Sugith Varughese

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Sugith Varughese (born 25 April 1957) is an Indian-born Canadian writer, director and actor.

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. He also holds a black belt in karate.^[5]

Television

Varughese made his screen debut on television in 1983, and was nominated for an ACTRA Award for his first role in the CBC-TV movie, Best of Both Worlds.^[6] Since then, Varughese has appeared in more than a hundred films and television shows. In 1990, he starred in Inside Story: Home on the Range for which won a gold prize for best TV pilot at the Houston Film Festival. Some of his other television movie roles include the Transcorp Reporter in Overdrawn at the Memory Bank (1984),^[7] and Patal in Solar Attack (2006).^[8]

In television series, Varughese was a regular as Aftab in the CBC-TV comedy An American in Canada (aka Frostbite in Australia) for which he received a Gemini Award nomination for Best Ensemble Performance. Other recurring roles include Palash on OMNI TV's nighttime soap opera Metropia, Faisal on Little Mosque on the Prairie, Tariq Barr on the Starz series The Girlfriend Experience,^[9] Mr. Mehta on Kim's Convenience, David Paster for three episodes of The Expanse (2021), and Aajay Singh on the CTV series Transplant.^[9] His television guest appearances include the crime-fighting series Counterstrike (1992), the action/crime drama Kung Fu: The Legend Continues (1993), the film-based thriller F/X: The Series (1996), the adventure series Veritas: The Quest (2003), and a role as the informant on 72 Hours: True Crime (2004).

Film

Some of his theatrical film appearances include the psychological slasher Orphan (2009),^[8] and the science fiction film Mission to Mars (2000).^[10]

Theatre

Varughese's stage roles and venues include the following.^[11]

Theatre

As playwright he was a co-writer for The Postman (Panamania), and wrote Entitlement (Summerworks).

Film and television

As scriptwriter he worked on 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);^[9] 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.^[12]

Awards

Varughese 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. He received an Award of Excellence for his body of work in 2024 from the ReelWorld Festival.

• 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

This film-related list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (July 2025)

This television-related list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (July 2025)

• Sugith Varughese at IMDb
• Sugith Varughese at Turner Classic Movies
• Sugith Varughese on Twitter