Disciplines:
Nikki Shaffeeullah (she/her) is a theatre & film artist, facilitator, producer, writer, equity worker, and community organizer.
Her work has included serving as Artistic Director of The AMY Project; Editor-in-Chief of alt.theatre: cultural diversity and the stage; and Assistant Artistic Director of Jumblies Theatre. Nikki has also taught in the performance departments of University of Toronto Scarborough and the University of Alberta. She produces sector-change projects through her organization Undercurrent Creations, and is a a founding member of Confluence Arts Collective, a group of artists-activists who believe in transformative justice and a world without prisons. An award-winning theatre and film artist, Nikki works as a director, writer, actor, improvisor, and producer, and collaborates with companies and artists from across Canada. She has held residencies with organizations including Canadian Stage, Why Not Theatre, The Theatre Centre, SummerWorks, and others, and she is a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Forum for Young Cultural Innovators.
As a facilitator, Nikki supports grassroots groups, non-profits, and public institutions to uphold equity and accountability in all aspects of their work, and runs facilitation training initiatives for equity-seeking artists and activists leading community-engaged work. She is an alumnus of Training for Change’s JCJ Fellowship for Trainers of Colour.
Nikki holds an MFA in Theatre Practice from the University of Alberta, where her thesis won the Canadian Association for Theatre Research award for Intercultural Theatre, and a BA from McGill University. She has trained internationally with groups including Makhampom Foundation (Thailand) and Yuyachkani (Peru).
A queer Indo-Caribbean artist born and living in Toronto, Nikki’s work is informed by a family who loves music, puns, justice, and food. She is grateful to live the complex, diverse metropolis of Toronto; land that been stewarded for many thousands of years by Indigenous peoples including the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendot peoples; land that is subject to the precolonial Dish With One Spoon covenant, and the colonial Treaty 13, held with the Mississaugas of the Credit Nation.
Nikki believes that art should disrupt the status quo, centre the margins, engage with the ancient, dream of the future, and be for everyone.
