Toronto, December 21, 2020 – Windsor-born Nate Friedman is the 2020 recipient of the $2,500 Tim Sims Encouragement Award. The Tim Sims Encouragement Award honours a promising Canadian comedic performer who is in the early stages of their career. Nate Friedman was selected for the award by the faculty of Humber College’s Comedy Writing and Performance program.
About Nate Friedman
Nate Friedman is a writer, actor and comedian and recent honours graduate from the Humber College for Comedy Writing and Performance, where he received both the Joe Kertes Scholarship in 2018 and the David Goodman Comedy Scholarship in 2019. He currently works on the children’s TV show ‘Odd Squad Mobile Unit’ and finished his first short film ‘Keto Crazy: The Documentary: The Movie’ which he wrote, directed and starred in using a smartphone during the pandemic.
Nate is also a graduate of the University of Windsor (2010) with a Bachelor of Human Kinetics and minor in Sports Psychology. He has published three children’s books, with his most recent release in February 2020, “Coffee Monster and the Land of Coffee,” along with “The Last Hockey Fight” (2018) and “The Coffee Monster” (2015). He is currently working on the TV adaptation titled “Coffee Monster and Friends”. Nate loves performing family-friendly comedy that includes impersonations and characters.
“Receiving the Tim Sims Encouragement Award, and giving someone like me who just wants to spread laughter and smiles such a big boost, early in their career (when artists need it the most!) is the most amazing thing,” says Nate. “The peace of mind and financial resources for current creative projects will help immensely. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
About the Award
The Tim Sims Encouragement Fund was founded by Lindsay Leese and established in 1995 in the spirit and memory of Tim Sims, a well-known comedic performer, writer, director, and charity fund-raiser from Toronto. From 1996-2014, the Fund awarded prize money totaling $65,000 to young comedians in the early stages of their careers at the annual Cream of Comedy award show at Second City. Beginning in 2015, the $2,500 award is given annually to a graduate of the Comedy Writing and Performance program at the Humber College, School of Creative and Performing Arts and to a Conservatory Program Graduate at the Second City Training Program.
Previous Tim Sims Encouragement award winners from Humber College include Bria Hiebert (2019), Glenys Marshall (2018), and Jordanne Brown (2017). See the full list of previous recipients.
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For more information, please contact:
Alan Walker, Executive Director, Ontario Arts Foundation
416-969-7413 | awalker@oafdn.ca
Established in 1991, the Ontario Arts Foundation (OAF) is passionately committed to building long-term support for the arts in Ontario. In 2019-2020, the OAF paid out over $4.25 million in endowment income and $270,000 in awards and scholarships.