Biography

Adoptive parent to Ethiopian born Figure skater Saloni Miyanger. Moved to Canada from UK in 1997. Certified Sommelier. Fluent in English, French, Hindi, Gujerati, Kiswahili.

'I always fantasized about being an actor, Hindi movies from a pre 'Bollywood' era, Kung Fu movies and Blaxploitation movies, as well as Spaghetti Westerns and Hollywood movies were our main source of entertainment, other than Cricket or Football (read Soccer) growing up in Dar-es-salaam. The revelatory moment to pursue it as a career came one Saturday afternoon at Chox Cinema in Dar-es-salaam, while watching a disaster blockbuster called 'Juggernaut' and a character called 'Azaad' played by Roshan Seth appeared on screen. The character was a stateless exile having been booted out of Uganda (a neighbouring country), though Hindi cinema was a catalyst for the daydreaming, seeing a character that reflected a 'shared history', the screen lit up and so did my imagination! This was the beginning of the decolonisation process. ' 'I could do this! I too, can, be a contender!'.

"Literature in the form of Shakespeare and other classics came a little later, my father managed a bookshop , comics were the beginning of my 'literature' journey- Dandy, Beano, Topper and Beezer graduating to graphic Marvel and Archie Comics, and Harold Robbins, James Hadley Chase, Dashiell Hammett, Agatha Christie - some of the pulp fiction of the era.'

Despite the epithets I have been baptised with over the years - Muhindi, Paki, British- Asian, Indo-Canadian, South Asian, to name a few, I am glad that I still wake up feeling very human every morning!

The toe sucking sex scene was improvised but the smoking and scotch drinking were in the script. The kind of role model I want to be is where, yes - I drink, I have sex and I swear-because that's what people do.