Sugith Varughese (born 25 April 1957) is an Indian-born Canadian writer, director and actor.
Background
Born in
Cochin, Kerala,
India into a
Syriac Saint Thomas Christian family ("Varughese," also sometimes spelled "
Varghese" and "Verghese" and variously pronounced, is
Syriac-
Malayalam for "George"),[1] he immigrated to
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan as a child when his neurosurgeon father obtained a professional appointment there.[2] His family's native language is
Malayalam; having grown up in anglophone western Canada he naturally speaks English with a Canadian accent but from time to time affects an assortment of South Asian accents when playing dramatic roles that call for them.
Sugith Varughese was raised in
Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan, began university studies at the
University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon with a double major in pre-medicine and drama,[3] and continued on to an undergraduate degree in drama at the
University of Minnesota in
Minneapolis and a Master of Fine Arts at
York University in Toronto.[4] He went on to write, act in and direct film and television productions in Canada and the USA. He was the first visible minority accepted to attend the Canadian Film Centre as a writer-director. As a director, he has been nominated for and won several Canadian film and television and international film festival awards.[5] He also holds a black belt in karate.[6]
Credits
His credits include the following.
Acting
As a film and television actor:
More than 100 film and TV credits including "
Orphan", "
Solar Attack" (as the character Patel), and "
Mission to Mars". Other television credits include "Suits", "The Strain" and “Degrassi: The Next Generation”. He was a series regular in the comedy CBC-TV's "
An American in Canada" aka "Frostbite" in Australia (Gemini nomination for Best Ensemble Performance) and played recurring characters in Omni TV's nighttime soap "
Metropia", CBC-TV's "
Little Mosque on the Prairie", season one of "The Girlfriend Experience" on Starz and “Kim's Convenience” on CBC-TV and Netflix, "Transplant" on CTV and NBC. He starred in "Home on the Range" for CBC-TV which won a gold prize for best TV pilot at the
Houston Film Festival. He received an ACTRA Award nomination for his very first television role in the TV movie "Best of Both Worlds" for CBC-TV.
as playwright "The Postman" (co-writer, Panamania) and "Entitlement" (Summerworks)
Film and television
As scriptwriter: Animated shorts, "Talespinners Collection 1", Talespinners Collection 2" (NFB); Short film, "Tongue Tied"; TV series "The Blobheads" (YTV, 1 episode); IMAX documentary "Lost Worlds: Life in the Balance"; TV series "Blue Murder" (Global TV, 2 episodes); TV series "Groundling Marsh" (YTV, 1 episode); TV series "On My Mind" (TVOntario, 1 episode); Short film "Mela's Lunch" (NFB); Short film "Kumar and Mr. Jones" (Canadian Film Centre); TV series "Mount Royal" (CTV, 1 episode); TV movie "Best of Both Worlds" (CBC); TV series "Fraggle Rock" (Jim Henson Company) (10 episodes);[5] TV series "The Phoenix Team" (CBC, 1 episode); radio drama "In the Mountains" (CBC Radio) based on Rohinton Mistry's novel "A Fine Balance"; radio drama "Entry Denied" (CBC Radio) which was Canada's entry in the Worldplay Festival and broadcast worldwide.[8]
Awards
Vaurghese has been nominated for a Writers Guild of Canada award five times and won a Writers Guild of Canada award for "Talespinners Collection 2" (NFB). He received a Gemini Award nomination for writing "The Secret Life of Goldfish". He was a finalist for an ACTRA Award for writing "Best of Both Worlds". He won the first York Trillium Award – Most Promising Writer, Television from the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.
Directing
"Tongue Tied" (independent comedy short)
"On My Mind" (half-hour children's television series for TVOntario)
"Mela's Lunch" (National Film Board of Canada)
“
Kumar and Mr. Jones” (Canadian Film Centre) – awarded Best Director, Atlantic Film Festival[5]
References
^Neither the famous Dr
Abraham Verghese nor the American stand-up comedian
Paul Varghese, both also of Malayali Syrian Christian backgrounds, is necessarily any relation of Sugith Varughese: Malayali Syrian-Orthodox Christians do not have public family names (they have "house" names) and their putative surnames are simply their fathers' Christian names.