Rohit Chokhani

Rohit Chokhani is a Jessie Richardson award-winning arts curator, director and a cultural leader.  Currently, he is the Artistic Director for Diwali In BC. Rohit was awarded the prestigious Vancouver Now Representation and Inclusion award in 2018. He is also the recipient of the Jessie Richardson Theatre Award in the Large Theatre Category for Significant Artistic Achievement 2017 as well as the recipient of the Shiamak Vancouver Community Award (by Bollywood star choreographer Shiamak Davar) in recognition of outstanding achievement in the field of Entertainment and Theatre Arts for 2017.

His most recent directorial achievement was the reimagination of the play Bombay Black by Anosh Irani which was voted one of the top 20 shows on the stages of Vancouver, Canada in 2017 and also won the pick of the fringe award at the Vancouver Fringe festival. He co-created the Monsoon Festival of performing arts and will be co-directing at Bard on the Beach festival for Summer 2019.

Rohit is one of the most sought after multicultural voices nationally in Canada and internationally. He has served on numerous national panels in Canada and has been invited to contribute his artistic voice at IMPACT Festival (Ontario), Prismatic Festival (Halifax), Magnetic North Festival (Ottawa), BC Cultural Roundtable conference called re: generation, GVPTA – Making a scene conference, National Canadian Arts Summit – Culture NEXT 2017 and Interrarium Curators Symposium 2018 at the Banff Centre. Rohit grew up in Bombay (Mumbai), home to Bollywood, the centre of the Indian subcontinent’s vibrant performing arts industry. He is highly passionate about making performing arts equitable and sustainable.