Tag Archives: Little Mosque on the Prairie

CBC and Little Mosque on the Prairie’s Zarqa Nawaz reunite for Zarqa

From a media release:

Award-winning Canadian film and television producer, author, journalist, and internationally renowned thought leader for Muslim women in media, Zarqa Nawaz, is delighted to announce the start of production on a new original comedy series for CBC Gem, ZARQA (6×11). Commissioned by CBC and financed by the Bell Fund, the Independent Production Fund (IPF) and Creative Saskatchewan (with the Canada Media Fund and IPF funding the show and trailer development phase), the series films in Regina, Saskatchewan from October 12 to 29 and will premiere on CBC Gem in 2022. International broadcast and streaming partners are yet to be determined.

Nawaz was the creator of the ground-breaking Muslim sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie (2007-2012), which was widely recognized as the world’s first comedy about Muslims living in the West when it launched in 2007. The show premiered on CBC with record-breaking ratings and won awards at home and internationally. The series aired 91 episodes over six seasons, and was broadcast internationally in France, Switzerland, Africa, Israel, UAE, Finland, Turkey and more, and is now streaming on Amazon Prime.

Nawaz’s next project is ZARQA; she is the creator, showrunner, and lead actor in the series. ZARQA follows its titular character, a complex, middle-aged Muslim woman (played by Nawaz) who learns on social media that her ex-husband is marrying a white yoga instructor half his age named Bethany. Zarqa impulsively comments that she will attend the wedding with her own cliché: a white brain surgeon named Brian. Now she just has to find him. Watch the trailer here.

The comical chaos continues with the arrival of Zarqa’s former love interest, Yusuf, played by Rizwan Manji. Manji received a 2021 Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Guest Actor for his portrayal of Ray Butani, Emmy-award-winning series Schitt’s Creek’s jack-of-all-trades. He is also well-known for his role as Rajiv Gidwani in the NBC comedy, Outsourced.

ZARQA, a project of Nawaz’s Regina-based production company FUNdamentalist Films, boasts a team of award-winning writers, producers, and directors, several of whom are diverse, and all of whom are women. Show writers – Zarqa Nawaz (Gemini award-winning Little Mosque on the Prairie, Me and the Mosque), Sadiya Durrani (Little Mosque on the Prairie, Overlord and the Underwoods, The Parker Andersons/Amelia Parker) and Claire Ross Dunn (Little Mosque on the Prairie, Degrassi, Falling For Look Lodge, Cupids on Beacon Street) – each wrote two episodes of ZARQA’s first season.

With the exception of Nawaz who is now stepping into acting in addition to a career in television production, all other ZARQA producers started their careers as actors. These include Dunn (producer for DHX’s Make it Pop for Nickelodeon, The Smart Woman Survival Guide for W/Cosmo TV), Dawn Bird (Producer of Beyond the Curve International Film Festival Best Queer Narrative Film Mercy, producer of Canadian International Film Festival’s Rising Star Award Winner Bread Thieves, TV series Why Am I?), and Liz Whitmere (producer of CSA Award-winning CBC Gem series The Neddeaus of Duqesne Island, Late Night in the Studio). ZARQA directors are Whitmere (award-winning shorts Up To Here, Cat’s Got Your Tongue, the original ZARQA trailer, Candy Fox (ahkâmêyimo nitânis / Keep Going, My Daughter, The Other Side) and Iman Zawahry (Emmy-winning short film Tough Crowd, Undercover, award-winning feature film Americanish).

ABOUT ZARQA NAWAZ
Zarqa Nawaz is a Canadian producer for film and television, a published author, public speaker, journalist, and former broadcaster. She created, wrote, directed, and produced episodes for the international CBC comedy series Little Mosque on the Prairie, which won a Gemini Award as well as Best International Television Series and Best Screenplay at the 2007 RomaFictionFest. The television series was inspired by Me and the Mosque, Zarqa’s ground-breaking National Film Board documentary which premiered at the Montreal International Film Festival, examining how patriarchal cultural traditions have become mixed up with theology.

In addition, Nawaz has sold four pilots to ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox Studios, has written a bestselling comedic memoir, Laughing All the Way to the Mosque (published by HarperCollins), was an advice columnist for The Globe & Mail, a broadcast personality for CBC Radio, the host of CBC Saskatchewan’s “The Morning Edition,” and anchored CBC Saskatchewan News at 6.

In addition to launching her new self-titled CBC Gem series in 2022, in which she stars, writes, and produces, Nawaz will also debut her new novel, Jameela Green Ruins Everything (Simon & Schuster Canada in Canada, and Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, in the U.S.). The new book is a satire about a disillusioned American Muslim woman who becomes embroiled in a plot to infiltrate an international terrorist organization and, in the process, reconnects with her loved ones and her faith.

A frequent public speaker on Islam and comedy, Nawaz received a Doctor of Divinity from the University of Saskatchewan for her interfaith work in the community. In recognition of her contribution to the world of arts, she received The Brampton Walk of Fame in 2019. Nawaz lives in Regina with her loving but long-suffering family and is the proud mother of four children.

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marblemedia starts production on two new family sitcoms, The Parker Andersons and Amelia Parker 

From a media release:

Award-winning media production and distribution company, marblemedia, in association with award-winning creator Beachwood Canyon Productions, announces today production is set to begin later this month in Toronto on series, The Parker Andersons and Amelia Parker (20 eps x 30 mins), two brand-new scripted family single-camera sitcoms that follows the life of one bi-racial family, blended by marriage.

In this completely new and innovative concept, the series will enhance traditional TV storytelling by creating two stand-alone comedy series, The Parker Andersons and Amelia Parker, each with their own storylines and episodes, while still connected by larger overarching plotlines tying the two independent series together. The Parker Andersons follows the warmly comedic antics of a newly blended family, while Amelia Parker centers around the quietest member of the family, a tween girl navigating the world around her.

The Parker Andersons follows Tony Parker, a British widower and father of two (Nathan and Amelia), who moves to North America where he meets and marries Cleo Anderson, the mother of two kids (Victoria and Charlie). Altogether, they quickly discover that sometimes being ‘blended’ feels a lot like being in a blender.

Amelia Parker centers around the quietest member of the Parker Anderson family, a tween girl who is coming into her own. After her mother died, Amelia became selectively mute, figuring that before she participates in the world again, she better figure some things out. In confessionals, we see that Amelia is actually an opinionated, vivacious girl, who openly explains her hopes, anxieties and fears in virtual conversations with her deceased mom.

Anthony Q. Farrell takes over as Showrunner for both series. Farrell has written for NBC’s The Office, CBC’s Little Mosque on the Prairie, and Nickelodeon’s The Thundermans and has developed TV series for CBS Studios, Disney Channel, Cartoon Network amongst others. He is the creator of Secret Life of Boys, the BAFTA-winning CBBC series, which is in its fifth season. Anthony joins the series bringing unparalleled talent, humour and leadership to really form the true essence of both shows.  He has assembled a richly talented and diverse team of writers and directors to assist him in ensuring that the stories for both shows are not only entertaining but also authentic. Leading by example through collaboration and providing an opportunity for the next generation, Anthony Q. Farrell is reimagining show running for the next wave.

The series has been commissioned by BYUtv in the U.S. to debut in 2021 as part of their focus on inspiring family programming and will launch in Canada later in 2021, with a Canadian broadcaster to be announced soon.

The Parker-Andersons and Amelia Parker will star Arnold Pinnock as Tony Parker (Cardinal, Coroner, Baroness Von Sketch), Kate Hewlett as Cleo Anderson (The Stanley Dynamic, Degrassi: The Next Generation, The Girlfriend Experience), Millie Davis as Amelia Parker (Odd Squad, Dino Dana, Orphan Black), Agape Mngomezulu as Nathan Parker (Best Intentions, The Twilight Zone, Supernatural), Devin Cecchetto as Victoria Anderson (Ginny & Georgia, The Craft), Charlie Zeltzer as Charlie Anderson (The Handmaid’s Tale, Anne with an E), Sandy Jobin- Bevans as Roger Anderson (Designated Survivor, Just Like Mom and Dad, Good Witch, Baroness Von Sketch Show) and Akiel Julien as Nick Parker (Utopia Falls, The Boys, What We Do in the Shadows). Additional cast members will be announced in the coming weeks.

Executive Producers for the series include Mark J.W. Bishop, Matt Hornburg, Carrie Paupst Shaughnessy, and Co-Executive Producer Donna Luke (marblemedia); Executive Producers Frank van Keeken and Yolanda Yott (Beachwood Canyon); Executive Producer and Showrunner Anthony Q. Farrell and Producer Jim Corston; Executive Producers for BYUtv Michael Dunn, Andra Johnson Duke, Melissa Puente and Jim Bell.Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail