Sugith Varughese (born 25 April 1957) is an Indian-born Canadian actor, writer and director.

Early life and education

Varughese was born in Cochin, Kerala, India, into a Syriac Saint Thomas Christian family. His family moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, when he was a child, when his neurosurgeon father obtained a professional appointment there.

Varughese began university studies at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon with a double major in pre-medicine and drama. He continued on to an undergraduate degree in drama at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and a Master of Fine Arts at York University in Toronto. He went on to write, act in and direct film and television productions in Canada and the United States, and was accepted to attend the Canadian Film Centre as a writer-director. As a director, he has been nominated for and won several Canadian film and television and international film festival awards. He also holds a black belt in karate.

Career

Actor

1. Television

Varughese made his screen debut on television in 1983, and was nominated for an ACTRA Award for his first role in the CBC-TV movie, Best of Both Worlds. Some of his other television movie roles include the Transcorp Reporter in Overdrawn at the Memory Bank (1984), and Patal in Solar Attack (2006).

In television series, Varughese was a regular as Aftab in the CBC-TV comedy An American in Canada (aka Frostbite in Australia) for which he received a Gemini Award nomination for Best Ensemble Performance. Other recurring roles include Palash on OMNI TV's nighttime soap opera Metropia, Faisal on Little Mosque on the Prairie, Tariq Barr on the Starz series The Girlfriend Experience, Mr. Mehta on Kim's Convenience, David Paster for three episodes of The Expanse (2021), and Aajay Singh on the CTV series Transplant. His television guest appearances include the crime-fighting series Counterstrike (1992), the action/crime drama Kung Fu: The Legend Continues (1993), the film-based thriller F/X: The Series (1996), the adventure series Veritas: The Quest (2003), and a role as the informant on 72 Hours: True Crime (2004).

1. Film

Some of his theatrical film appearances include the psychological slasher Orphan (2009), and the science fiction film Mission to Mars (2000).

1. Theatre

Varughese's stage roles and venues include the following.

• Estelle Singerman (Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company)

• The Wrong Bashir (Crow's Theatre)

• The Men in White (Factory Theatre)

• Animal Farm (Soulpepper Theatre)

• Little Pretty and the Exceptional (Factory Theatre) for which he was nominated a Dora award for Outstanding Performance-male

• The Postman (Panamania) (also co-writer)

• The Container (Summerworks)

• The Post Office (Pleiades Theatre)

• Tideline (Factory Theatre)

• Bhopal (Cahoots Theatre)

• Indian Ink (CanStage / National Arts Centre).

Writer

1. Theatre

   Film and television

As scriptwriter he worked on animated shorts, Talespinners Collection 1, Talespinners Collection 2 (NFB); Short film, Tongue Tied; TV series The Blobheads (YTV, 1 episode); IMAX documentary Lost Worlds: Life in the Balance; TV series Blue Murder (Global TV, 2 episodes); TV series Groundling Marsh (YTV, 1 episode); TV series On My Mind (TVOntario, 1 episode); Short film Mela's Lunch (NFB); Short film Kumar and Mr. Jones (Canadian Film Centre); TV series Mount Royal (CTV, 1 episode); TV movie Best of Both Worlds (CBC); TV series Fraggle Rock (Jim Henson Company) (10 episodes); TV series The Phoenix Team (CBC, 1 episode); radio drama In the Mountains (CBC Radio) based on Rohinton Mistry's novel A Fine Balance; radio drama Entry Denied (CBC Radio) which was Canada's entry in the Worldplay Festival and broadcast worldwide.

1. Awards

Director

Filmography

Film

Television

Notes

References

External links

• Sugith Varughese at Apple TV+