Toronto, September 4, 2019 – Toronto based comedian Bria Hiebert is the 2019 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. Bria Hiebert was selected for the award by the faculty of Humber College’s Comedy: Writing and Performance program and was presented the award Tuesday night at the Humber Comedy Program’s Alumni Show at Yuk Yuk’s.
About Bria Hiebert
Bria Hiebert is an up and coming stand-up comic, writer, and actor, who has performed at some the best comedy venues in Canada, the United States and the UK. She is a recent graduate of the Humber College Comedy Writing & Performance program, and was featured as a writer, actor, and stand-up in the New Faces ‘19 show at The Second City. She was also selected to compete in the 2019 Absolute Comedy Prove You’re A Comic Competition.
Bria made her Edinburgh Fringe debut in 2018 and returned to the festival in 2019. She was the 2018 recipient of the Brian Linehan Comedy Writing and Performance Award for Outstanding Artistic Promise. Bria produces various successful shows across Toronto such as Kitchen Comedy, a secret pop-up stand-up show.
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: Glenys Marshall (2018), Jordanne Brown (2017) and Robbie Woods (2016). See the full list of previous recipients here.
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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 2018-2019, the OAF paid out over $4.35 million in endowment income and $315,000 in awards and scholarshi