Brandon Ash-Mohammed

Canadian stand-up comedian

Brandon Ash-Mohammed is a Canadian stand-up comedian, whose debut comedy album Capricornication was released in 2020.[1]

A Black Canadian of Trinidadian heritage, he is an alumnus of the comedy school at Humber College.[2] He also has some Muslim ancestry, but was not raised Muslim;[3] one of his comedy pieces on Capricorniation centres on the assumptions that people sometimes make about his identity because of his surname.[4]

Openly gay, he was the creator of Toronto's popular Ethnic Rainbow series of comedy nights for queer BIPOC comedians,[5] and the host of Pride Toronto's televised "Virtual Pride" special during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada in 2020.[6] He was featured in The Comedy Network's 2018 Homegrown Comics special,[7] and has been a writer for the sketch comedy series TallBoyz.[8] He is also a partner with Coko Galore, PHATT Al, Alan Shane Lewis, Nkasi Ogbonnah, Ajahnis Charley, Aba Amuquandoh and Brandon Hackett in Untitled Black Sketch Project, Canada's first all-Black Canadian sketch comedy troupe.[9] He is presently the Toronto correspondent on the 29th season of This Hour Has 22 Minutes,.[10]

In 2022, he appeared in LOL: Last One Laughing Canada,[11] and won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Writing in a Lifestyle or Reality/Competition Series at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards for the Canada's Drag Race episode "Screech".[12]

References

  1. ^ Glenn Sumi, "5 new Toronto comedy albums to get you laughing". Now, December 22, 2020.
  2. ^ Brian Uluocha, "Brandon Ash-Mohammed: A Place For Black Queer Comics". Jejune, August 3, 2020.
  3. ^ Amanda Ghazale Aziz, "Being Muslim In Canada comedy show went beyond Trump jokes". Now, March 2, 2017.
  4. ^ Amil Niazi, "Brandon Ash-Mohammed just wants to make Toronto laugh". Toronto Star, January 31, 2021.
  5. ^ Peter Knegt, "The Ethnic Rainbow: How Brandon Ash-Mohammed is letting queer comedy shine in living colour". CBC Arts, June 11, 2019.
  6. ^ Liz Braun, "Virtual Pride captures live spirit for 2020". Toronto Sun, June 28, 2020.
  7. ^ Bill Brioux, "Standup star K. Trevor Wilson takes another step up with comedy special". Toronto Star, September 2, 2018.
  8. ^ Ryan Porter, "Toronto comedian Brandon Ash-Mohammed says racism, homophobia left him feeling ‘very alone’ in Canada’s standup scene". Toronto Star, June 27, 2020.
  9. ^ Del Cowie, "Canada's first all-Black sketch troupe (unless someone tells them otherwise)". CBC Arts, May 5, 2021.
  10. ^ Bill Brioux, "CBC comedy ‘22 Minutes’ touts bigger, younger, more diverse cast and writing staff". Toronto Star, November 1, 2021.
  11. ^ David Friend, "Tom Green, Andrew Phung vie to be ‘last one laughing’ on Canadian reality competition". Toronto Star, January 12, 2022.
  12. ^ Greg David, "Corner Gas Animated, The Hardy Boys, Mary Berg and Canada’s Drag Race win during Night 3 of the 2022 Canadian Screen Awards". TV, eh?, April 6, 2022.