Zahida Rahemtulla
Zahida Rahemtulla grew up in Burnaby, BC and later spent years living in Metchosin, Abu Dhabi, and Toronto. Her first play, The Wrong Bashir, premiered in Vancouver and Toronto to sold-out, critically acclaimed runs (Touchstone Theatre, 2023 and Crow’s Theatre, 2024) . Her second play, The Frontliners, a comedic drama about refugee resettlement, won a Playwrights Guild of Canada Tom Hendry Award, the Fringe New Play Prize, Theatre BC’s Play of Special Merit Award, and was runner-up for the national Voaden Prize in Playwriting. Zahida is currently working with Nightswimming Theatre and Talk is Free Theatre to start acting training programs for community actors of colour over the age of 55 to build capacity in this demographic and support older people to train professionally and join the industry. Zahida teaches and is currently an instructor in the Community Development and Outreach Department at Capilano University, where she teaches Adult Education. She also works at Blind Tiger Comedy in access.
