Lily Kazimiera is a Toronto-based picture editor, actor, writer, and multidisciplinary artist/filmmaker, best known for her work as a contributing writer and co-series lead on the Canadian Screen Award-winning CBC Gem original series "I Hate People, People Hate Me". She is currently a GAP Trainee Assistant Picture Editor with the Director's Guild of Ontario.
Born and raised on Treaty 6 Territory in so-called Alberta, she earned a degree in Music & Creative Writing from the University of Alberta before moving to Toronto to pursue a career in stand-up comedy, where she quickly became a celebrated member of the city's queer comedy scene, headlining and showcasing at multiple venues such as Comedy Bar and the Gladstone Hotel.
In conjunction with the development of "I Hate People, People Hate Me" she trained as an actor under Salvatore Antonio at Armstrong Acting Studio and began her career as a film editor, earning a Graduate Certificate in Video Post-Production from Humber College. She has since served as a lead editor on several upcoming short films, as well as an assistant editor on various shorts and webseries' for production companies such as LocoMotion Pictures, HYST Films, and MarbleMedia.
Regardless of which medium she is working in, Lily's creative practice is rooted in a desire to shed light on the embodied experiences of transgender, queer, and otherwise-marginalized people that defy straightforward categorization, seeking to draw out the temporal, spatial, and textural elements of a work in unusual forms which create a strongly-felt empathic experience for the audience which eludes articulation. Whatever project she is working on, she brings her own distinct sense of transfeminine "queer time" to the fore in order to maximize its expressive character and bring out the strongest qualities of the material.
In addition to being a DGC Ontario member, Lily currently serves on the organizing committee of Queer in Post, and is a member of the Canadian Screen Academy, the Canadian Cinema Editors, Women in Film & Television, and the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers Toronto. She also runs "Intakes," a creative writing Substack page, and is currently developing two experimental films, "Bruise Echo" and "Messages From the Blue," as well as two narrative shorts, "Clearing Out" and "Hours of Operation".
Accolades:
Nominee - Best Actress in a Comedy - New Jersey Web Festival 2024
Nominee - Best Lead Actress - Comedy: Indie Series Awards 2024
Winner - Best International Performance: Cusco Webfest 2024
Nominee - Best Breakout Female Comic: iHeartJoke Awards 2020