At the Monsoon Festival, Kenyan-born actor Nimet Kanji reads play excerpts from her storied career
This installment of salon series includes Anosh Irani’s Bombay Black, Munish Sharma’s Mrs. Singh and Me, and NYC–set period piece The Heiress
Nimet Kanji (left) and Munish Sharma in a South Asian Arts Society publicity photo for Mrs. Singh and Me.
The Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts presents Momentum: Nimet Kanji in the Founder’s Lounge at The Cultch’s Historic Theatre on August 9 at 4 pm
WHEN VANCOUVER-BASED ACTOR Nimet Kanji reflects back on her extensive performance history, a few plays stand out above the rest.
One of the most impactful productions she performed in—as a young artist in Nairobi, Kenya in 1985—was Ruth and Augustus Goetz’s The Heiress. She starred as Catherine, the daughter of a cruel but wealthy man, who tries to find love in 1850s New York City.
The Heiress marked a turning point in Kanji’s career. The producing company was Takhto Arts, a small local outfit started by a friend of hers. But it just so happened that the director who came aboard for the show was James Falkland—a Scottish professional who was artistic director of Phoenix Players, the largest and oldest repertory theatre company in all of Central and East Africa at the time. He later offered Kanji a job working for Phoenix Players.
At an upcoming Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts event called Momentum: Nimet Kanji, the artist will read excerpts from three plays with characters and stories that truly moved her—one of which is The Heiress—in the intimate Founder’s Lounge at The Cultch’s Historic Theatre. Speaking to Stir before the salon series, she notes that her journey in theatre has been anything but typical.
“I feel so fortunate because when I turned professional, I was in my 30s,” Kanji says. “I haven’t had any formal training, I haven’t been to a school, you know? All my training has been acting classes, private one-on-ones with teachers, casting-director workshops. So I’m really proud of the fact that I didn’t start in the industry early, I was in my 30s. And honestly—with determination and tenacity—I have been successful.”
Nimet Kanji. Photo by Gordan Dumka
Arthi Chandra will direct The Heiress. The other excerpts are from Anosh Irani’s Bombay Black, directed by Adele Noronha (who conceived and produced the Momentum salon series, which premiered at the Monsoon Festival in 2023); and Munish Sharma’s Mrs. Singh and Me, directed by Gavan Cheema, with assistant director Japnaam Kaur. Actors Chirag Naik, Janavi Chawla, Balkaran Singh, and Andy Kalirai (whose one-person play Gemini opens the fest on August 8 at the Mezz Warehouse in Surrey) will perform the readings alongside Kanji. Chai, snacks, and conversation with the audience will follow.
With Falkland’s Phoenix Players, Kanji wasn’t just an actor; she also worked as a crew member on lighting, props, and sound, and did secretarial work for the company. When she was around 26, she took a leap of faith by moving to Vancouver, where she had to find her footing once more in the industry. Some gentle nudging from her closest confidantes helped guide her in the right direction.
“My friend and I were in a mall one day, and there was a booth there,” Kanji recalls. “It was an acting school that was advertising acting classes, and unbeknownst to me, she put my name in. She submitted my name. And then, you know, a couple of hours later we’re walking through the mall and she says, ‘By the way, I just submitted your name.’ And I was like, ‘What!?’ And she says, ‘Yeah, come on! You enjoyed it so much in Nairobi. And I mean, why not give it a shot?’ So I did. And I really enjoyed that experience.”
So Kanji attended New Image College. Soon afterwards, her cousin pulled a similarly coy move, submitting Kanji’s name to the North Van Community Players, who invited her to work front-of-house operations. Eventually, she wound up onstage there too.
Kanji’s career has since expanded into film, television, and voice acting. She has appeared in everything from the American medical drama The Good Doctor to the Canadian true-crime miniseries Under the Bridge. She says she continues to enjoy different mediums for different reasons.
“Time is of the essence with film and TV,” Kanji says. “If you have time, you get to do a second or third take; if not, you just kind of move on. So it’s much faster….Because you’re under pressure a lot of the time with having to get things in the can ASAP, you just have to really, really know your lines, really know your work.”
Nimet Kanji (left) and Arshdeep Purba in a Bombay Black publicity photo.
As for the other Momentum offerings, dark comedy Mrs. Singh and Me—which premiered at the Vancouver Fringe Festival in 2015—is the first play Munish Sharma ever wrote. The story follows a Hindu man named Raj who kidnaps his girlfriend’s Sikh mom, Mrs. Singh (played by Kanji), in an attempt to convince her that he truly loves her daughter despite their cultural differences.
Sharma’s reasons for originally casting Kanji are multilayered. Among them is the fact that she played his mother when the two acted in the South Asian Arts Society production Bollywood Wedding together.
“He said to me, ‘Nimet, you know you’re my inspiration for this play,’” Kanji shares. “It was so, so endearing and so sweet. And I was just like, ‘Gosh, I would love to showcase this.’”
Anosh Irani’s 2007 play Bombay Black, on the other hand, is a story that resonated with Kanji thanks to the fact that it’s set in present-day Mumbai and unpacks a complex family relationship. In essence, it’s about a young woman who sells erotic dances to wealthy men to scrape by, all the while still living with her mother—the role once played by Kanji. Bombay Black has earned several Dora Mavor Moore Awards, including one for outstanding new play.
“Anosh Irani is just a fantastic playwright, and I really like his work,” Kanji says. “That was a very challenging role for me, so it was something that I wanted to showcase.”
Nowadays, Kanji splits her time between the West Coast and Edmonton, where her husband is based. She’ll be returning to Vancouver just in time for the Monsoon Festival to share all these stories from her years onstage.
“With theatre, the energy is palpable,” she says fondly. “The audience is right there, and there are no second takes.” In other words, be ready to soak it all in. 
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