Actress Kausar Mohammed on her LGBT short film, coming out to her family and her south Asian sketch comedy team, The Get Brown.

Kausar Mohammed is an American Asian actress and lead of the LGBT short film The Syed Family Xmas Eve Game Night, which premiered at the British Film Institute (BFI’s) LGBT film festival, Flare. We talk to her about the film, her career so far and what makes her tick.

What inspired The Syed Family Xmas Eve Game Night?

I am the baby of two older sisters who are my life. One holiday season I was introducing them to my first serious girlfriend for the first time. And in doing so, my mind went down a huge nightmare spiral of all the things that could go horribly wrong. And some of the first scenes from the short I wrote were born from that.

How long did it take you to make and were there any particularly difficult hurdles in making it?

I began writing the script during the holiday’s back in 2019, and didn’t really plan on doing anything with it yet. Writing it was just sort of this exorcism I had to do with that anxious nightmare.  But then during the restlessness of the pandemic, I just wanted to create something. That is when my producer partner (and also my partner), Amalia Mesa Gustin, came on board and we decided to bring it to life! I knew I wanted Fawz to direct it and we got so lucky she was down.  We further workshopped the script and then come February 2021 we shot it! The particular hurdle we had to overcome would have to be shooting during the middle of the pandemic. We were dealing with COVID precaution protocol (that was new to us all) to make sure everyone on set was safe. I’m super grateful for the cast and crew that trusted us. 

What do you hope/aim for with regards to audience reaction?

I would just want people - particularly Queer Women, Queer Muslims, Queer South Asian people - to see themselves in the film and when they see it to know that they are allowed to exist in joy and exist in community! 

The film explores the insection between being Muslim and LGBTQI+. Many Muslims often struggle to draw these two aspects of their identity together. There is a charity in the UK called Hidayah that helps individuals with this but what role do you think art and culture can play in this?

Art and culture - at its best - gives voice to the voiceless. And allows for us to express ourselves (in all our identities) and connect with each other. I know for me personally, writing this short in itself and seeing its reception, has contributed to the process of me embracing these two identities together. It’s been my own form of therapy. 

What is your favorite role to date?

Every role has a piece of my heart fo rsure. When you're writing or acting you kinda leave a piece of your heart there with the character. My favorite roles range from playing Farah in “East of La Brea” to Yazmina in “Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous” and even down to shooting Fawzia’s “I Know Her” with her. And certainly my role as Noor in “The Syed Family Xmas Eve Game Night” because it does resonate so close to home and is a part of my story. Every role is my favorite!

What is your dream role?

I want to be a villain in a fantasy movie. I want to be a villain in a Harry Potter-like or a Marvel-type franchise movie! 

What kind of work does the group you co-founded, SHIFT, do for racial and gender equity?

SHIFT is a women of color-led racial and gender equity group that I co-founded with two of my really good friends, Veline Mojarro and Natalie Bui. At the time in 2017, we were all doing work in our own separate spaces for art and activism. We realized we wanted to create a space where we could talk about race, gender, and sexual harassment in the ways that we were able to talk about it with each other and our friends. We wanted to center the most impacted within these very urgent conversations … and that's how SHIFT was born! Now we do workshops with various corporations, universities, and organizations on topics from microaggressions, to white supremacy culture, to consent.

What has your experience of Hollywood been like, as a South Asian woman?

I feel so grateful to be standing on the shoulders of giants of all the amazing South Asian creatives who have come before me. People like Fawzia Mirza and Rizwan Manji to Mindy Kaling and Hassan Minhaj - they all have really paved the way.  I am grateful to be in the industry at a time where we see so many South Asians rising together. I also got the opportunity to be a mentee in The Salon, which is a forum for South Asian Artists and Executives, and I am continually in awe of the many talented South Asians who are creating TV/film and doing it in their own way. I'm grateful for these community spaces around me and it gives me the needed strength to continue challenging the traditionally white, male, hetero Hollywood structures we function in. 

Who or what inspires you?

Shakira, chocolate, a good book, my community, my partner, my friends, my family - and my dog Theo!

You have worked with Fawzia on I Know Her too, what is the secret to your creative partnership?

Fawzia is one of the biggest gifts of my life! We call each other framily! I think anyone who has been in her presence can say that she is such a kind, funny, hilarious, talented, visionary person to work with and the fact that I get to work with her is such a dream. She teaches me so much - not only from the artistic angle - but how to be a better collaborator. I also appreciate how our values are so aligned and I am excited for all that we have yet to create!

What was your experience of working on The Get Brown like?

The Get Brown, is my all South Asian sketch comedy team. It's a group of six of us that came out of Upright Citizen’s Brigade in LA, where we had a recurring show for two years! To this day, we are still developing TV/Film projects together. It's been really fun to be in a comedy group where we can look around and say “hey, ya know, none of us are the token here!” In creating together, it feels like we have this superpower of being able to get so specific and so universal at the same time with our ideas.

 And finally, what can you tell us about the rumor that The Syed Family Xmas Eve Game Night is being developed for TV?

I’d say... the world’s not done seeing the Syed family yet!