Ganesh Thavarajah - Acting

Artist Name: Ganesh Thavarajah

Performance Category: Acting

Artist Bio: When my family and I immigrated to Canada from Sri Lanka in 2001, we came here looking for a better future and opportunities. Living between two cultures, figuring out how I fit into that "better future” seemed impossible, so I looked to the media to learn how to be “Canadian”. I recognized that what I did, what I spoke, and what I looked like, wasn’t what I saw on TV. Media shaped my idea of who I wanted to become, but I was no fool, I knew a chubby brown boy with an accent could never be what I saw on the big screen. So I pursued a career in business and now hold a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing from Ryerson University. But the world is changing, people of colour are rising up on the screen in titular roles with substance. I have never felt more seen or heard than when I am giving voice to an empowering character on stage or screen, and I want to share that voice with the world. Since starting my acting journey in 2018, I have taken all the steps within my reach to launch my career. I started off by taking classes at Milne Studio, a film/tv training facility in Toronto. At the same time, I studied with Voice & Speech Specialist Joy Juckes to achieve the voice and dialect skills needed for the North American entertainment industry. Within six months of taking these classes, and finding my confidence and a foundation to approaching the work, I bravely started self-submitting for roles. With this newfound courage and footage from class, I bootstrapped and created a demo reel to start the rigorous hunt for an agent. Growing up in a low-income family, there were numerous barriers that kept me away from accessing the education, training and networks to pursue acting. I want to invest in growing skills like voice technique, character development and movement work, which will make me a competitive player in the market. Also, having a business degree, I have already started to build a career in the industry beyond just acting. I am writing stand-up sets, doing improv shows, working on a film script, and I’ve produced a YouTube Channel. I mentor in professional development, storytelling and collaboration will be an asset in helping me develop these aspects of my career as well. My work is inspired by classical actors such as Clark Gable in Sunset Boulevard who find the comedy in the darkest moments, and contemporary artists like Kumanil Nanjiani and Mindy Kaling who share stories of the brown experience that go beyond stereotypical and one-dimensional characters. My work as an actor/writer tries to examine these intersectionalities in people, in a time when society is realizing that the human psyche goes beyond heteronormative patriarchal constructs. I collaborate with organizations and artists with a history of working with artists who bring perspectives that are provocative, experimental and colourful, which is what I bring to the table. Through my mentorship, I hope to meet the leaders in the industry who will help my voice be heard.