Zahida Rahemtulla grew up in Burnaby, British Columbia and later spent years living in Metchosin, British Columbia; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; and Toronto, Ontario. Her first play, The Wrong Bashir, premiered in Vancouver and Toronto to critically acclaimed, sold-out runs (Touchstone Theatre, 2023 and Crow’s Theatre, 2024). Her second play, The Frontliners, a comedic drama about refugee resettlement, won a Playwrights Guild of Canada Tom Hendry Award, the Fringe New Play Prize, Theatre BC’s Play of Special Merit Award, and was runner-up for the national Voaden Prize in Playwriting. Her short stories have been shortlisted for the Alice Munro Short Story Festival Award and longlisted for the CBC short story prize. Zahida teaches and is currently an instructor in the Community Development and Outreach Department at Capilano University, where she teaches Adult Education. She also works at Blind Tiger Comedy in access. Zahida is currently working with Nightswimming Theatre and Talk is Free Theatre to create new acting training programs for community actors of color over the age of 55 to build capacity in this demographic and encourage them to train professionally.