Sugith Varughese

Sugith Varughese
Born (1957-04-25) 25 April 1957
Cochin, Kerala, India
NationalityCanadian
Occupations
  • Writer
  • Director
  • Actor
Years active1983–Present

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

Early life and education

Varughese was born in Cochin, Kerala, India, into a Syriac Saint Thomas Christian family.[a] His family moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, when he was a child, when his neurosurgeon father obtained a professional appointment there.[1]

Varughese began university studies at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon with a double major in pre-medicine and drama.[2] 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.[1] 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.[2]

Career

Actor

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.[3] Some of his other television movie roles include the Transcorp Reporter in Overdrawn at the Memory Bank (1984),[4] and Patal in Solar Attack (2006).[5]

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,[6] Mr. Mehta on Kim's Convenience, David Paster for three episodes of The Expanse (2021), and Aajay Singh on the CTV series Transplant.[6] 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).

Film

Some of his theatrical film appearances include the psychological slasher Orphan (2009),[5] and the science fiction film Mission to Mars (2000).[7]

Theatre

Varughese's stage roles and venues include the following.[8]

  • 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

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);[6] 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.[9]

Awards

Director

Filmography

Film

Television

Sugith Varughese television credits
Year Title Role Notes Ref.
1983 Best of Both Worlds Anil TV movie [3]
1984 Overdrawn at the Memory Bank Transcorp Reporter TV movie [4]
1992 Counterstrike Terrorist Episode: "Prize Package"
1992 Quiet Killer Sara's Doorman TV movie [5]
1993 Kung Fu: The Legend Continues Mr. Cyril 1 episode
1996 F/X: The Series Director 1 episode
1996 Toe Tags Dr. Kilami, the Coroner TV movie [6]
1997 PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal Ian Vethamany 1 episode [6]
1997 Too Close to Home Henry Sing TV movie [5][6]
1997 Major Crime Jimmy Chaddha TV movie [5]
1997 Earth: Final Conflict Dr. Basi (uncredited) Episode: "Scorpions Dream" [6]
1998 Naked City: Justice with a Bullet Prabadth TV movie [5]
1998 A Father for Brittany Doctor TV movie [5]
1998 Defenders: Taking the First Dr Caster TV movie [5]
1999 Freak City Dr. Rashdi TV movie [5][6]
1999 Lethal Vows Dr. Singh TV movie [5]
2001 Criminal Instinct: A Colder Kind of Death Paul Gupta TV movie [5]
2002 Get a Clue Homeless Man / Gary Eicar TV movie [5]
2002–2003 An American in Canada Aftab 6 episodes. AKA Frostbite (Australia)
2003 Veritas: The Quest Auctioneer 1 episode
2003, 2004 Degrassi: The Next Generation Dr. Moragoda 2 episodes
2004 72 Hours: True Crime Informant Episode: "Burning Obsession"
2004–2005 Metropia Palash
2006 "Solar Attack" Patel TV movie [5]
2007 The Gathering Male Internist TV miniseries [5]
2007–2011 Little Mosque on the Prairie Faisal 19 episodes
2015 The Strain Naren Gupta 4 episodes
2016 The Girlfriend Experience Tariq Barr 7 episodes (Season 1) [5]
2016, 2018 Suits Judge Howard 2 episodes
2016–2021 Kim's Convenience Mr. Mehta 25 episodes
2018 Taken Edwin Brown 1 episode [6]
2020–2024 Transplant Aajay Singh 29 episodes [5]
2021 The Expanse David Paster 3 episodes
2025 Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent Lewis Jenkins 1 episode
2025 Late Bloomer Richard Matthias 1 episode

Notes

  1. ^ "Varughese," also sometimes spelled "Varghese" and "Verghese" and variously pronounced, is Syriac-Malayalam for "George"

References

  1. ^ a b Chhabra, Aseem (18 May 2001). ""I Didn't Want To Be Invisible."". Rediff.com. Retrieved 28 September 2007.
  2. ^ a b Lima, Paul. "The Writer As Warrior: Sugith Varughese". The W Files. Writers Guild of Canada. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  3. ^ a b Easterbrook, Ian K.; Waterman MacLean, Susan, eds. (1996). Canada and Canadians in Feature Films: A Filmography, 1928-1990. University of Guelph: Canadian Film Project. pp. 163, 508. ISBN 9780889554153. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
  4. ^ a b "American Playhouse: Overdrawn at the Memory Bank (TV)". The Paley Center for Media. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r "Sugith Varughese: Filmography". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "Sugith Varughese". Apple TV+. Apple, Inc. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
  7. ^ a b Monush, Barry; Willis, John, eds. (April 2002). Screen World. Vol. 52 (2001 ed.). Bloomsbury Academic. p. 29. ISBN 9781557834782. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
  8. ^ Writing at the Intersection: The Diaspora Crosswalk. Diaspora Dialogues Archived 18 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  9. ^ Best Prices.com. Where Is Here? : A CBC Radio Drama Anthology. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
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