Little Mosque on the Prairie

This season, LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE'S producing team brings back together Mary Darling (executive producer), Clark Donnelly (executive producer), Michael Snook (executive producer) and Zarqa Nawaz (consulting producer/series creator). Also added to the show's producing roster this season is Paul Mather (coexecutive producer) and Colin Brunton (producer). The writing team is Greg Eckler, Paul Mather, Zarqa Nawaz, Alan Rae, Dan Redican, Rebecca Schechter, Rob Sheridan, and Miles Smith. This season, four distinct and highly acclaimed directors took the helm in the director's chair. They are Jeff Beasley, Paul Fox, Michael Kennedy and Brian Roberts.

Zarqa Nawaz approached Mary Darling and Clark Donnelly of WestWind Pictures about a comedic series, which mined the comedy of misunderstandings between the Muslim and non-Muslim communities. Darling and Donnelly were immediately attracted to the idea. Nawaz felt a trust in working with WestWind Pictures. "I wanted to work with Mary and Clark because I felt they understood the show's concept and that I could trust them with the story. We all decided the goal was to make the show as funny as possible without offending sensibilities," says Nawaz. "I wanted to tackle issues like sexism and extremism and I knew that Mary and Clark could develop the show while still staying true to the underlying messages delivered through comedy." Michael Snook, of WestWind's Regina office, worked alongside Zarqa to refine the concept further and pitched it to CBC. At the point that CBC became interested, WestWind's development team, spent the next two and a half years collaborating closely with Anton Leo, Creative Head of Comedy for CBC, developing scripts, pulling people in and getting the characters honed.

MARY DARLING (executive producer)

Mary Darling joined WestWind Pictures in 1999. She has helped WestWind evolve from a minor to a major player in Canada's film and television industry. Co-owner of WestWind Pictures, Mary conceived of the hit design show, Designer Guys, and its subsequent relaunch with new hosts. As well as providing WestWind Pictures overall management, creative and executive producer services on all if its series, Mary heads up WestWind Releasing which develops and distributes most of WestWind's diverse properties. Mary is the recipient of WIFT International's 2007 award for International Achievement - Excellence in Innovation (Television) an award she claims to share with her extremely talented husband, Clark, even though it sits on her desk.

CLARK DONNELLY (executive producer)

Clark Donnelly co-founded WestWind Pictures in 1989, leaving a post as vice-president of Regina's CKCK Television where he had worked for fifteen years. The company began by producing high-end, 16mm and 35mm commercial work, but quickly moved into series and documentary production. Clark has been intimately involved in the creative and overall development and production of most of their subsequent work.

Clark has many television credits to his name. This includes What on Earth for the CBC network, Family and Friends for the LIFE Network, This Small Space and Love by Design which both play on HGTV in the U.S. and Canada and Designer Guys which has sold to over thirty countries. Clark's company has also produced English Teachers for the LIFE Network, Wild Lives and Time & Place for Discovery Canada, @ Wood River Hall for Vision TV, Shot in the Face for Movie Central and TMN and the award-winning variety special Youkali Hotel for the CBC. In addition, Clark has written, produced or executive-produced a string of documentaries on topics ranging from art and religion to children and divorce. He and Mary are currently working to expand the company further into series and long-form drama production the first of which is Little Mosque on the Prairie.

PAUL MATHER (co-executive producer, writer)

Paul Mather is a writer and comedian. He served as story editor on season one of Corner Gas, before stepping in as supervising producer for seasons two through four. For his work on Corner Gas, he won two Gemini awards for Best Comedy Series. He is also a writer and supervising producer on The Rick Mercer Report and was a staff writer for two seasons of This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Paul is currently showrunning the second season of Little Mosque on the Prairie.

ZARQA NAWAZ (creator/consulting producer/writer)

Zarqa Nawaz was born in Liverpool and raised in Toronto, she had a Bachelor of Science degree from U of T when she switched career plans and received a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Journalism from Ryerson in 1992.

Nawaz worked as a freelance writer/broadcaster with CBC radio, and in various capacities with CBC Newsworld, CTV's Canada AM, and CBC's The National. She was an associate producer with a number of CBC radio programs including Morningside and her radio documentary The Changing Rituals of Death won first prize in the Radio Long Documentary category and the Chairman's Award in Radio Production at the Ontario Telefest Awards.

Bored with journalism, Nawaz took a summer film workshop at the Ontario College for Art and made BBQ Muslims, a short film that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1996. Her next short film, Death Threat also premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1998. Other short film credits include Fred's Burqa and Random Check. In 2005, Nawaz's documentary entitled Me and the Mosque, a co-production with the National Film Board and the CBC, was broadcast on CBC's Rough Cuts. She has recently finished a featurelength screenplay entitled Real Terrorists Don't Belly.

MICHAEL SNOOK (producer)

Michael Snook is an executive producer, producer and writer, with nearly four decades of experience in film and television, radio, print and the music industry. For the past fourteen years, he has focused on film and television, and has extensive credits in non-fiction production such as What On Earth, Family And Friends, This Small Space and Wild Lives, to name a few. His performance and dramatic productions include Shot In The Face, Velvet Devil, Youkali Hotel and @ Wood River Hall.

Before pursuing a career in independent film and television, Snook worked as an independent music producer, studio musician, arranger, and freelance music consultant for CBC Radio. Snook is an active member of the Canadian Film and Television Producers Association. He is currently an executive producer and producer with WestWind Pictures, based in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.

COLIN BRUNTON (producer)

After writing and directing the Genie Award-winning short film The Mysterious Moon Men of Canada and A Trip Around Lake Ontario, Brunton produced the feature films Roadkill and Highway 61. As the Executive Director of the Canadian Film Centre's Feature Film Project, he exec-produced five features, including Rude, Blood & Donuts, and Cube. Brunton has line-produced a number of feature films, including Hedwig & The Angry Inch, Foolproof, and How She Move, and TV series including An American in Canada and Puppets Who Kill. In 2007, he directed the feature concert DVD Duality of Self, featuring eccentric musician Jandek, and in his spare time compiles footage for his feature documentary The Last Pogo Jumps Again, Cha Cha Cha, a sequel to his infamous 1978 punk rock doc, The Last Pogo.

MICHAEL KENNEDY (director)

Michael Kennedy is the award-winning, genre-jumping director of 14 feature films and/or TV movies and 125 television episodes, including the entire first season of "Little Mosque...". Besides the pilot for "Little Mosque..." he also directed the first episodes of "North South", "Mental Block", "Listen Missie", "Screech Owls", "P.R.", "Taking The Falls", "My Life and a Movie", and "Jets". His feature credits include Robin of Locksley, One Man Out, Caribe, and Joe's Wedding, an award-winning romantic-comedy. His writing credits include three of the theatrical feature films he directed. He won Best Director at the Canadian Music Video Awards for one of the many short films he directed for "Kids In The Hall". Other honors include: 3 wins from 9 nominations for Best Director, Canadian Comedy Awards; 2 wins from 5 nominations for Directors Guild of Canada Awards; a nomination for a Directors Guild of America Award; and 2 Best Director Gemini nominations, including one for "Little Mosque...".

PAUL FOX (director)

Paul Fox is an accomplished film and television director with an impressive array of award-winning feature films, music videos, short films, and television productions to his credit. Paul's first feature film, the taut psychological thriller The Dark Hours, received much acclaim and numerous awards at festivals around the world. His most recent feature, Everything's Gone Green, is a wry coming-of-age comedy written by acclaimed novelist Douglas Coupland ('Generation X') which was released in 2007 to excellent reviews in Canada and the U.S. Paul is also a noted television director, having directed multiple episodes of such high-profile series as Cold Squad, Degrassi: The Next Generation, Show Me Yours, Life With Derek, Billable Hours and now Little Mosque On The Prairie.

JEFF BEESLEY (director)

Jeff Beesley is one of Canada's most exciting young filmmakers. With his unique cinematic vision, Jeff has achieved International acclaim for his body of work. His productions have screened at some of the world's most prestigious festivals and have won numerous awards.

After directing award-winning shorts and documentaries, Jeff directed his feature film debut, Sparkle. Since then Jeff has gone on to direct Borderline Normal, Everybody's Doing It for MTV, and the highly original supernatural thriller The Risen. In January 2004, Jeff completed directing his fifth long form movie. Try to Remember is the latest installment in the highly successful Mary Higgins Clark franchise of MOW's, and is broadcast on stations worldwide.

In the summer of 2004, Jeff joined the directing team of Canada's #1 hit comedy, Corner Gas.

BRIAN ROBERTS (director)

Brian Roberts is a well-known name in directing sitcoms today. His list of credits is substantial, both north and south of the border. He has directed such popular American shows as Everybody Love Raymond, The Drew Carey Show, According to Jim, King of Queens, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and many, many more. In Canada, Brian has helmed episodes for such series as The Jane Show, About a Girl, Naturally Sadie, The Latest Buzz and most recently, Little Mosque on the Prairie.

REBECCA SCHECHTER (writer/story editor)

Rebecca Schechter began her career in the media as a researcher and broadcast journalist, working on documentaries and current affairs programming for CBC Radio, CBC Television, TVOntario, and a variety of independent producers. Her screenwriting career took off in 1987 with the theatrical release of Taking Care, which led to writing for series television. She has written and story-edited for many high-profile Canadian drama series, including Street Legal, E.N.G., North Of 60, Side Effects, Blue Murder and Riverdale, for which she also served as Creative Producer for Seasons 2 and 3. Her script, "Sisters of Mercy" for North Of 60, won the 1994 Gemini Award for Best Writing in a Dramatic Series. Other writing credits include Degrassi: The Next Generation, Wind At My Back: Christmas Special, Exhibit A and72 Hours. She was the executive story consultant for Caitlin's Way and is currently working on Trust, a feature film/movie-of-the-week.

AL RAE (writer/story editor)

Al Rae is a Winnipeg stand up comic and comedy writer. Prior to Little Mosque On The Prairie, Al was a writer on the sitcoms Blackfly and Big Sound. He has written two shows for theatre; How Do You Know When You're Done and Unscheduled Stop, which received a Perrier Award Nomination at the 1989 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Al has appeared on COMICS, Open Mike with Mike Bullard, a one hour Comedy Now special and was the host of the CBC Television comedy special In Search of Prairie Punchlines. He has hosted two comedy information shows for CBC Radio, That's Capital about finance and Spin Off, a highly popular election satire show. His eight part comedy drama series Monsoon House with Russell Peters aired on CBC Radio in the fall of 2006. As a comic, he has opened for The Beach Boys, Kids in the Hall, The Waterboys, The Smothers Brothers, among others. He has performed with The Chieftains, Bob Newhart, and barely survived a brief road tour with the late Sam Kinison. He is the winner of the Just for Laughs National Homegrown Comic Competition 2000 and is currently the Artistic Director of the CBC Winnipeg Comedy Festival.

DAN REDICAN (writer/story editor)

Dan Redican, one of the founding members of the Frantics Comedy Troupe, has been nominated for numerous Gemini awards. He was Supervising Producer for the Kids in the hall. He wrote and produced many shows for MTV including the Jenny McCarthy show and Lyricist Lounge. He won a Canadian Comedy Award for directing The Frantics Reunion special. Most recently he has written, story edited and starred in the acclaimed Comedy Network series, Puppets who Kill.

ROB SHERIDAN (writer/story editor)

Rob Sheridan is proud to have written for some of the most popular Canadian comedy series of the past several years including Corner Gas, Naked Josh and The Red Green Show. This year, he was thrilled to join the writing staff of Little Mosque on the Prairie as it enters its second season. Earlier this year Rob was nominated for a Writer's Guild of Canada Screenwriting Award for his writing on the third season of Naked Josh and has just been nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award alongside the writing team from season four of Corner Gas. He is currently at work on a feature film script and frequently serves as a consultant and story editor for various projects in development.

GREG ECKLER (writer/story editor)

Greg Eckler writes for many of Canada's most prominent television shows, including The Rick Mercer Report and Canadian Idol. He has previously written for Open Mike with Mike Bullard, the Juno Awards, the Gemini Awards, and Mad Magazine. A veteran of stand up comedy, he has starred in his own CBC Comics! special and appeared on a televised gala at the Winnipeg Comedy Festival. He has also been a radio broadcaster on The Fan 590 in Toronto, and co-authored the book "Bull! 144 Stupid Statements from the Market's Fallen Prophets".

MILES SMITH (writer\story editor)

Miles Smih began his career working as a production assistant for Decode Entertainment, and two years later was story editing for them. Though some attribute this to a mix up in accounting. He's since written tween comedies for Disney and Family channel including Naturally, Sadie and The Latest Buzz. He is proud to have wormed his way into the world of prime time adult comedy with Little Mosque on the Prairie. He was born, raised and is aching to leave Toronto.

Born in Liverpool, raised in Toronto and now living in Regina, Zarqa Nawaz draws on the experiences in her own life to create Little Mosque on the Prairie. "The best rule in comedy is to write what you know. The more serious the issue, the more fun I try to have with it". A freelance writer, broadcaster and filmmaker, Zarqa wrote and produced short films that riffed on terrorism, burqas, and fatwas. A practicing Muslim and mother of four growing children, Zarqa grew up going to a mosque and was married in a mosque. When she moved to Regina ten years ago, she joined a smaller congregation where the relationships between the congregants were more intimate then in the big city. And that was the inspiration for Little Mosque on the Prairie – a series that explores the dynamics of Muslim and non-Muslim relationships with a comedic twist.