Born in Seattle, raised in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, and a graduate of the University of Victoria Theatre Program, Janet Munsil studied design and directing. 

As a playwright, she is drawn to unusual but forgotten incidents and people from the past. Dramatic work includes The Ugly Duchess (about the ugliest woman in history); Emphysema: a love story (the meeting of silent film star Louise Brooks and theatre critic Kenneth Tynan); Be Still (inspired by the work of Victorian photographer Hannah Maynard); Influence (Keats meets the Parthenon Statues); Circus Fire (a play for physical theatre inspired by tragic 1944 event); and I Have Seen Beautiful Jim Key, a play for young audiences about a horse that could read.