Marie-Hélène Cousineau was born in Montreal in 1960. In 1983, Laval University granted her a diploma in Art History. The same year, she studied at the Banff School of Fine Arts in Alberta. Three years later, she received an MFA from the Université du Québec à Montréal. In 1985, her video Gogolapin $$ was selected at the Festival du nouveau cinéma et de la vidéo de Montréal. Du potlatch, l'odeur de l'huile was selected the following year at the Festival du nouveau cinéma et de la vidéo de Montréal. Marie-Hélène Cousineau has published articles and presented a radio programme on visual art on CIBL-FM. She also worked as a scriptwriter for many professional productions.