Laara Sadiq
Laara Sadiq is an award winning actor with over 20 years experience in theatre, film, television and voice-over across Canada and the US. Her work has taken her from Vancouver, BC to St. Johns, Newfoundland, and in the US from San Francisco, CA to Washington DC. She holds a BFA from the University of British Columbia.
Recent film and TV credits include recurring roles on Remedy (Supporting /Global TV) and Heartland (Guest Star / CBC); The Code, The Strain, The Baroness Von Sketch Show, Rogue; Special Correspondents (Feature / Dir: Ricky Gervias), Happily Ever After (Feature / Dir: Joan Carr-Wiggin).
Selected feature films: Stepchild, The Dick Knost Show, A Night for Dying Tigers, Excited – Leo Award Best Actress (TIFF, Palm Springs Film Festival), The Invisible, Antarctica, Willard, Josie and the Pussycats, American Venus, Live Bait.
Selected TV: Killjoys, Hemlock Grove, The Listener, Cracked, Dr. Bob’s House (Guest Star/CBC Pilot), The Firm, King, Degrassi, Covert Affairs, Michael Tuesdays and Thursdays, Flashpoint, Fringe, Battlestar Galactica (recurring), Stargate SG1 (recurring), Da Vinci’s Inquest.
Laara also works extensively in theatre. Selected recent credits include: Cake and Dirt (Tarragon Theatre), Eternal Hydra (Touchstone Theatre); The Penelopiad (Arts Club Theatre); No Exit – Jessie Nomination Best Actress (Electric Company on tour @ American Conservatory Theatre/Nightwood Theatre/High Performance Rodeo/Theatre Calgary/WCTC); St Carmen of The Main, Nativity, Romeo & Juliet (National Arts Centre resident acting company 2010/2011).
Laara’s selected theatrical credits elsewhere include Noises Off, Guys and Dolls, An Ideal Husband (Vancouver Playhouse); The Age of Arousal, The Matka King – Jessie Award Best Supporting Actress, Threepenny Opera (Arts Club Theatre); Palace of the End – Jessie Award Best Actress, Life After God, The Orphan Muses – Jessie Nomination Best Supporting Actress (Touchstone Theatre); Ali and Ali 7, Adrift on the Nile, Crime and Punishment – Jessie Nomination Best Supporting Actress (neworld theatre); Hecuba (Blackbird Theatre); as well as various productions with Solo Collective, Gateway Theatre, Caravan Farm Theatre, BAM, Kennedy Centre, Push Festival, Magnetic North, Women in View Festival, Judith Marcuse’s Kiss Project etc.
As a voice-over artist, Laara can be heard in cartoons, documentary narration and radio/TV commercials throughout Canada and the US.
Laara is an active member of her community and a lifelong political activist who has served on numerous cultural boards, granting bodies and community organizations. After 20 years based in Vancouver, she now lives in Toronto with her daughter and husband. In addition to her work as an artist, she is an avid runner, a killer baker of cupcakes, and is currently studying mixed martial arts with Sir Marvin Prashad.
Next up for Laara:
- Recent guest roles on Jason Priestly’s The Code, CBC’s sketch comedy show The Baroness von Sketch Show, and the new USA Network TV series Eyewitness.
- In development for a new multidisciplinary work We Are Making Fiction, with west coast dancer/ choreographer Noam Gagnon, and director Peter Hinton.
- Heading to the Caravan Farm Theatre this summer to play Mrs Webb in Our Town. Returning to the farm after almost 20 years (jeesus..), where I played Judas Iscariot in Peter Anderson’s Passion, and a sassy Parisian cat in Alan Coles The Bremen Town Band.
- West coast premiere of Anusree Roy’s Brothel # 9 for Touchstone Theatre this fall.
- http://www.laarasadiq.com
What Laara says about her time at UBC:
“I graduated from the BFA acting program at UBC in 1992. For a kid from the burbs of Toronto, coming to Vancouver was a heady experience. I dove headlong into the professional world as soon as I finished the program, and I truly believe that the ease of that transition had everything to do with my training at UBC. But it wasn’t till afterwards, that I realized just how valuable that experience was. As a professional actor, I spend as much time in front of the camera, or in a voice-over studio, as I do on stage.
Who knew that John Brockington’s language of the fan, Charlie Siegel’s beat structure, or Stephen Malloy’s attention to the intricacies of character development would serve me so well performing Oscar Wilde, Judith Thompson or Michel Tremblay. That Arne Zazlove’s economy of movement would guide me through extreme close ups on film. That Gayle Murphy’s breath control, or that kooky articulation exercise with a cork in your mouth would help me sell Nike running shoes in voice-over spots.
My life as an artist was primed by my experiences in the program, and those experiences continue to inform my practice in the most unexpected ways.”
