Toronto, July 15, 2025 – The Ontario Arts Foundation is pleased to announce that Verne Bird is the 2025 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. Verne was selected for the award by the faculty of Humber College’s Comedy Writing and Performance program.
About Verne Bird
Verne (they/she) is a Toronto-based comedy writer and performer. They recently completed their studies at Humber College in the Comedy Writing and Performance program. Verne can be seen around the city performing stand-up, sketch, and improv comedy at venues like Tallboys, Comedy Bar Danforth and The Comedy Lab. A graduate from York University’s Theatre program, they have been creating live performance work for over 7 years. Recent solo theatre work includes burlesque-clown shows, “Lady Dolce” and “Brenda’s Big Number”. They are also a member of the local sketch comedy group Shrimp Mocktail. Rooted in queerness, Verne’s work is centred in finding absurdity and humour in the mundane.
“It’s a great honour to be the recipient of the Tim Sims Encouragement Award,” states Verne. “I’m extremely appreciative to my instructors at Humber as well as the Ontario Arts Foundation. I look forward to continuing to learn and grow as a comedian.”
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 Brady Coyle (2024), Sarah Boston (2023), and Katie Chin (2022). 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 2024-2025, the OAF paid $4.8 million in endowment income and $540,000 in awards and grants.
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