Bilal Baig

Bilal Baig is a Canadian writer and actor, most noted for their play Acha Bacha and television series Sort Of.[2] Acha Bacha, which centers on a non-binary Pakistani-Canadian person struggling to reconcile their gender with their Muslim upbringing,[3] was staged in a joint production by Theatre Passe Muraille and Buddies in Bad Times in 2018.[4]

Bilal Baig
Born1995 (age 27–28)[1]
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

Baig is the co-creator, co-writer, and star of Sort Of, a CBC Television comedy series centering on a genderfluid character.[2] Baig is the first queer South Asian Muslim actor to lead a Canadian primetime television series.[5] The series premiered on CBC in 2021.[5]

Although Sort Of was the top winner overall in television categories at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards 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.[6] The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television subsequently announced that beginning with the 11th Canadian Screen Awards in 2023, gender-neutral awards for Best Performance will be presented instead of separate gendered actor and actress categories,[7] and Baig was the winner of the inaugural Canadian Screen Award for Best Leading Performance in a Comedy Series.[8]

Theatre credits
Year Title Role Theatre Director(s) Ref.
2018 Acha Bacha Playwright Theatre Passe Muraille Brendan Healy
[9]

Filmography

Television
Year Title Role Notes
2021 Sort Of Sabi Mehboob Lead/Creator

Accolades
Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
2022 Peabody Awards Entertainment Sort Of Nominated [10]

References
  1. https://www.macleans.ca/longforms/bilal-baig-sort-of-queer-identity/
  2. "Entertainment news: New CBC comedy will star genderqueer playwright Bilal Baig as a gender-fluid millennial". Toronto Star, October 15, 2020.
  3. J. Kelly Nestruck, "Review: With Acha Bacha, there’s no time like the present". The Globe and Mail, February 7, 2018.
  4. Jose Teodoro, "Acha Bacha explores queer South Asian-Canadian life with humour and heart" Archived 2021-05-16 at the Wayback Machine. Now, February 8, 2018.
  5. "Nonbinary millennial is front and center in HBO Max dramedy 'Sort Of'". NBC News. 20 November 2021. Retrieved 2021-11-21.
  6. Sadaf Ahsan, "Trans, non-binary actors push for more recognition as awards season approaches". Toronto Star, June 20, 2022.
  7. Joseph Pugh, "Canadian Screen Awards switching to gender-neutral performance categories". CBC News, August 25, 2022.
  8. "The Porter, Sort Of showered in awards on the CSAs' final night". CBC News, April 14, 2023.
  9. Taylor, Christopher. "Baig's Acha Bacha Shows That Sometimes Real Stories Don't Have Happy Endings." The Theatre Times, June 30, 2018.
  10. Voyles, Blake (September 20, 2023). "83rd Peabody Award Nominees". Retrieved September 20, 2023.


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