In our ongoing interview project, we team up with Legendary Canadian actor, producer, writer & director Sugith Varughese.
He starred in the CBC TV movie, “Best of Both Worlds” which was the first South Asian romantic comedy produced by CBC, which first aired in 1983 and sold worldwide
He also wrote for several TV series, including being an original writer on the famed Muppet series “Fraggle Rock”, and other series from the crime drama “Blue Murder” to the children’s show “Blobheads”. His documentary credits include co-writing the IMAX film “Lost Worlds: Life in the Balance” narrated by Harrison Ford.
He's received four Writers Guild of Canada award nominations for screenwriting, winning for his animated scripts for the NFB’s Talespinners’ collection, a York Trillium Award for Most Promising Writer, has received two Gemini nominations and.
Playwright His first stage play, “Entitlement” premiered at the Summerworks Theatre Festival in Toronto to strong notices. He most recently wrote for and acted in “The Postman” a play with music about Toronto’s first black postman, which premiered as part of the Panamania arts festival for the Pan Am Games in Toronto.
As an actor, he has over 100 credits in films and TV programs, over 25 radio dramas and many stage appearances. Feature films include “Remember”, “Orphan” and “Mission to Mars”. He was a series regular on CBC’s Gemini-winning comedy series “An American in Canada” and a recurring character on CBC’s famed comedy “Little Mosque on the Prairie” as well as a recurring character on Omni’s night time soap, “Metropia.”
He recurred on the first season of the acclaimed TV series, “The Girlfriend Experience” and created the iconic character Mr. Mehta in the hit TV comedy “Kim’s Convenience” on CBC and Netflix worldwide. He currently recurs as Dr. Singh in the acclaimed drama “Transplant” on CTV and NBC. '
Among stage appearances, he starred in the world premiere of award-winning playwright Anusree Roy’s play, “Little Pretty and the Exceptional”, which garnered him a Dora Award nomination for Outstanding Performance - Male.
He was the first graduate from Canada’s first MFA program in film at York University and the first minority writer-director graduate of the prestigious Canadian Film Centre’s feature film programme where his short thesis film “Kumar and Mr. Jones” was the first CFC film nominated for a Genie award and went on to won 3 international awards.
His films for children have been nominated for several awards including a Gemini Award
He won a Governor-General’s medal for the province of Saskatchewan upon graduating high school in Saskatoon and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota in theatre arts. In 2012, the University of Minnesota’s College of Liberal Arts awarded him a distinguished alumnus award. He has been on the faculty of Humber College’s Acting for Film and Television program, Centennial College's film program, and the Toronto Film School.
He ran the first three years of the WGC-Bell Media Diverse Screenwriting program. He is also a governor representing the Writers Guild of Canada on the board of AFBS Actra Fraternal Benefit Society (AFBS) a not-for-profit, Member-owned, federally incorporated insurance company operating for over 35 years, whch manages theinsurance and pension plan for the WGC and ACTRA.
He is listed in Who’s Who in Canada, wikipedia.org and imdb.com. An avid golfer, he also holds black belts in karate and kobudo and was the first Canadian to grade in his style of kobodu in Japan.
