Actor, singer, dancer, producer, writer, activist, and humanitarian, there is nothing that Saara Chaudry can’t do. After first shooting into the scene in 2018 with her role of Parvana in The Breadwinner, the Canadian star has built a growing career blending her various passions. Along with winning an ACTRA Award and 4 Canadian Screen Awards, she won a Global Youth News Media Prize for her CBC Kids News COVID-19 Explainer series and has been appointed a UNICEF Canada Ambassador.

An active voice in the fight for gender equality, racial equality, and girls’ education, Saara has participated in panels discussing important issues such as Islamophobia for the Canadian Council of Muslim Women and authentic representation in film/TV for the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. Currently, Saara stars in the Disney+ series, The Muppets Mayhem, and is in development with Aircraft Pictures, an Oscar-nominated production company, as a co-producer and writer for a feature film.

We speak with Saara Chaudry about her various career goals, how her role in The Breadwinner sparked a passion for activism, and joining The Muppets franchise.

Read the interview…

Hey Saara! Where are we talking to you from?
Hey Wonderland! You’re speaking to me from the Harvard College campus — I’m currently hanging out in my dorm room!

Who is an influence on you personally and creatively?
I feel blessed to be surrounded by a multitude of formidable people, especially women, that influence me both personally and creatively. It may sound cliché, but I truly have the most incredible mother on the planet. She perpetually blows my mind— how she can maintain an incredible career and be a rock to our entire family, while simultaneously making it look effortless, is a question I will never be able to answer. Creatively, I think my father has influenced me a lot. At his core, he is an artist and I think I get my ability to feel things deeply from him. He also happens to be the reason I have any sense of humour… he is genuinely one of the funniest people you’ll ever meet.

How did you first find your love for acting?
I first found my love for acting when I went to a drama camp when I was around 5 years old. All the moms in my kindergarten friend group decided to put us in a week-long drama day camp over spring break… I’m convinced it was their way of getting us out of the house and out of their hands haha. Regardless, I ended up *loving* it and felt like I was really in my element. As a 5-year-old I didn’t think anything of it— all I knew was that I was really happy to be on stage performing.

What made you want to pursue it as a career?
Pursuing acting as a career happened completely by accident— or maybe it was fate, you can choose! Going back to the last question, at the drama camp I was attending with my fellow five-year-old friends, there was an end-of-week performance! In this end-of-week performance, it just so happened that there were agents scouting in the audience. After the performance, a few of them came up to my mom saying, “You should consider getting your kid into acting, she looked like a natural up there”. At first, my mom was unsure what to make of it, but after a little while she revisited the idea. Even though I was so young, my mom always championed my independence and agency. I vividly remember her coming to me one day and asking me if acting was something I wanted to pursue. She very much framed it as something I would do as an extracurricular activity— just like how I did ballet, piano lessons, debate club, or choir. She made the decision to pursue acting entirely my choice and, of course, I said yes! I think at that age I based the decision around the fact that I had had such a fun time with my friends at drama camp and simply thought it would be a cool hobby to pick up. By the time I got an agent I was 6, and my growth in the industry happened quite naturally from there. I think by the time I was 8 I realised that my “hobby” was becoming more serious with each project that I booked and I began to invest far more time and energy into my craft.

Who are your career role models?
I tend to learn a lot from the people I work closely with on various projects. Along my journey, I’ve been privileged to work with several inspiring people— from Angelina Jolie to Lena Khan to Nora Twomey to J.J. Johnson— that have influenced how I approach the work I do now. What all these incredible individuals have in common is that through their work they champion the voices of those who have been silenced, or they simply are telling stories of great meaning. To me, nothing is more inspiring than those whose work goes beyond their personal gain and rather influences the lives of people in need around the world.

What’s been your favourite moment in your career so far?
That is a tricky question to answer… there are several moments that I frequently look back on fondly and express gratitude for each day. If I had to choose one, I would say that a favourite moment in my career so far was starring in the film The Breadwinner a few years back. For context, the film was an animated feature about an 11-year-old girl named Parvana (played by yours truly) growing up under Taliban rule in 2001 Afghanistan. The journey of being a part of a film that so explicitly stood for women’s rights, girls’ education, and amplified the story shared by so many Afghan women was really impactful to me as a young girl. The film ended up being nominated for a Golden Globe and an Oscar, and I got to attend the Oscars at 13 years old. In addition, working with powerful and inspiring women like Angelina Jolie (our executive director) and Nora Twomey (our director) was an invaluable experience. The overall experience showed me the direction I wished to shift my career toward– one that served a greater purpose.

Side note: the film is based on a novel written by a fellow Canadian, Deborah Ellis. The Breadwinner was my absolute favourite book growing up (my elementary school librarian actually recommended it to me), and so getting to star in the movie just a few years after reading the novel was a surreal moment for me.

You are set to star in the upcoming Disney+ series The Muppets Mayhem, can you talk us through how you got that role?
Yes, I am – and I could not be more excited! I got the role through a few rounds of auditions. Everything was conducted virtually, which was an interesting experience. I remember doing my screen test with Lilly (the incredible, wonderful, magnificent human being who plays my older sister on the show <3 ) over Zoom! She was so sweet and I instantly felt connected to her – major big sister energy. When I booked the role, I already happened to be in LA because I was shooting season 2 of another Disney+ show I was a part of called The Mysterious Benedict Society! In fact, when I received the news from my team that I booked the role of Hannah, I was on my way out the door and heading to set. I took a few extra minutes that morning to jump up in down in the kitchen with my family and celebrate!

How easy was it for you to relate to your character in the show, Hannah?
In many ways, I am a little different from Hannah but at the same time, I was able to find a great deal in common with her. I think there is so much more to Hannah than what meets the surface initially. At first, she may seem superficial, social media obsessed, and vain. However, as you’ll see in the show, she goes through some incredible personal growth. We get to see Hannah develop along her personal journey– whether that be through her journey through sisterhood with Nora or her relationship with Animal helping her understand how social media may not be serving her most optimally. I deeply relate to her relationship with her sister because elements of Hannah and Nora’s relationship reminded me of me and my sister, Emaan. Just like me and Emaan, Hannah and Nora show up for each other no matter what. I think seeing a strong relationship between two sisters on screen is something that can be really impactful to young girls and women watching. On another note, I definitely relate to Hannah’s love for fashion and beauty! Though my style is slightly different from Hannah’s, I’ve always loved fashion, makeup, and skincare and hope to be able to share my love for these things with my supporters the way Hannah does with hers!

The Muppets is obviously a global brand that has been impacting culture for decades, how does it feel to be a part of something of such prevalence?
It has certainly checked off a part of my bucket list that I never even fathomed doing — it is an absolute dream come true! It feels incredibly special to be a part of The Muppets universe now. I think being able to be a part of something that is culturally iconic and brings so much love, joy, and light into people’s lives is the greatest honour one can have.

What I think is particularly unique about The Muppets is that they are all different colours, shapes, and sizes, and are generally quite different from humans in their physicality. However, when it comes to their internal wants and desires, they speak so authentically to the human experience through the ways in which they feel and interpret the world around them. When I booked the show, my dad shared the story of how growing up, The Muppets were the first characters he saw on TV that he could see himself in, and that just goes to show how deep the impact of this franchise goes. The Muppets represent so much more than what is merely on the surface.

Reading through your achievements as an activist and humanitarian, it’s highly commendable and impressive. How did you first become involved?
Thank you, I appreciate it. As a child, I had always heard the stories of my mother having to leave South Africa as a young girl because she grew up during the time of apartheid. She would always tell me that my grandmother pushed her family to immigrate to Canada so that her daughters (my mom and aunt) could get the level of education they deserved, but were denied in her country because of the colour of their skin. I think knowing the sacrifices made by the generations before me pushed me to become hyper-aware of my privilege. Ultimately, that made me want to fight for all the little girls that I could have easily been had certain family members not chosen to risk everything and move to new countries in pursuit of better opportunities.

I think my true involvement in the activism and humanitarian space really kicked off when I played Parvana in The Breadwinner. We ended up travelling around the world, premiering the film at many different festivals, and as a result, I got to meet so many different people and hear the stories of Afghan girls who felt seen by the film. I think it was at that point that I realised the power of storytelling and how much I could expand the work I was doing in the film/TV industry into the world of service and impact work. Now, I am humbled to say that I am a UNICEF Canada Ambassador and pursue quite a bit of activism and advocacy work with them!

Why is it so essential to you to help others?
As mentioned before, through hearing the stories of my mother growing up, reading The Breadwinner, and eventually being lucky enough to star in the movie adaptation, I learned so much about my own family and my privilege.

The sheer realisation that I could have easily been a little girl like Parvana in The Breadwinner helped me put things in perspective. I think the potential of so many young girls around the world is being wasted away by war, conflict, racism, limiting patriarchal beliefs, and general systemic barriers. If I can play a small part in helping other women and girls around the world have the same opportunity I do, I will.

What’s your dream role?
I don’t think I have one! I think as I take on new projects, each role becomes a dream role to me in its own unique way. So long as I continue choosing to pursue projects that speak to me, are meaningful, and champion BIPOC representation on screen, I’ll be happy.

What are your goals for the future?
I think in the coming years I’ll be exploring different areas of the industry (of course, while still acting). Especially as a South Asian Muslim woman, I think it is up to us to take our narratives into our own hands, and I hope to go about doing so by writing, directing, and producing in the near future.

What’s next for you?
I will be continuing my studies at Harvard, taking on more acting projects, doing impact work, and exploring new ways of storytelling.

I also think it’s really important as a young woman to find ways I can best take care of myself – both mentally and physically– all while pursuing my dreams. Avoiding burnout by making sure I stay grounded in the practices that keep me happy and healthy will also be a priority for me moving forward.