Toronto, September 13, 2022 – The Ontario Arts Foundation is pleased to announce that Katie Chin is the 2022 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. Katie Chin was selected for the award by the faculty of Humber College’s Comedy Writing and Performance program.
About Katie Chin
Katie Chin is an actor, writer, singer, and comedian and recent graduate from the Humber College – Comedy Writing and Performance program, where she received both the Joe Kertes Scholarship and the David Goodman Comedy Scholarship.
Katie has also trained at The Making Box, Second City, Bad Dog Theatre, and The Assembly. She is best known for her role as Grace Chen in the award-winning audio drama Valence at Hug House Productions. Katie has appeared on various improv shows such as Beer Beer at SoCap Theatre and Monday Night Fresh at Comedy Bar and has performed stand-up around Toronto venues including Yuk Yuk’s, Comedy Bar, and the Rivoli.
Katie is an avid parody song writer, pogo stick rider, rock climber, and certified gamer girl.
“Thank you to The Tim Sims Encouragement Fund, Lindsay Leese, and Humber College for this award!,” says Chin. “It means so much to me that I can continue to focus my efforts in pursuing a career in comedy.”
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 Cassandra DeStellis (2021), Nate Friedman (2020), and Bria Hiebert (2019).
See the full list of past recipients(EN)
See the full list of past recipients(FR)
-30-
For more information, please contact:
Bruce Bennett, Executive Director, Ontario Arts Foundation
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 2021-2022, the OAF paid out over $4.4 million in endowment income and $300,000 in awards and scholarships.