"Feel connected to humanity through humour."
★★★★' Fourth Wall
ALIYA KANANI is a Toronto-based comedian, Canadian academy award-nominated actress, writer, producer, entertainer and vagabond, known for her playful and mischievous personality.
As a standup comedian, Aliya has enjoyed performing on major stages around the world, in Australia, Europe, South Africa, USA and Canada. She recently took part in the prestigious Johannesburg International Comedy Festival and was invited to join the residency at the Steele City Arts Foundation.
Her award-winning solo show, ‘Where You From, From?’, debuted with sold out shows at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and went on to sell out the complete run of the Just for Laughs Festival in the same year! She continued to tour her show internationally, including sell out shows at Fringe World festival in Perth, Sydney Comedy Festival and Edinburgh Fringe. She recently won ‘Best of Fest’ at Ottawa Fringe and ‘Patron’s Pick’ at Toronto Fringe. Aliya is now on tour with her new solo show ‘Wine + Yoga’, with invitations to festivals in Australia, Canada and USA this year!
Aliya was elated to be nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Lead Role with the Canadian Screen Awards for her role as Ms. Hina in the Best Motion Picture film ‘Scarborough’. She has since had 2 other films premiere in TIFF, the film ‘Concrete Valley’ and ‘Seven Veils’, directed by Atom Egoyan and starring Amanda Seyfried, which brought her to the world-renowned film festival 3 years in a row!
Aliya began her career in the arts at Second City, where she completed writing and Conservatory programs, and was then invited to join the competitive Bob Curry fellowship. During that time, she also wrote and performed with the sketch comedy troupe ‘Cookie Biscuits’, who were invited to be part of Toronto Sketchfest. In 2021, Aliya won a cash prize for the pitch competition with York Regional Arts Council competition. She has since written for the sketch comedy TV show ‘Abroad’ and was a finalist in the Just for Laughs script competition ‘Standup and Pitch’ for her comedy variety series, ‘HYPE’.
Aliya has showcased with Standup NBC in New York at the renowned Gotham Comedy Club, Zoofest/Off-JFL, Chicago’s NBC/Second City Breakout Comedy Festival, SiriusXM’s Top Comic, Montreal’s LadyFest and the Seattle International Comedy Competition. She can be heard on the CBC LOL network, as well as SiriusXM.
This work and website are supported by funding from the Ontario Arts Council
