Lara Rae (born 1963 in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

), formerly known as Al Rae, is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

comedian, best known as the longtime artistic director of the

Winnipeg Comedy Festival The Winnipeg Comedy Festival is an annual comedy festival, held in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Created by the Osborne Village Cultural Centre in collaboration with CBC Radio, performances from the festival are also broadcast as a radio series on CBC Radio ...

"Gender politics: Autobiographical show a step on Rae's journey". ''

Winnipeg Free Press The ''Winnipeg Free Press'' (or WFP; founded as the ''Manitoba Free Press'') is a daily (excluding Sunday) broadsheet newspaper in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It provides coverage of local, provincial, national, and international news, as well as ...

'', October 1, 2015. and as a performer on the

CBC Radio One CBC Radio One is the English-language news and information radio network of the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial-free and offers local and national programming. It is available on AM and FM to 98 percent of Ca ...

comedy series ''

The Debaters ''The Debaters'' is a Canadian radio comedy show hosted by Steve Patterson. It airs on CBC Radio One, Saturdays at 1:30PM and Wednesdays at 11:30AM, Eastern Time. During each episode, two debates take place between two sets of two contestants. ...

''. She has also been a writer for radio and television, including on '' Blackfly'',"Funny man Al Rae on coming out at 49"
''

Daily Xtra ''Xtra Magazine'' (formerly ''DailyXtra'' and ''Xtra!'') is an LGBTQ-focused digital publication and former print newspaper published by Pink Triangle Press in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The publication is a continuation of the company's former pr ...

'', August 19, 2014. ''

Big Sound ''Big Sound'' was a Canadian produced television programme which aired for a run of 22 episodes. The show was set in the offices of a fictional record label, concentrating on the interactions between characters therein. It starred Greg Evigan. As ...

'', ''

Little Mosque on the Prairie ''Little Mosque on the Prairie'' is a Television in Canada, Canadian television sitcom created by Zarqa Nawaz and produced by WestWind Pictures, originally broadcast from 2007 to 2012 on CBC Television, CBC. Filmed in Toronto, Ontario, and Indian ...

'', ''

What a Week ''What A Week'' was a radio comedy show on CBC Radio One that ran for two 13-episode seasons in 2003. This show, like its more immediate predecessor '' The Muckraker'' was firmly rooted in the political and topical lampoons that first became a st ...

'', ''

Definitely Not the Opera ''Definitely Not the Opera'' (or simply ''DNTO'') was a magazine-style radio program focusing on aspects of pop culture and storytelling, that aired on CBC Radio One on Saturday afternoons from 1994 until 2016. The show's running time varied ove ...

'' and ''

Monsoon House ''Monsoon House'' is a Canadian radio comedy series, which aired on CBC Radio One in the fall of 2006 and returned for a second season in 2009, thanks to it being a hit with CBC listeners. The second season aired in early 2009 after a reairing of ...

''. She has been a three-time

Canadian Comedy Award The Canadian Comedy Awards (CCA) is an annual ceremony that awards the Beaver for achievements in Canadian comedy in live performance, radio, film, television, and Internet media. The awards were founded and produced by Tim Progosh in 2000. The ...

nominee and a

Gemini Award The Gemini Awards were awards given by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television between 1986–2011 to recognize the achievements of Canada's television industry. The Gemini Awards are analogous to the Emmy Awards given in the United States ...

nominee for her work on ''Little Mosque''. Rae started as half of the

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

-based comedy duo Al & George with

George Westerholm George Westerholm is a Canadian musician, singer, comedian and writer. He has won three Canadian Comedy Awards for his work as a writer on ''This Hour Has 22 Minutes'' and ''The Toronto Show''. Comedy In the 1980s and early 1990s, Westerholm was ...

. After the duo broke up in 1993, Rae moved to

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

and began working as a solo standup comedian."A laughing matter". ''

'', November 26, 2015. She wrote the play ''How Do You Know When You're Done?'', a fictionalized account of their creative tensions and breakup which premiered at the

Tim Sims Playhouse The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre op ...

in 1999, and was a founder of the Winnipeg Comedy Festival in 2002. In 2013, while still known as Al and presenting as male, Rae came out as

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

at age 49. She came out as

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

in October 2015. At the time of her announcement, she was working as an assistant director on a stage production of

Christopher Marlowe Christopher Marlowe, also known as Kit Marlowe (; baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the Elizabethan playwrights. Based upon the ...

's play ''

Edward II Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir apparent to t ...

'' in Winnipeg. In November, she made her first on-stage appearance as a comedian since beginning her gender transition, as part of the Empow(HER)ment comedy show in Winnipeg. She is an instructor in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at the

University of Winnipeg The University of Winnipeg (UWinnipeg, UW) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, that offers undergraduate faculties of art, business and economics, education, science and kinesiology and applied health as well as gr ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rae, Lara 1963 births 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights Canadian stand-up comedians Canadian women comedians Canadian women dramatists and playwrights Canadian comedy writers Canadian television writers Canadian radio writers Women radio writers LGBT entertainers from Canada LGBT dramatists and playwrights Scottish emigrants to Canada Transgender comedians Transgender women Canadian transgender writers Writers from Glasgow Writers from Winnipeg Living people 20th-century Canadian women writers Canadian women television writers 20th-century Canadian comedians 21st-century Canadian comedians Comedians from Manitoba