Toronto, June 13, 2023 – The Ontario Arts Foundation is pleased to announce that Sarah Boston is the 2023 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. Sarah was selected for the award by the faculty of Humber College’s Comedy Writing and Performance program.
About Sarah Boston
Sarah Boston has had a circuitous route to the world of comedy. She is a veterinary cancer surgeon and also a cancer survivor herself. Her bestselling memoir, Lucky Dog: How Being a Veterinarian Saved My Life was published by The House of Anansi in 2014. Sarah’s book got her on the path of comedy writing and eventually stand-up comedy.
Sarah graduated from the Humber College Comedy Performance and Writing Program in April 2023, receiving the Award for Academic Excellence for the highest GPA in her program. In addition to her Humber College training, Sarah has taken comedy writing and stand-up classes at Second City, Absolute Comedy and the American Comedy Institute. She made the Top 10 in CBC Comedy’s 2019 Next Up amateur comedy competition. Sarah is the founder of the satirical veterinary online newspaper called The Cageliner.
“I’m honoured and humbled to win this award,” says Sarah Boston. “When you are a mature student pursuing comedy, it’s hard not to wonder sometimes if you are delusional. This award has shown me that I definitely am. Thank you!”
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 Katie Chin (2022), Cassandra DeStellis (2021), and Nate Friedman (2020). 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 2022-2023, the OAF paid $4 million in endowment income and $450,000 in awards and grants.
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