Gen Z Council Chair, Geena Davis Institute & Actor, The Muppets Mayhem, The Breadwinner, Dino Dana
Saara Chaudry is an ACTRA and four-time Canadian Screen Award (CSA) winning actor that began her career with small parts in TV productions such as Degrassi. Saara made her theatre debut as Little Cosette in the 25th-anniversary production of Les Miserables (2013) at the Princess of Wales theatre in Toronto. She had the honour of performing the role on opening night and at a special gala benefit with Colm Wilkinson.
After her theatre run, Saara returned to television where she played the role of Howie on Nickelodeon’s Max & Shred (2014- 2016), and guest starred on PBS Kids Odd Squad (2016).
In recent years, Saara has starred as Saara Jain in Emmy and CSA winner Dino Dana (2017-2020), as well as Dino Dana, the Movie (2020). She was honoured to win back-to-back CSA Awards for her role in Dino Dana in 2020 and 2021, and to also be nominated in the same category for Holly Hobbie in 2020. Saara was thrilled to play Nira on Sinking Ship’s innovative show Lockdown (2020-2021), shot entirely by webcam and smartphones during the pandemic and which won her third CSA (2022). Saara has also played Amy on the Emmy nominated and CSA winner, Holly Hobbie (2018-2022) for which she won her fourth CSA (2023). She also recurs as Martina Crowe on the Disney Plus series, The Mysterious Benedict Society (2021-2022). Most recently, Saara stars as Hannah in the new Disney Plus series The Muppets Mayhem (2023), alongside Lilly Singh, Tahj Mowry, Anders Holm, and the iconic Muppets band “Dr.Teeth and the Electric Mayhem”.
Saara has also worked on many animated projects. She was nominated for a 2017 Canadian Screen Award for her role as Clara in the CSA Award winner The Curse of Clara: A Holiday Tale. She was thrilled to be the voice of Parvana in the Oscar, Golden Globe, and CSA nominated feature film, The Breadwinner (2018), based on the novel by Deborah Ellis and executive produced by Angelina Jolie, for which she won the ACTRA award for best voice performance and was nominated for an Annie award.
In 2018, Saara was one of more than 700 applicants who applied to be a CBC Kids News contributor. She was chosen as the Lead Contributor of CBC Kids News based on her interest in world issues and her ability to communicate a story on camera. Saara was nominated for a Radio Television and Digital News Association Canada award, Canadian Screen Award, and won a Global Youth News Media Prize for her continuing coverage of the pandemic through her CBC COVID-19 Explainer series.
She is also a vociferous advocate for gender and racial equality, as well as girls’ education. Saara is a UNICEF Canada Ambassador and has chaired the UNICEF Youth Activism Summits for the past four years and was the keynote speaker at the UNICEF Canada’s 2023 annual general meeting. She is also the host of UNICEF Canada’s For Every Child podcast.
Saara is currently a rising sophomore at Harvard College. She is proud to be a member of the John F. Kennedy Jr Forum at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics, and loves connecting to her South Asian roots as a dancer on the Harvard College Bhangra team
