a sessional speech arts instructor in the Conservatory and as a part-time lecturer in the School of Communication Studies.
Paterson is an examiner for the Royal Conservatory of Music and was heavily involved in the merger of the Mount Royal College Conservatory and Royal Conservatory of Music syllabuses and examination criteria. Paterson is also a well-known speech arts adjudicator and has adjudicated at various speech, drama, and performing arts festivals throughout Alberta and Canada.
Paterson has been involved in many theatre productions in the Calgary area. The play Rhyme Rustler: The Ballad of Robert Service was written, directed, and performed by Paterson and was taken up for two seasons by the Vertigo Theatre. Paterson graduated from the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, London in 1979 and also holds associate diplomas in speech arts and drama from Mount Royal College and the Royal Conservatory of Music. Paterson graduated from the University of Calgary with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1980 and a Master of Fine Arts in 1994. Paterson earned associate diploma (1976), licentiate (1985), and fellowship (1988) degrees from Trinity College of Music in London, England.
Grant Paterson is also the son of Dr. Leona Paterson, who founded Mount Royal College's Speech and Drama Department in 1944.