BIO
Rohit Chokhani is a Jessie Richardson Theatre Award-winning arts curator, director and executive leader. Rohit was awarded the prestigious Vancouver NOW Representation and Inclusion Award in 2018. He is also the recipient of the Jessie Richardson Theatre Award in the Large Theatre Category for Significant Artistic Achievement (2017) and the recipient of the Shiamak Vancouver Community Award (by Bollywood star/choreographer Shiamak Davar) in recognition of outstanding achievement in the field of Entertainment and Theatre Arts (2017).
Chokhani, who is the 2021 Finalist for Crow Theatre’s RBC Rising Star Director Prize, has completed five seasons at Bard on the Beach in numerous different capacities and is the first South Asian of Indian descent to direct at Bard, Western Canada’s largest not-for-profit, professional Shakespeare Festival. He is a recent co-creator and co-director of Bard on the Beach’s All’s Well That Ends Well which was voted amongst one of the top theatrical productions for 2019 by the Vancouver critics, received four Jessie Richardson Theatre Award nominations including the Critics’ Choice Innovation Award nomination. Chokhani’s reimagination of Anosh Irani’s Bombay Black was voted one of the top 20 shows on Vancouver stages in 2017, and won the Pick of the Fringe Award at the Vancouver Fringe Festival.
Rohit’s directorial work has spanned across numerous cities in Metro Vancouver, Greater Toronto region, the interior parts of B.C, India, U.S.A and more recently virtually for Theatre Calgary. He has directed at leading Canadian institutions such as Bard on the Beach, Firehall Arts Centre, Theatre Calgary, Evergreen Cultural Centre, b current performing arts, TheatreOne, Vancouver Fringe Festival, Key City Theatre and Revolver Festival. He has also held executive leadership and Sr. management roles with Vancouver Fringe Festival, Touchstone Theatre, Urban Ink Productions, Diwali Fest and South Asian Arts Society. Before arriving in Canada, he kick-started his artistic career in the world of Digital Entertainment. He worked for Foundation 9 entertainment and its subsidiaries in the United States, managing multi-cultural multi-lingual teams spread across the globe including China, India & Canada. He worked with numerous well-known clients such as FOX, Pixar, Disney, Nickelodeon, and Majesco. He led digital products for popular IPs associated with the animated movie Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel and animated television shows such as Dora the Explorer and Sponge Bob Square Pants.
Rohit is one of the most sought-after multicultural voices in Canada and internationally. He grew up in Bombay (Mumbai), home to Bollywood, the centre of the Indian subcontinent’s vibrant performing arts industry. He speaks four different languages and comes from the Maratha & Marwari lineage of India, which is historically rooted in oral traditions and art forms. Rohit is highly passionate about making performing arts equitable and sustainable by providing representation for the unrepresented.
Announcements
12
DEC
Veteran Vancouver Critic Colin Thomas Raves Rohit Chokhani's work
Colin says - It’s been coming but, for me, it feels like 2019 was the year that the South Asian presence in Vancouver theatre definitively arrived. Rohit Chokhani, the artistic director of Diwali in BC, has been a huge player in all of this. With its ongoing partner The Cultch and a plethora of other partners ...Read more
10
DEC
All’s Well That Ends Well voted amongst best theatre productions for 2019
Vancouver Presents and Colin Thomas have both voted All's Well amongst best theatre production for 2019. Vancouver presents stated - "Set during the final year of British rule in India, Shakespeare’s sexist, classist romp was reimagined into a poignant piece of theatre"
Dream Come True
A recent co-creator and co-director of Bard on the Beach’s All’s Well That Ends Well, Rohit Chokhani is the first South Asian of Indian descent to direct at Bard, Western Canada’s largest not-for-profit, professional Shakespeare Festival. This critically acclaimed production was voted as one of the best shows in Vancouver for 2019. Its entire 6 weeks run sold out with audiences raving the production.
SOCIAL
Awards
