"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.
Unfortunately she can not sing.
...at least not very well...
As a standup comedian, Aliya has enjoyed performing on major stages around the world. Her solo show, “Where You From, From?” debuted with sold out shows at the 2019 Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
Aliya then went on to sell out the complete run of her show at 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, Australia, Sydney Comedy Festival, Edinburgh Fringe and Toronto Fringe, winning rave reviews.
She is a graduate of the Second City Conservatory and was selected to be part of the Bob Curry Fellowship. Shortly after completing the program, Aliya co-created, co-wrote and co-starred in the wacky web series, Juicy. She has since continued writing, including joining the writers’ room for Abroad, a sketch comedy show that just wrapped on production. Most recently she was selected to showcase for Just for Laughs Standup & Pitch with a show she created called HYPE,
which is as cool as it sounds.
Stay tuned for more on that!
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 feature film Scarborough. The film, based on the best selling novel by Catherine Hernandez, has been nominated for 11 academy awards, was the runner up for the People’s Choice Award at TIFF 2021 and is currently beginning its theatrical release.
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
