Rabiya Mansoor

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Profile Details

  • Country:   Canada
  • Province/State:   Ontario
  • City:   Toronto
  • How do you Identify?:   Pakistani, Queer
  • Experience Level:   Emerging
  • Field of Work:   Fiction/Scripted
  • Union:   WGC and ACTRA
  • Interested In:   TV Writing Room, Developing my own Film/TV/Digital Material, For-Hire Work, and Shadowing
  • Recent Credits:   Du Me a Favor (Crave/New Metric Media) -- Story Coordinator; Strawberry Shortcake -- Writer (Wildbrain)
  • Favourite TV Shows:   Avatar: the Last Airbender; On My Block; Dead to Me; Arthur
  • Authorized to work in the USA?:   No
  • Contact Information:   hello@rabiyamansoor.com
  • Link:   http://www.rabiyamansoor.com/

Bio

Rabiya Mansoor (she/they) is a Pakistani-Calgarian comedian, writer, actor, producer, and recovering lawyer. She’s helped develop shows at CBC Gem, 9 Story, Big Bad Boo, and more. She’s written for the upcoming Strawberry Shortcake series and is currently story coordinating for Du Me a Favor (Crave/New Metric Media). Her web series projects in development include: Get Up, Aisha (IPF Production Fund/iThentic), Layla is Relevant (JFL ComedyPro Stand Up & Pitch Finalist/WIFT-T Scripted Digital Series Incubator), and Sexcapades (JA Productions). Her sketch comedy troupe, the Don Valley Girls, received a Sketch Comedy Project Fund grant for their first sketch revue (WhyNot Theatre’s RISER 2022 Festival) and she was a member of the Second City Family Company for What the Elf?!. She is an alumnus of Second City’s Bob Curry Fellowship for emerging, diverse comedic voices and has performed at the Toronto, Chicago, and Montreal Sketch Comedy Festivals, most recently as a drag king solo act. She’s has participated in playwright units at Expect Theatre, Driftwood Theatre, and Tarragon Theatre and her play, A Jam Kind of Day, will be digitally staged in Driftwood Theatre’s Digital Short Play Festival (Fall 2021). Her TYA improv show, Education Know-It-All, was commissioned for Theatre Direct’s 2021 Forward March Festival and she is a graduate of the BIPOC TV & Film Kids TV Bootcamp. If you got this far, her bank password is Yugioh!.

 

Intro

Hi! I’m a Pakistani-Calgarian comedian, writer, actor, and producer based in Toronto. I love writing comedic stories with heart that centre on diverse and South Asian characters. I grew up in Calgary, Alberta where I studied at the University of Calgary (go Dinos!). During that time, I was obsessed with South Korean boybands, specifically Super Junior, and split my time between my BA in International Relations and BA in East Asian Language Studies (Mandarin Chinese). I was also a sorority president (true story) and ended my undergrad years by doing a stand-up set at the Scholars Academy end-of-year program (it went okay).

I moved to Toronto to study law at the University of Toronto and became very depressed. So, I started taking improv classes and I was hooked. In between improv classes, I worked and volunteered at the student legal clinic, mainly in employment, university affairs, and tenant housing law. From improv, I moved to sketch comedy and writing and now perform with my sketch troupe, the Don Valley Girls, and realized, “wow, law was a mistake.” These days, I do a smorgasbord of stuff — screenwriting, acting, playwriting, and am very enthusiastic about proper laptop height for Zoom meetings. My dream of dreams is to be a Mindy Kaling / Michaela Coel / Phoebe Waller-Bridge type who does it all (is this manifestation? I hope so!).