Shawn Ahmed is an award-winning actor and creator based out of Toronto whose lifelong love for storytelling began when his grade four teacher, who recognized his wild imagination and ability to engage his classmates, cast him as the lead in the school production of Grease. Even while he earned a Specialist in Economics at the University of Toronto, he found a way to perform; working on stages in the backs of bars, church basements, and at street festivals. As an actor on an upward trajectory, Shawn can be seen as Alphonse in season four of the popular television series, ‘Coroner’. We had the opportunity to talk to him about the role, his career, and future projects.
Shawn, thanks for taking the time to speak to us about your work. How and when did you decide to embrace a career in acting?
My pleasure, thanks for having me! I toyed with the idea through high school, but I never really saw how I would fit into this industry. I loved storytelling and performing and assumed that passion would help me with my business aspirations which I was pursuing at the University of Toronto. I had an agent at the time and she said “listen you’re in Toronto, let me send you out for commercials, maybe you can make some decent pocket money?” Sounded pretty good to me! Then I got a little lucky, after my first year I booked a supporting role in the A&E film Flight 93. Now, it wasn’t exactly my dream role nor did it jump-start my career, but I got to fly out west and work on a real live film set for three weeks. I remember on the flight home thinking “wow, this is what it feels like to be a professional actor”. It felt good. I decided then that I would finish university (had to keep my south Asian parents happy) and then dedicate myself to a career in the arts.
Please tell us more about your initial training as an actor.
My grade 4 teacher, Ms. Pisani, approached me when I was applying for high school. She felt I had a knack for this acting thing and encouraged me to apply to a theatre arts high school, Wexford School for the Arts. There I immersed myself in acting, singing, and dancing. It’s a really lovely program run by Anne Merriam and provided me with a really unique high school experience. However, as I said above, I wasn’t very convinced that this was a viable career path then.
When I finished university, I started to think about the type of actor I wanted to be. I researched actors that I admired and realized they all had one thing in common, they all did classical theatre. I would need to train but I had just gotten out of school and had zero interest in going back into an institutional setting. Eventually, I was put on to a summer training program offered by a theatre festival in Massachusetts called Shakespeare & Company. That crash course in voice, movement, classical text, clown, etc., became the foundation I’ve built my career on. It’s also where I met Dennis Krausnick, an incredible actor, director, teacher, and mentor. He invited me back the following year to work at the festival and cast me as a lead in Comedy of Errors, which he directed. I spent the first three weeks floundering in rehearsals and worrying that the show was going to be a flop. He didn’t flinch at all. He just encouraged me to keep exploring and to follow my instincts. He was the first director I worked with that completely trusted me. That changed me as an actor. He gave me the confidence I never had before. I always look back at that show as a turning point in my life. For what it’s worth, the show ended up being a hit.
What do you look for when choosing a character and do you apply a particular methodology in researching roles?
I usually play oddballs and quirky characters. If you got to know me you would probably say “that sounds about right” and I wouldn’t be offended! I’ve always felt like I’m on the outside looking in, so I feel like I have something to offer to these characters.
The beautiful thing about this profession is that there is never one set way to do anything. Every artist has their own process and (usually) they’re constantly changing it. Coming together to collaborate is a mixture of curiosity, excitement, and crippling anxiety. When I worked at the Shaw Festival I went to the Okanagan Valley and met with farmers to prepare for my role in The Orchard (After Chekhov). On Coroner, I spent hours chatting with my cousin Asim (who served as my inspiration for the role). It’s a mixed bag!
You play Alphonse in season four of Coroner. What can audiences expect?
Coroner is a sharp drama propped up by excellent writers and actors. I play Alphonse, Jenny (Serinda Swan’s) quirky and offbeat assistant. In season four Alphonse finds himself in a relationship with Jenny’s son, Ross (played by Ehren Kassam). Ehren and I got to work on a pile of great scenes together. I feel we bring some lightness to an otherwise very dark show. It’s an honor to be trusted with that type of material and I am very grateful to the writers, who wrote some really beautiful scenes for Alphonse. Namely, Adriana Maggs, Nathalie Younglai, Noelle Carbone, JP Larocque, and Laura Good.
You have a significant body of work in film and television including “The Expanse” Lifetime’s “Under the Christmas Tree”, The CW’s “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow”, Chiller TV’s “Slasher”, CBS All Access’ and “Twilight Zone”. Is there a role or performance you’re particularly proud of, if so why?
The Expanse comes to mind right away. Getting to work on a series that I was already a huge fan of was surreal. Moments like that remind me of what a joy it is to get to work in this industry. When I first got cast my expectation was I would have a couple of cool little scenes. That was enough for me. You can imagine my surprise when I read the monologue the writers wrote for me. I also got to take part in a kick-ass fight scene. Icing on the cake!
More recently, I was playing Rohan in Under the Christmas Tree. It’s hard to explain, but I had SO MUCH FUN on this set. I wasn’t expecting to be given such a long leash to explore the role and bring so much of my brand of humor to the project. Danielle von Zerneck and Lisa Rose Snow assembled an awesome team. I walked off that set every day with a huge smile on my face.
Please tell us more about your company Crazy Shirt Productions. Was its formation the result of personal experiences working in the industry?
About ten years ago I was an out-of-work actor working in a telemarketing center. I didn’t have a lot going on career-wise and was running out of hope. In the cubicle next to me was a strange fellow named Scott Leaver. The two of us had little in common, but we did share a sense of humor. We quickly became good friends and became known as the “funny guys” at the office. As much fun as it was to play pranks at the office and entertain our colleagues at the local watering hole, we felt we had more to offer. So we started writing. And then we learned to edit. Then we put some of our own money into renting camera gear and shot a tv pilot. The show went nowhere but served as a launching pad for our future projects. Since then, we’ve collaborated with dozens of artists, toured our series’ to web festivals worldwide, and collected a couple of awards for our work. More than anything else, Crazy Shirt Productions was born out of frustration for not getting the opportunities we felt we deserved.
You’re a director at POV Film, a charitable organization founded in 2007 by Edie Weiss that helps marginalized youth break into the film and television industry through training, mentorship, job placement, and professional development. Please tell us more about charity and its impact. Note: please provide information/ facts or figures on how it’s making a difference.
POV is a Toronto-based organization that partners with talented, untapped youth to champion diversity and inclusion in the content production industries by increasing access to skills training, job placements, mentorship, and professional development opportunities. Since its inception, POV has helped 250 individuals launch and sustain careers in the film and TV industry. All our programs are free for the participants and we prioritize those who have little to no access to quality training.
When I joined the board, I voiced that we should not only be training people to work within the industry but helping create leaders. With that in mind, we helped a group of artists develop and pitch a series of projects to Bell Media’s VOD platform, Fibe TV1 (where I have sold several projects with Crazy Shirt in the past). Four of the five shows we pitched were green-lit. The network offered over $120,000 in total (as well as in-kind services) to help make each of these shows. I stayed on to help a couple of them walk through the production process, but the creators held on to all the rights, I.P., etc, and were in the driver’s seat for the entire process.
You’re about to star alongside Toni Braxton in the upcoming Lifetime movie franchise “Fallen Angels Murder Club”. Please tell us more about your role and what we can expect.
I play Mark Balan, a young, hungry, and (slightly) odd lawyer. Toni’s character and I meet in the first film at a law firm and eventually go on to work together as the series progresses. We definitely have a bit of an older-sister younger-brother type relationship. Can’t say much more than that cause I don’t want to give away any of the mysteries, but it’s a fun project that I think audiences will really love. Rhonda Baraka (writer/director) has written some great scripts and assembled a very impressive ensemble of actors. Finally, hard to talk about this project and not mention Sapna Vyas, Vice President of Lifetime Network. She championed this franchise and is an absolute gem of a human.
What other projects are you working on?
As an actor, I’ve gotten used to living in a shroud of secrecy and NDA’s. Unfortunately, I can’t talk about some of the projects I have coming up. But as a producer, I am finishing post-production on a Get Out-esque feature called Sanctuary that we shot at a cabin during the lockdown. I also play Dhruv in the audio play Casting… that Factory Theatre will release in March 2022. It’s written by Kim’s Convenience creator Ins Choi.
Where can our readers find out more about you?
You can check out my website www.iamshawnahmed.com
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