Bilal
Baig
Bilal Baig is a queer, trans-feminine, Muslim playwright, performer, and workshop facilitator. Their first play, Acha Bacha, had its world premiere in 2018. Baig is a facilitator at Story Planet, where they develop workshops for youth in under-resourced neighbourhoods in Toronto focused on creative writing and literacy. They are also the Playwrights Unit Facilitator for the Paprika Festival and the lead and co-creator of the television series Sort Of. Baig lives in Toronto.
Award History
Jury Citation
“With Acha Bacha, Bilal Baig preserves the sacredness of subtleties expressed in Urdu without compromise. Their work expertly navigates translation, capturing unspeakable and complex truths that are often lost in translation. The characters find their way to themselves by expressing love, loss, longing, and betrayal in contexts that acknowledge and affirm their realities. The text is an important addition to Canadian literature and offers a much-needed perspective on what it feels like to search for love, self-acceptance, and pockets of safety while living in the Pakistani diaspora as a second-generation queer person.”
— 2022 Dayne Ogilvie Prize Jury (Billy-Ray Belcourt, Samra Habib, and Zoey Leigh Peterson)
