An honest conversation about the Hollywood creative industry with actress Alia Shawkat. We talk about how to self-represent as a queer Arab woman in Hollywood, biracial ‘passing’ and Western privilege and breaking through the role of the ‘ethnic best friend’.   

Speaker bio:  Alia Shawkat is an Irish-Iraqi actress, scriptwriter and artist working in Hollywood. She has appeared in over 45 TV shows and movies, she is known for her TV roles as Hannah Rayburn in State of Grace, Maeby Fünke in the Fox/Netflix television sitcom Arrested Development and Dory Sief in the TBS and HBO Max comedy series Search Party. Selected movies include Whip It, Animals and The Runaway; Shawkat co-wrote and starred in queer indie drama Duck Butter. She is also a painter and is currently writing a pilot for a TV show about her life. 

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