This year she was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, as Ms. Hina, in the feature film ‘Scarborough’. The film, based on the best-selling novel by Catherine Hernandez, has been nominated for 11 academy awards and was the runner up for the People’s Choice Award at TIFF late last year. This film is now playing in theatres and has recently been added as inflight entertainment on the very same aeroplanes she used to work on as a flight attendant. Yes, she went from inflight service to inflight entertainment! This was super low budget, so it’s a real underdog story of a film made with no money but lots of care.

Aliya started her career in the arts late, in her 30’s, and before that was perfectly happy traveling the world, that was, until she bought a groupon for a comedy writing class that she thought would be “just for fun” that kicked started her career!  Although she was a creative child (she even won an acting award when she was 12, making her the youngest and first POC to ever win the award in her school) her well-intentioned dad wanted to make sure she focused on math and science to have a stable career, and she was sadly no longer permitted to take part in acting.

Decades later, after extensive travelling that included climbing to the top of Africa (Mt Kilimanjaro) and diving to the depths of the Red Sea, Aliya still believes her greatest accomplishment is the time she made a man throw up from laughing too hard... well, that, this show and her award nomination!"

"You feel like you could easily watch another hour of her display her comical wisdom" THE FOURTH WALL – PERTH ★★★★

“A show in which Kanani highlights issues on racism, sexism and identity while ensuring the audience always has plenty to laugh at” MELBOURNE ARTS 

“Thought-provoking” THE AGE