Bilal Baig is a Canadian writer and actor, most noted for their play ''Acha Bacha'' and television series ''

Sort Of ''Sort Of'' is the debut studio album by the avant-rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic ele ...

''."Entertainment news: New CBC comedy will star genderqueer playwright Bilal Baig as a gender-fluid millennial"
''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'', October 15, 2020. ''Acha Bacha'', which centers on a

non-binary Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typically ...

Pakistani-Canadian person struggling to reconcile their gender with their

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

upbringing, was staged in a joint production by

Theatre Passe Muraille Theatre Passe Muraille is a theatre company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Brief history One of Canada's most influential alternative theatres, Theatre Passe Muraille ("theatre beyond walls") was founded in 1968 by director and playwright Jim Gar ...

and

Buddies in Bad Times Buddies in Bad Times Theatre is a Canadian professional theatre company. Based in Toronto, Ontario and founded in 1978 by Matt Walsh, Jerry Ciccoritti, and Sky Gilbert, ''Buddies in Bad Times'' is dedicated to "the promotion of queer theatrical ex ...

in 2018. Baig is the co-creator, co-writer, and star of ''Sort Of'', a

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...

comedy series centering on a

genderfluid Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typicall ...

character. Baig is the first queer South Asian Muslim actor to lead a Canadian primetime television series. The series premiered on CBC in 2021. Although ''Sort Of'' was the top winner overall in television categories at the

10th Canadian Screen Awards The 10th Canadian Screen Awards were held on April 10, 2022, to honour achievements in Canadian film, television and digital media production in 2021.Etan Vlessing"Maitreyi Ramakrishnan to Receive Canadian Screen Awards Special Honor" ''The Hollyw ...

in 2022, Baig notably refused to submit for consideration at all due to the gender division between Best Actor in a Comedy Series and Best Actress in a Comedy Series. The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television subsequently announced that beginning with the

11th Canadian Screen Awards 11 (eleven) is the natural number following 10 and preceding 12. It is the first repdigit. In English, it is the smallest positive integer whose name has three syllables. Name "Eleven" derives from the Old English ', which is first attested i ...

in 2023, gender-neutral awards for Best Performance will be presented instead of separate gendered actor and actress categories, and Baig was the winner of the inaugural Canadian Screen Award for Best Leading Performance in a Comedy Series."The Porter, Sort Of showered in awards on the CSAs' final night"

CBC News CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.ca. ...

, April 14, 2023.

Theatre credits

Filmography

Television

References

21st-century Canadian actors 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights Canadian non-binary actors Canadian television actors Canadian stage actors Canadian people of Pakistani descent Canadian Muslims Canadian LGBT dramatists and playwrights LGBT Muslims Canadian non-binary writers Non-binary dramatists and playwrights Actors from Ontario Writers from Mississauga Living people 21st-century Canadian LGBT people 1995 births Genderfluid people Queer actors Best Leading Performance in a Comedy Series Canadian Screen Award winners {{Canada-actor-stub