Toronto, June 11, 2026 – The Ontario Arts Foundation is pleased to announce that Arnab Sen is the 2026 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. Arnab was selected for the award by the faculty of Humber Polytechnic’s Comedy Writing and Performance program.
About Arnab Sen
Arnab Sen is a Toronto-based writer and comedian and a recent honours graduate of Humber Polytechnic’s Comedy program where he earned multiple scholarships and awards.
Before pivoting to comedy, he spent over eight years working in marketing, advertising, and sales. He also holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a Master of Business from Queensland University of Technology. Globally raised, he lived in India, the U.A.E, Singapore, and Australia before moving to Canada in 2023.
Arnab regularly performs sketch, improv and stand-up at popular Toronto venues like Comedy Bar and Yuk Yuk’s. He is a member of the sketch troupe The Beta Chronicles and runs a satirical channel called Basement News TV. His writing has been published by Taste of Cinema and The Cinemaholic, and his comedy essays have appeared in Medium’s The Haven. His ultimate career goal is to produce his own TV pilot.
“I am incredibly honoured and flattered to win the Tim Sims Encouragement Award,” said Arnab Sen. “It was a huge risk to quit my full-time corporate job and move to Toronto to study Comedy but I am so happy I took the plunge. There are too many to list here but thank you to all my teachers at Humber for their selflessness and dedication to helping us students as well as to Lindsay Leese, and the Ontario Arts Foundation. This vote of confidence allows me to grow as a comic and greatly helps in me pursuing this career.”
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 until 2019, to a Conservatory Program Graduate at the Second City Training Program.
Previous Tim Sims Encouragement award winners from Humber College include Verne Bird (2025), Brady Coyle (2024), and Sarah Boston (2023). See the full list of previous recipients.
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For information, please contact:
Bruce Bennett, Executive Director
Ontario Arts Foundation
Tel: (416) 969-7413 bbennett@oafdn.ca
Established in 1991, the Ontario Arts Foundation (OAF) is passionately committed to building long-term support for the arts in Ontario. In 2025-2026, the OAF paid $4.8 million in endowment income and $540,000 in awards and grants.
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